"dictionary bar" takes up too much space

[JimmyTheSaint]

I still can't figure out what setting this is, so I'm calling it the "dictionary bar." In two-panel layout, at the bottom of a definition, but above the tabs for stroke order, words, and characters, there's a bar that contains nothing but the name of the dictionary whose definition is currently displayed. Is there customization available for this "dictionary bar"? It eats up quite a bit of definition window (I like to keep keyboard open), while consisting mostly of empty space. Yet, I don't want to lose the ability to cycle through the dictionaries. I realize that I can also cycle through the dictionaries from that tab to the right of the entry field at the top, but it's nice to leave that one indicating merged search while the lower "dictionary bar" indicates the current dictionary.

possible improvements:
Can that single tab on the dictionary bar be added as a sixth item with that set of tabs below it? I realize that would be a squeeze, but maybe it would be desirable for some people.

Can the 'D' tab be made to provide the same dictionary cycling when you press it after 'D' is already highlighted? Then I'd ditch the "dictionary bar" entirely.

If that whole bar needs to remain (less desirable), can you enable moving the position of the dictionary's name on the "dictionary bar" so that I can put it withinin reach of my left thumb? In that case, why not just enable the entire "dictionary bar" to be touchable, not just the dictionary name?

 

[mikelove]

I still can't figure out what setting this is, so I'm calling it the "dictionary bar." In two-panel layout, at the bottom of a definition, but above the tabs for stroke order, words, and characters, there's a bar that contains nothing but the name of the dictionary whose definition is currently displayed. Is there customization available for this "dictionary bar"? It eats up quite a bit of definition window (I like to keep keyboard open), while consisting mostly of empty space. Yet, I don't want to lose the ability to cycle through the dictionaries. I realize that I can also cycle through the dictionaries from that tab to the right of the entry field at the top, but it's nice to leave that one indicating merged search while the lower "dictionary bar" indicates the current dictionary.

That bar is a temporary accommodation until we finish working out a way to display all dictionaries' results for a word in the same scrolling box without sacrificing loading performance - this one's actually going to happen on iOS first since it's much easier to get it to perform well on that, but once we've worked out the kinks in it there it should be offered on Android too. So we're aware of the problem and have a plan to fix it but it'll be a little while longer before we do.

Can that single tab on the dictionary bar be added as a sixth item with that set of tabs below it? I realize that would be a squeeze, but maybe it would be desirable for some people.

It's not just a squeeze, it's confusing design since it's irrelevant to the operation of every tab except Dict.

Can the 'D' tab be made to provide the same dictionary cycling when you press it after 'D' is already highlighted? Then I'd ditch the "dictionary bar" entirely.

Interesting idea, we'll investigate that as a temporary workaround.

If that whole bar needs to remain (less desirable), can you enable moving the position of the dictionary's name on the "dictionary bar" so that I can put it withinin reach of my left thumb? In that case, why not just enable the entire "dictionary bar" to be touchable, not just the dictionary name?

In some cases (any case where there's more than one entry for the same word in the same dictionary) it also gets scroll buttons, so that would complicate that rare-but-extremely-important-when-it's-needed additional function.

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

I'm looking forward to it. Along with multiple touches on the 'D', I should have also suggested longpressing the 'D'. Maybe the other tabs could get some sort of longpress functionality someday, making the feature more discoverable.

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

I recently realized that, at some point, you provided this functionality--thanks. When I press the 'D', it cycles through the dictionaries, and the 'D' lies comfortably within my thumb's reach for one-handed operation. I would now like to remove the dictionary bar because it takes up a lot of space while providing minimal additional functionality. Is there a setting to do that?

By the way, the setting "Main screen interface>Portrait orientation>Show definition toolbar," which I would have thought would make the toolbar under the dictionary bar disappear, has no effect on my phone. In any case, I can't find a setting affecting the dictionary bar.

 

[mikelove]

By the way, the setting "Main screen interface>Portrait orientation>Show definition toolbar," which I would have thought would make the toolbar under the dictionary bar disappear, has no effect on my phone. In any case, I can't find a setting affecting the dictionary bar.

That gets overridden by merged multi-dictionary search, though it probably shouldn't be - if you disabled merged multi-dict search in Settings / Dictionary / Search Settings / Results, that should get the bar to be consistently hidden. (we'll see about changing this in our next bug-fix update)

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

That gets overridden by merged multi-dictionary search, though it probably shouldn't be - if you disabled merged multi-dict search in Settings / Dictionary / Search Settings / Results, that should get the bar to be consistently hidden. (we'll see about changing this in our next bug-fix update)

Yes, that hides that bar. The problem now is that, when I cycle through the dictionaries by pressing the 'D' button, the dictionary indicator at the top of the screen remains stuck on my chosen dictionary. In other words, if I leave it on "PLC" to do all my searches by default, when I press the 'D' button below a result, it shows me other dictionaries' definition, but I get no indication of which dictionary I'm currently actually looking at. I'm requesting the dictionary indicator at the top to follow what happens at the 'D' button.