Exported Flash Cards - Learning Lists

goldfish

Member
Is there a way to generate a list of characters, the pinyin with tone indicator and instant look-up definition from ABC, in three columns?

It would be great to have a means to view/print the above list layout to 'Learn' and then 'Self-Test' via the Pleco Flashcard feature.

Using Pleco Flashcards for the learning part is a little fiddly. Thanks.
 

ipsi

状元
Nope. That'd be rather silly on Pleco's part as it would make it stupidly easy to pirate the dictionaries. I also don't see much point in adding the entire ABC dictionary to your flashcard listing...

To add single cards, just click on the + button in the top row.

To add multiple flashcards, the easiest way is to create a text file, but only add the Character and Pinyin for the entries you want. When you import that, if a definition wan't supplied, it will use that of the currently selected dictionary.
 

goldfish

Member
Not sure how it would be possible to pirate the entire dictionary.

Wenlin allows the user to do this with an exported list:

<CHINESECHARACTERS1> <PINYIN1>
<CHINESECHARACTERS2> <PINYIN2>
<CHINESECHARACTERS3> <PINYIN3>

mouse over the CHINESECHARACTERS1 and an instant look-up definition pops up. This is different from the full dictionary definition, but just enough to remind the student of the meaning when learning characters.

Many students take the PlecoDict hand input list of characters from class, go home and generate - either by typing out such a list in Wenlin or handwriting out for learning a paper based list as follows:

<CHINESECHARACTERS1> <PINYIN1> <INSTANT LOOK UP DEFINITION1>
<CHINESECHARACTERS2> <PINYIN2> <INSTANT LOOK UP DEFINITION2>
<CHINESECHARACTERS3> <PINYIN3> <INSTANT LOOK UP DEFINITION3>

So it seems there is not currently a way to reduce the rigmorale of writing out the definition and focusing on the character writing practise and memorization part.
 

ipsi

状元
Not entirely sure what you want here... I had though you wanted a way to export Characters, Pinyin, and Definition to a text file, which would indeed make it perfectly possible to pirate the entire dictionary.

There's no way to do a mass export like that, to the best of my knowledge, nor is there a 'quick lookup definition'. It's the definition in the dictionary, or your own. You basically have to type up flashcard lists if you want to do a mass import of flashcards, or add them one-by-one from the dictionary interface. Am I getting close to what you want here?
 

goldfish

Member
Thanks. Yes. Looks like there is no quick way to automatically generate such a list for learning from.

The 'quick lookup definition' is what you get when you mouseover characters in Wenlin. It is not the full DeFrancis ABC dictionary definition and a useful enough learning prompt.
 

ipsi

状元
Sweet as. I don't think there is a way, but Mike may come along and prove me wrong. And I don't think there's a huge amount of point in having a quick definition, personally. There's also no way to do mouse-overs on a PDA. :)
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
There is indeed no way to export definitions, the licenses actually vary on that considerably (I don't think Wenlin would mind at all if we did, for example, since they allow it pretty easily themselves) but for the sake of consistency and not opening up an easily-exploited loophole we don't allow exports from any of them. There won't be one in 2.0 either, but we are adding (or planning to add, don't think it's working in Beta 2 yet but most of the code is written) a feature which will automatically search for the same word in a free/unprotected dictionary and export the definition from that if it finds one, so that would improve matters a little on this at least. We're also thinking about allowing flashcards to be printed (in list or cut-up-and-make-paper-cards format) from the desktop version of Pleco, though that's kind of a gray area licensing-wise so we're going to have to clear it with a couple of publishers first.
 
Wenlin allows the user to do this with an exported list:

<CHINESECHARACTERS1> <PINYIN1>
<CHINESECHARACTERS2> <PINYIN2>
<CHINESECHARACTERS3> <PINYIN3>

I assume by that you mean an external text file read INTO Wenlin, or typed directly in Wenlin, and then saved as a text file.

That's what I do all the time.

You can also look into using ZDT, which has an "export to Pleco format" option. That's for Pleco 1, of course.

I think it would be easier (generally) to first generate the list in Wenlin (or ZDT) and then format it for import into Pleco.
 

goldfish

Member
Thanks for the responses. The much improved flashcard features of version 2.0 obviate the need for the above.

It is now possible to do a written self test, using as a prompt a brief definition / pinyin / audio, with the self-scored sketch box.

Love the product and keep up the great work here!
 
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