Feature Request - Display Tags in Popup Definition

leguan

探花
Would it be possible to consider adding an option to display Tags in the Popup Definition? When using the Popup Definition to look up new words, it would be extremely useful to be able to see the entries Tags without having to enter the dictionary definition proper.

For example in my case, I have Tags for each HSK level, Tags for frequency of use of words and characters. These tags allow me to quickly evaluate how commonly used the word or character is. Every time I look up a word or character with the Popup Definition, I would like to know the HSK level, and the frequencies of usage as well, so currently I have to go to the dictionary entry proper every time which is rather time consuming when using the Popup Definition a lot.

I understand that this may impact on the size of the Popup Definition but I believe it would definitely be an extremely useful option!

Thank you for your consideration!
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Already in the works, along with about a bajillion other flashcard improvements for our next update :)
 

leguan

探花
One more request, if I may. Would it be possible to add a "Auto-play audio on change dictionary entry" to the current "Auto-play audio on tap" and "Auto-play audio on advance too" options in the "Popup Definition" settings?

The use case is when there are multiple readings of the same word and you want to listen to them all (I normally turn off "Mandarin pronunction" in the Language settings because I prefer to check the reading by listening to the audio rather than reading pinyin), you have to manually press the play audio button every time you change the dictionary entry using the up and down controls on the right side of the popup.

Thank you for your consideration!
 

leguan

探花
There are two other occasions where it would be great if the option for auto-play audio was available.
1. Immediately after displaying an entry on the search screen or definition screen
2. Immediately after changing the dictionary entry using the on-screen up and down controls
For these two however, it would be preferable to be able to toggle on and off audio using an always available on screen button.
I understand the above changes are a bit more far-reaching than the change in my above post!
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
First request seems a bit specialized, to be honest - I don't know if enough other people would find it useful to justify adding it.

Auto-play in the definition screen makes more sense, that's something quite a few other apps do already. Maybe we'd toggle it with a long press on the audio icon or some such.
 

leguan

探花
Thank you for your reply and consideration. Long press on the audio icon to toggle would be nice!

I don't mean to flog a dead horse, but the way I think about the first point is that the current behavior seems to me to be inconsistent - when you use the popup to check the meaning and/or pronunciation of words, you can automatically hear the audio for the first reading of a word, but when you change to a different reading using the up/down controls you have to manually press the audio button to hear the audio.

It may be just me, but I suspect there are others who would like to be able to quickly identify the word with a specific reading they are looking for without having to press the audio button for each choice (or turn on pinyin in the Mandarin Pronunciation settings) - when there are many choices it becomes tedious to press the audio button for each one.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Ah, I think I actually misunderstood your original statement - thought you wanted it to capture different dictionaries' takes on the reading (which are usually the same) rather than capture different pinyin within the same dictionary. Though I'm still not sure if there are enough people using Pleco with Mandarin display turned off (but who are still interested in Mandarin) for this to be worth doing.
 

leguan

探花
Thanks again for your consideration!
Yes, I guess maybe there are not huge numbers of users like me like to first "listen" to the pinyin (to improve listening ability) and then only "read" the pinyin as a last resort - any changes that would expand the scope of auto-play of audio and to allow speedy toggling of it on and off would be highly appreciated by this user at least! Regards,
 

Shaokao

Member
Would it be possible to consider adding an option to display Tags in the Popup Definition? When using the Popup Definition to look up new words, it would be extremely useful to be able to see the entries Tags without having to enter the dictionary definition proper.

For example in my case, I have Tags for each HSK level, Tags for frequency of use of words and characters. These tags allow me to quickly evaluate how commonly used the word or character is. Every time I look up a word or character with the Popup Definition, I would like to know the HSK level, and the frequencies of usage as well, so currently I have to go to the dictionary entry proper every time which is rather time consuming when using the Popup Definition a lot.

I understand that this may impact on the size of the Popup Definition but I believe it would definitely be an extremely useful option!

Thank you for your consideration!

Would it be possible to consider adding an option to display Tags in the Popup Definition? When using the Popup Definition to look up new words, it would be extremely useful to be able to see the entries Tags without having to enter the dictionary definition proper.

For example in my case, I have Tags for each HSK level, Tags for frequency of use of words and characters. These tags allow me to quickly evaluate how commonly used the word or character is. Every time I look up a word or character with the Popup Definition, I would like to know the HSK level, and the frequencies of usage as well, so currently I have to go to the dictionary entry proper every time which is rather time consuming when using the Popup Definition a lot.

I understand that this may impact on the size of the Popup Definition but I believe it would definitely be an extremely useful option!

Thank you for your consideration!

Hi Leguan

As a novice user, could I ask how you made the tags for word frequency? I have already organised the tags for HSK.
 

