reading the Flashcard Counter Problem (and having my own "bug-report" in mind) i miss a search option to search exactly these invalid flashcards... would be nice to find them and correct/delete/whatever ....
Feature Suggestions
- Thread starter stephanhodges
- Start date
This is a dream feature that I would find very useful:
I would like Pleco to pronounce my vocabulary words in a loop without me having to look at the screen or push any buttons or provide feedback in any way. That way I could specifically review my vocab words while doing other things.
It would go through a flashcard file and pronounce each word with X seconds delay in between. This could be some sort of special Review mode in the flashcards -- preferably there would be an option so that these repetitions don't count toward the repetition count for each flashcard. Possibly the number of times the word is pronounced (so it could alternate between male and female) could be changed. In a more complicated version, the automatic procession could be temporarily stopped if you provide feedback like "reveal" a card or "score it" or hit "pause procession". Thanks!
I would like Pleco to pronounce my vocabulary words in a loop without me having to look at the screen or push any buttons or provide feedback in any way. That way I could specifically review my vocab words while doing other things.
It would go through a flashcard file and pronounce each word with X seconds delay in between. This could be some sort of special Review mode in the flashcards -- preferably there would be an option so that these repetitions don't count toward the repetition count for each flashcard. Possibly the number of times the word is pronounced (so it could alternate between male and female) could be changed. In a more complicated version, the automatic procession could be temporarily stopped if you provide feedback like "reveal" a card or "score it" or hit "pause procession". Thanks!
Interesting idea, but to really make it work well I think we'd want to combine it with English audio - have sort of a "build your own Pimsleur" type thing. Though we might not actually need to provide that audio ourselves, if there's an audio component to the new "notes" feature people could record brief audio descriptions for their cards and then have it play the word and the description.
I'm not sure how useful just playing Chinese would be - you'd still need to constantly be checking back on the screen to see if you'd remembered the word correctly (or even if you're sure about that, if you failed to remember one you'd need to look at your handheld's screen for the definition), which would mean you'd still have to have it in your hand or sitting on your desk.
I'm not sure how useful just playing Chinese would be - you'd still need to constantly be checking back on the screen to see if you'd remembered the word correctly (or even if you're sure about that, if you failed to remember one you'd need to look at your handheld's screen for the definition), which would mean you'd still have to have it in your hand or sitting on your desk.
Dear Mike!
As this is my first post I just want to thank you for your incredible work. Learning Chinese is my biggest hobby and in doing so PD has become my best friend. It is an indispensable tool for me that accelerates my learning process by I don't know how many times. Nothing even comes close to it! I love the Guifan dict, full text search and the Reader SOOOO MUCH!!! thanks... (haha, I know this sounds extremely cheezy :lol: )
#1
One thing that would really be great (maybe it has already been mentioned in the 260+posts here) would be to have a toggle dictionary button during a flashcard session that allows to look at the dictionaries' different definitions for the current card. If then I find out that I like another definition better than the one currently assigned, it would be great to have another button which, after being pressed, assigns the currently displayed definition to the card instead of the previously assigned definition. (Now I have to highlight the headword, select Popup-Definition and only then I can look up the other dictionaries' definitions (I have 7 dicts). When I find one that I think is better, I now have to interrupt the session, search the card in Manage FCs,...).
#2
This is a minor thing. Normally I use CJKOS for hanzi Input. But sometimes the character I am looking for does not exist in CJKOS, and so I want to use Pleco's Character Input. However, after pressing 入 the cursor is automatically flashing in the top row, which means that if I want to write a hanzi in the writing area, it doesn't work because CJKOS thinks I want to write a character (and then, by the way, if I'm writing a hanzi with CJKOS, only weird characters appear in the top row - why is that? CJKOS works fine on the main/default Pleco UI as well). So now I first have to tap the "radical" tab and then go back to the "handwriting" tab, so as to be able to write a hanzi into Pleco Character writing field. In other words, please let the cursour not be flashing in the top row when one starts the Pleco Input for hanzi. that way it should be possible to immediately start writing the character into the character writing field. thanx
As this is my first post I just want to thank you for your incredible work. Learning Chinese is my biggest hobby and in doing so PD has become my best friend. It is an indispensable tool for me that accelerates my learning process by I don't know how many times. Nothing even comes close to it! I love the Guifan dict, full text search and the Reader SOOOO MUCH!!! thanks... (haha, I know this sounds extremely cheezy :lol: )
#1
One thing that would really be great (maybe it has already been mentioned in the 260+posts here) would be to have a toggle dictionary button during a flashcard session that allows to look at the dictionaries' different definitions for the current card. If then I find out that I like another definition better than the one currently assigned, it would be great to have another button which, after being pressed, assigns the currently displayed definition to the card instead of the previously assigned definition. (Now I have to highlight the headword, select Popup-Definition and only then I can look up the other dictionaries' definitions (I have 7 dicts). When I find one that I think is better, I now have to interrupt the session, search the card in Manage FCs,...).
