'D' button doesn't change dictionary indicator

[JimmyTheSaint]

While looking at a definition, when I press the 'D' button to scroll through the different dictionaries, the three-letter dictionary name doesn't change to reflect the dictionary currently being shown. The 'D' button scrolls through the dictionaries just fine, but I have no indication of what dictionary I'm looking at. I never had this problem before, and it developed suddenly. Is it a bug, or did I change a setting somewhere? Also, my dictionaries keep getting re-ordered. I go back and fix them in "Manage Dictionaries," but they've been re-ordered alphabetically several times in the past few weeks.

 

[mikelove]

'D' isn't one of the default names for any dictionary or dictionary group - are you sure it's not a different letter? Are you tapping on this in the main dictionary search screen or the definition screen?

The reordering might happen if you install a new dictionary, or delete an old one, though the system tries to carry forward your old layout. Are you sure that they're being reordered alphabetically and not according to some other system?

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

I mean the 'D' button that's on that bar containing the 'S', 'C', and 'W' buttons. I forget the official name of that bar. It seems my memory was fogged a bit: the currently viewed dictionary is reflected in the dictionary bar (again, I forget the official name of that bar), but I hide that because it takes up too much space and is empty except for the three-letter dictionary name. Maybe that's why I'm remembering seeing the current correct dictionary indicator. But shouldn't the three-letter button where you can directly select a dictionary (next to the input field) also change every time you hit the 'D' button to cycle through the dictionaries?

I notice my other device also has had its dictionaries re-ordered. Upon closer inspection, it's not alphabetical. But the unwanted re-ordering always puts ABC on top and PLC second. I want the reverse.

EDIT: Oh, wait, it's the same question as this thread:

http://www.plecoforums.com/threads/dictionary-bar-takes-up-too-much-space.3481/

Sorry for my amnesia, but it would be really nice if the dictionary indicator/chooser always indicated the dictionary you're currently looking at.

 

[mikelove]

Yes, sounds like the same problem - the basic issue is that that other indicator tells you which dictionary you're getting search results from, so updating it to indicate an alternate dictionary without also updating the search results would be inconsistent.

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

that other indicator tells you which dictionary you're getting search results from, so updating it to indicate an alternate dictionary without also updating the search results would be inconsistent.

It's currently also inconsistent because the indicator isn't sensitive to the user's two separate modes. When the user enters the text field, the user intends to initiate a search so the "search from" dictionary should be indicated; when the user presses the 'D' button, the user intends to switch which dictionary's hit is being viewed for what's already sitting in the text entry field. Once you press the 'D' button you've made your desire clear, so updating the indicator accordingly wouldn't be inconsistent with the user's expectation at that moment. But currently you end up looking at something for which there is no indication: you have know way of figuring out which dictionary you're currently looking at, so you're faced with a confusing situation. How about having the indicator switch back to showing where search results come from when the user re-enters the text field?

 

[mikelove]

Which indicator are you talking about? One indicator applies to the result list side of the screen, the other to the definition - updating the indicator in the search bar after tapping on the definition one would most definitely be inconsistent, since then you'd have a list of search results that didn't actually come from the definition in the search bar.

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

Oh, I see what's going on. I'm talking about the indicator to the right of the search bar. I do

Settings>Dictionary>Main screen interface>Portrait orientation>Hide definition toolbar

because that "definition toolbar" imposes a high cost of screen real estate, is mostly empty, can't be reached with the left thumb, and the one button it does show offers a redundant functionality (same as the 'D' button). I believe I complained about the definition toolbar in an earlier thread, and you indicated the option to hide it as a solution, but now that solution is having side effects. I see that the indicator to the right of the search bar indicates the source of the search results, but here's how I've come to actually experience/use the app:

Once I've found the entry I want, I'm focused on the definition window. My favorite dictionary displays by default, but very often I want to scroll through the other dictionaries to get any extra info. So I do repeated presses of the 'D' button. At that stage of "drilling down," I don't care at all about the source of the results list, only about the specific entry. Basically, I have a "word exploration" mode that's entirely segregated in my mind from the "search for results" mode. I unambiguously and explicitly indicate that shift to the app when I hit the 'D' button; I likewise indicate a shift to the other mode when I click in the search bar to initiate a new search. I see why you consider my suggestion to cause an inconsistency, but perhaps other people wouldn't experience it that way. Or perhaps have the indicator to the right of the search bar change color depending on what mode it's in? In any case, the real issue is that feedback from pressing the 'D' button is currently too obtrusive (the definition toolbar), so maybe find some better way to do what the definition toolbar currently does.

 

[mikelove]

If you're drilling down anyway, why not simply switch to viewing the definition on a separate screen?

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

If you're drilling down anyway, why not simply switch to viewing the definition on a separate screen?

I don't know. That does sound desirable. When I click on an entry in the list of results, I view the desired definition. At that point, how do you switch to viewing the definition on a separate screen?

 

[mikelove]

Tap-hold on the result and select "View Entry." You can also permanently switch to having the main screen be just an entry list (in which you tap on an item to view it in a separate screen) by turning off "Two-panel layout" in Settings / Dictionary / Main Screen Interface / Portrait (and/or Landscape).

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

Thanks, I guess tap-hold is a viable workaround, though it requires more effort. (Also, I strongly prefer not to turn off two-panel.)

Major drawback: in the View Entry screen, the toolbar is out of reach at the top of the phone. Request the option to place it at the bottom. Alternatively (or in addition), I think it would be even better if View Entry allowed swiping the screen left or right to switch between Defn, Info, Stroke, etc. I don't see any settings that deal with the View Entry screen.

 

[mikelove]

That screen is actually unsatisfying to us in several ways at the moment, it's probably going to get significantly redesigned after we finish our big iOS update (which is approaching it a very different way in general).