Buying Basic with Professional Demo installed

xiaomama

Member
Okay, so I bought my Treo 650 on Ebay, downloaded the Professional Demo and of course am hooked. But being not only poor but also a beginner (3 volumes of library Pimsleur and the free week of Chinese pod) and an amateur (doing this entirely on my own) I figure I will spring for the Basic PlecoDict. Do I have to uninstall the Pro Demo first?
 

ldolse

状元
The application is the same, the license will just enable/disable dictionaries. All you need to do is install the license and delete the dictionary files you didn't pay for.

disclaimer-I've never used the basic version
 

ipsi

状元
You don't even need to uninstall the Professional dicts - they'll just be ignored if you don't have a license. So yeah, just buy it, then download and install the license. That's it.
 

radioman

状元
My experience... the basic dictionary didn''t get me there. Strictly my comments, but I found that MANY times, I would dig for a word just off center of typical and could not find it. And if the word is not there, then ... the word is not there - I think I ran into that situation about 8 times the first week of study in Dalian (just in basic usage running around the city). Understand about the monies and all, but the frustration far outweighed the monetary impact for me.

After I got the ABC dictionary installed and working, I ran into the problem far less....



Ed.
 

ldolse

状元
Here's another way to look at ABC vs. the others, because it's dependent partially on what your situation is. ABC is definitely more comprehensive, but the more comprehensive the dictionary the greater the likelihood that you'll run into terms that aren't in common use. i.e. if you attempt to use one of those words someone will look at you funny because they don't understand. While ABC is an excellent dictionary it fits into this category. The great thing about ABC is it does have all sorts of uncommon words that you will run into if you're actually interacting with people in China.

The strengths of the Oxford dictionaries is they only focus on words that are actually in common use - I find when I actually reference Oxford I rarely find myself in a position where I used the wrong word.

For 1.0 the most comprehensive English-Chinese dictionary is the free LDC dictionary, however this dictionary definitely includes a lot of terms that are not in modern use, at least in mainland China - you'd actually be better off not using ABC when you cross reference it. Cross-referencing LDC with Oxford should keep you from utilizing a word that you shouldn't, while ABC might mislead you.

The other free dictionaries are also good for commonly used words, Adso is pretty comprehensive and CEDICT is nice just because it keeps the translations short and sweet.

Bottom line, if you're in actually doing your study in China then the ABC would be most useful. If you're planning on studying on your own at home then you can go quite a ways with Basic + the free dictionaries.
 

xiaomama

Member
Oh, thank you for the info on the free dictionaries. I didn't realize they were available. Given that I am mostly planning on using PlecoDict while studying stateside, I will jump into Basic now. Yay! (Of course, I should add that Stateside includes the San Gabriel Valley where I really need the character recognition to decipher those menus. ) I am so excited. I am ordering tomorrow. Thanks again to everybody who offered advice.
 
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