#2
This is a minor thing. Normally I use CJKOS for hanzi Input. But sometimes the character I am looking for does not exist in CJKOS, and so I want to use Pleco's Character Input. However, after pressing 入 the cursor is automatically flashing in the top row, which means that if I want to write a hanzi in the writing area, it doesn't work because CJKOS thinks I want to write a character (and then, by the way, if I'm writing a hanzi with CJKOS, only weird characters appear in the top row - why is that? CJKOS works fine on the main/default Pleco UI as well). So now I first have to tap the "radical" tab and then go back to the "handwriting" tab, so as to be able to write a hanzi into Pleco Character writing field. In other words, please let the cursour not be flashing in the top row when one starts the Pleco Input for hanzi. that way it should be possible to immediately start writing the character into the character writing field. thanx
Thanks! #1 has been mentioned a few times, I think, but possibly even before this thread - interesting idea to let you permanently change the cards that way too, though, in general it seems like it might make sense to add some more card-management options to sessions since they're a good way to look at / decide on changes to cards; perhaps also the option to bring up the session interface (or something like it) on a set of search results.
For #2, we've had a couple of complaints about CJKOS' (actually PenPower's, CJKOS just draws characters but PenPower is the other handwriting recognizer) recognizer kicking in in the input screen when it didn't do so in 1.0 but it seems like the blinking cursor might help to explain why. You could always consider using the built-in Pleco recognizer in its own fullscreen mode (which can be made comparable to PenPower convenience-wise, recognition timer / auto-enter first result / etc) - that would let you avoid using Input Field Compatibility mode and give you full support for rare characters and such.
For #2, we've had a couple of complaints about CJKOS' (actually PenPower's, CJKOS just draws characters but PenPower is the other handwriting recognizer) recognizer kicking in in the input screen when it didn't do so in 1.0 but it seems like the blinking cursor might help to explain why. You could always consider using the built-in Pleco recognizer in its own fullscreen mode (which can be made comparable to PenPower convenience-wise, recognition timer / auto-enter first result / etc) - that would let you avoid using Input Field Compatibility mode and give you full support for rare characters and such.
llammamama
探花
mikelove said:
I know you've mentioned before that it would be difficult to allow editing cards (definitions, etc) during a session because of the data synching and other considerations, but when you go back to look at expanding the options for card management during sessions please please pretty please take the time to fully assess whether or not it will be realistically possible to allow nearly full in-session editing of card text etc, instead of just swapping dictionaries around (which would be useful, too).
I know that we can assign cards to a category and edit them afterwords, but for me this feels like one of the biggest places where the amazing usability of Pleco 2.0 breaks down. I always seem to forget what I was going to edit or how I was going to do it by the time I finish the session - if I can even remember that I had cards which needed to be edited in the first place!
just had the idea for a (at least for me) very useful new test-mode, unfortunately probably too big to implement for 2.0.1.
how about a test for numbers (like telephone numbers). the number would be told (eighter male or female voice), maybe a selectable amount of digits, but 11 as the default, and you have to enter the numbers in digits. maybe a "mobile phone"-like keypad could be shown... the pronounciation for 1 (yao or yi) should eighter be selectable (fixed to one of them), or randomly chosen. maybe also needs a replay button
certainly needs a backspace button...
the test could collect personal statistics about which numbers are heard not very well by the trainee, how long he takes (on average, trend) and the error/success rate.
dont know if it would be possible to tap the numbers already when the voice still speaks the rest of the numbers, but that would be useful as its a real-world application entering telephone numbers into the mobile during somebody says them...
how about a test for numbers (like telephone numbers). the number would be told (eighter male or female voice), maybe a selectable amount of digits, but 11 as the default, and you have to enter the numbers in digits. maybe a "mobile phone"-like keypad could be shown... the pronounciation for 1 (yao or yi) should eighter be selectable (fixed to one of them), or randomly chosen. maybe also needs a replay button
certainly needs a backspace button...
the test could collect personal statistics about which numbers are heard not very well by the trainee, how long he takes (on average, trend) and the error/success rate.
dont know if it would be possible to tap the numbers already when the voice still speaks the rest of the numbers, but that would be useful as its a real-world application entering telephone numbers into the mobile during somebody says them...
it would really be great to have the ability to add a button to the tab bar, which allows to go to the "Edit Card" screen directly from a currently displayed dictionary entry. I have for example imported the HSK flashcard list, and sometimes when I look up a word and want to add it to my Flashcards I find that it's already in my FCs lists (obviously in the HSK cards, because I still don't know them all), but not necessarily with the dictionary definition that I want. So now I have to go to Manage Flashcards and then look for the card, which takes some time. (and now is especially complicated, because looking for a specific card by headword doesn't work as characters on my palm TX are only displayed as gibberish and pronunciation search also doesn't work for most of the words - the latter bug i just found out today, so I'll also add it to Bug Reports Forum).