Shun

状元
Hello Shaokao,

speaking for @leguan, you can have a look at this thread:

https://plecoforums.com/threads/integrating-bcc-corpus-data-into-dictionary.6123/

Leguan also has older threads where he writes about it, but I don't want to pre-empt him. :)

I have just prepared a downsized frequency list with 12 Frequency tiers that you can assign frequency tags to (like with the HSK level subcategories), and am attaching it here for other Pleco users.

When you import this large flashcard list into your flashcards database, be sure to check Definition source is set to File only and enable Store in user dict, so you can access the frequency information from anywhere. The other settings are:

Fill in missing fields On
Missing entries Create Blank
Amiguous entries
Use First
Duplicate entries Allow

I think it takes about 10 minutes to import, but it could be more. If you already have a user dictionary with some personal vocabulary, I recommend that you create a new user dictionary for this large wordlist. If you don't mind one large user dictionary, you can also leave it as is.

Enjoy,

Shun
 

Attachments

  • BCC Frequencies downsized - 12 Tiers.txt
    1.6 MB · Views: 25,292

leguan

探花
Shun, thank you very much for your detailed reply!

Before that I had prepared a reply on my smartphone while (very inadvisedly) soaking in the batho_O when I inadvertently deleted my draft:( and didn't have the energy to rewrite my reply - sorry, Shaokao!

So, your reply, Shun, was greatly appreciated:)

Shaokao, you can find a link to the original BCC Corpus data in the first post of the following thread if you are interested.

Word frequency list based on a 15 billion character corpus: BCC (BLCU Chinese Corpus)
https://www.plecoforums.com/threads...haracter-corpus-bcc-blcu-chinese-corpus.5859/

If you have any further questions about using Pleco's tag function to tag dictionary entries with their frequency of usage information, don't hesitate to ask!

Best regards,
leguan
 

Shun

状元
Hi leguan,

you're welcome! Shaokao, yes, feel free to ask, whatever you are stuck with.

Bathing with a smartphone in one's hand surely takes a lot of discipline to keep it dry, but I do recognize its charm. ;)

Best regards,

Shun
 

Shaokao

Member
Hi guys

Thanks so much for the quick replies.
A friend used the files you provided, using his iphone X and it worked like a charm, maybe abt 15mins to import.

On both my 2018 ipad and iphone SE I have had no success. The message is "Import Failed. Unknown Error".
I have previously created a user dictionary that is empty. I have used all the settings Leguan mentioned above. Encoding check looks good.
When I look at the Flashcard deck list, Pleco created a deck called "BCC Frequencies", a subfolder called "1" and 6 cards therein. The user dictionary I created has 7 entries.
icloud sync is activated, but I'm not sure if this would affect it or not.
I have tried "BCC Frequencies downsized - 12 Tiers.txt", "global_wordfreq.release_UTF-8.txt", "news_wordfreq.release_UTF-8.txt" all with similar results. The first time it was attempted it seemed to go for abt 30 seconds before quitting, but now quits after <1 second.

Is there something I'm doing wrong??
 

Shaokao

Member
Further to above, every time I attempt an import, I make sure the user dictionary is empty and the flashcard decks / cards created have been removed.
 

Shun

状元
Hi Shaokao,

good to hear you're looking forward to the cards! :) No problem.

Hmm, I remember I also had experienced a freeze on my iPhone 7 in the middle of the import, twice at the same point, after having imported about 80,000 cards. What I did then, I believe, was to remove just the line from the text file where the import had stopped, and then, lo and behold, the rest would go through.

Some more ideas:
- Try compacting the databases (in Settings > Miscellaneous) before doing the import.
- A somewhat cumbersome option: Try backing up the flashcard database, all the user dictionaries and the settings to a Mac/PC, then delete Pleco, reinstall it and restore everything (at first perhaps without the settings). (Remember to write down the Registration ID beforehand.)
- Perhaps the culprit really is iCloud sync? (I've never used it, I did manual backups.)

Best,

Shun
 
Last edited:

Shaokao

Member
Would it be possible to consider adding an option to display Tags in the Popup Definition? When using the Popup Definition to look up new words, it would be extremely useful to be able to see the entries Tags without having to enter the dictionary definition proper.

For example in my case, I have Tags for each HSK level, Tags for frequency of use of words and characters. These tags allow me to quickly evaluate how commonly used the word or character is. Every time I look up a word or character with the Popup Definition, I would like to know the HSK level, and the frequencies of usage as well, so currently I have to go to the dictionary entry proper every time which is rather time consuming when using the Popup Definition a lot.

I understand that this may impact on the size of the Popup Definition but I believe it would definitely be an extremely useful option!

Thank you for your consideration!


Hi again

I was wondering if this " option to display Tags in the Popup Definition" had been activated yet?

Thanks
 
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