HW60
状元
Hi Mike,
I would like to suggest some features for Pleco 2.1:
- draw a grid under the characters in the stroke order diagram (2*2 or 3*3 or none, to be selected in preferences) to help beginners to draw chinese characters
- In New Flashcard Session / Free Answer / Show definition / Ask for headword: The character input field is cleared after tap on 字 - could you clear the screen one step later after the selection of the character; I always forget my input ...
- Is there a way to erase duplicate entries in the user dictionary without affecting the flashcard that belongs to one of the entries?
- Are there plans to include hiragana and katakana input for a japanese - english dictionary? This might be fo 2.2 ...
HW60
I would like to suggest some features for Pleco 2.1:
- draw a grid under the characters in the stroke order diagram (2*2 or 3*3 or none, to be selected in preferences) to help beginners to draw chinese characters
- In New Flashcard Session / Free Answer / Show definition / Ask for headword: The character input field is cleared after tap on 字 - could you clear the screen one step later after the selection of the character; I always forget my input ...
- Is there a way to erase duplicate entries in the user dictionary without affecting the flashcard that belongs to one of the entries?
- Are there plans to include hiragana and katakana input for a japanese - english dictionary? This might be fo 2.2 ...
HW60
Sinoreen: For the pronunciation search, I believe there are 3 choices: =, !=, and ~. Try the 3rd one, as the first demands you enter the entire, exact pinyin.
For the garbage instead of characters it sounds like you have input field compatibility turned on, but without CJKOS installed or set to the right encoding. The option should be under External Preferences, I believe.
HW60: You can search for invalid flashcard entries in the 'Advanced' in the Flashcard manager, and that should bring up any cards that have had their use dictionary entry deleted. Not exactly what you wanted, but it should work.
Mike has also stated that there are no plans to make Pleco work with Japanese, though the Windows Mobile (NOT Palm) font supports Japanese kana and probably most of the Kanji. The dictionary won't work with Hirigana/Katakana, but the flashcards do provided you have a way of entering them through CE-Star or somesuch.
For the garbage instead of characters it sounds like you have input field compatibility turned on, but without CJKOS installed or set to the right encoding. The option should be under External Preferences, I believe.
HW60: You can search for invalid flashcard entries in the 'Advanced' in the Flashcard manager, and that should bring up any cards that have had their use dictionary entry deleted. Not exactly what you wanted, but it should work.
Mike has also stated that there are no plans to make Pleco work with Japanese, though the Windows Mobile (NOT Palm) font supports Japanese kana and probably most of the Kanji. The dictionary won't work with Hirigana/Katakana, but the flashcards do provided you have a way of entering them through CE-Star or somesuch.
llammamama - there actually is a faint possibility of that happening now; basically we'd add a check to flashcard sessions that would skip over any cards that had been modified since the session was started, thus allowing you to both edit cards during sessions and access Manage Flashcards while there was a saved session around.
mfcb - interesting idea, but yeah, too tricky for 2.0.1.
sinoreen - per ipsi, it sounds like the pronunciation search problem might have something to do with the wrong comparison setting - try changing that and see if that helps. As far as the general suggestion, though, I'm having a tough time getting a handle on this - wouldn't a better fix for this problem be to just show the definition of the duplicate card (or cards) in the duplicate alert and offer the opportunity to override and create the card anyway?
HW60 - got the grid one down, though given the muddiness of some of the stroke order diagrams I'm not sure if they'd be that good for learning to draw characters correctly. Clearing the box later on is problematic because if you draw a character incorrectly and need to redraw it it's annoying to have to hit that separate clear button - possibly something we could add a preference for but it would have to be that. Erasing duplicate entries without affecting flashcards would be really hard - I guess we could put up a prompt to fix flashcards that link to it, though. Japanese per ipsi isn't happening for a while, unfortunately - couldn't work out the licenses for it (the good dictionaries seem to be mostly pretty well locked up in exclusive deals).
mfcb - interesting idea, but yeah, too tricky for 2.0.1.
sinoreen - per ipsi, it sounds like the pronunciation search problem might have something to do with the wrong comparison setting - try changing that and see if that helps. As far as the general suggestion, though, I'm having a tough time getting a handle on this - wouldn't a better fix for this problem be to just show the definition of the duplicate card (or cards) in the duplicate alert and offer the opportunity to override and create the card anyway?
HW60 - got the grid one down, though given the muddiness of some of the stroke order diagrams I'm not sure if they'd be that good for learning to draw characters correctly. Clearing the box later on is problematic because if you draw a character incorrectly and need to redraw it it's annoying to have to hit that separate clear button - possibly something we could add a preference for but it would have to be that. Erasing duplicate entries without affecting flashcards would be really hard - I guess we could put up a prompt to fix flashcards that link to it, though. Japanese per ipsi isn't happening for a while, unfortunately - couldn't work out the licenses for it (the good dictionaries seem to be mostly pretty well locked up in exclusive deals).
I love the reader! I've never had such a fun experience of combining studying and fun! I'd like to make a few suggestions though:
-There would be nice to be a clock, without resorting to showing the taskbar, which consumes space.
-It seems that some times there is a gap at the end of the line, maybe because of the files bad "end of line" marker/or reader handling it incorrectly(?), so if there is a word split in two lines, in that case you see them as 2 different. It would be nice to have an option to enable an "ignore gaps at the end of line" setting in case you open that kind of texts and treat them as single line.
-It would also be very useful while in the reader, not to have the "entry scroll buttons", and instead merge all the different ways to pronounce the word in one list! If they all appear in one page, it's easier for you to decide how to read this character without having to switch back-and-forth between "pages".
-It would be nice if there was a way to read continuously the text from the cursor position!
-Also would be useful if you could reprogram the harware keys while in the reader!
A comment that refers to the reader aswell as the dictionary part :It's not too convenient selecting the voice set from the options menu, but it would be nicer if this was selectable from the "read" button itself (maybe click+hold, pops up a menu to select the male, female or alternate set). Actually concerning the alternate set, i think there has to be one(actually 2, since there are 2 voice sets) ways in the alternating pattern: on the first click in order to read any specified word, play the A-set voice, and on the second click the B-set's voice etc. The next word, should also be read first with the A-set's voice and so on. In that way if you click once on every word you get a consistent way of reading the word and hear the other voice only if you re-read the same word. Of course I understand that right now the female voice is not part of the final product, so it wouldn't be a very useful addition, but I'm just mentioning it anyway
A final comment is that It would be nice seeing some specialized term dictionaries (such as buddhist term dictionaries) for pleco. I remember finding some free ones for mdict, so I *guess* it would be easy to have them for pleco aswell!
-There would be nice to be a clock, without resorting to showing the taskbar, which consumes space.
-It seems that some times there is a gap at the end of the line, maybe because of the files bad "end of line" marker/or reader handling it incorrectly(?), so if there is a word split in two lines, in that case you see them as 2 different. It would be nice to have an option to enable an "ignore gaps at the end of line" setting in case you open that kind of texts and treat them as single line.
-It would also be very useful while in the reader, not to have the "entry scroll buttons", and instead merge all the different ways to pronounce the word in one list! If they all appear in one page, it's easier for you to decide how to read this character without having to switch back-and-forth between "pages".
-It would be nice if there was a way to read continuously the text from the cursor position!
-Also would be useful if you could reprogram the harware keys while in the reader!
A comment that refers to the reader aswell as the dictionary part :It's not too convenient selecting the voice set from the options menu, but it would be nicer if this was selectable from the "read" button itself (maybe click+hold, pops up a menu to select the male, female or alternate set). Actually concerning the alternate set, i think there has to be one(actually 2, since there are 2 voice sets) ways in the alternating pattern: on the first click in order to read any specified word, play the A-set voice, and on the second click the B-set's voice etc. The next word, should also be read first with the A-set's voice and so on. In that way if you click once on every word you get a consistent way of reading the word and hear the other voice only if you re-read the same word. Of course I understand that right now the female voice is not part of the final product, so it wouldn't be a very useful addition, but I'm just mentioning it anyway
A final comment is that It would be nice seeing some specialized term dictionaries (such as buddhist term dictionaries) for pleco. I remember finding some free ones for mdict, so I *guess* it would be easy to have them for pleco aswell!
HW60 - oh I understand that, but even just for looking at characters I'm not sure if all of the diagrams fit into the boxes properly (some pieces seem to be oversized).
F_Kal - good idea about the clock, though it would have to be optional since screen space seems to be particularly precious in the reader. Good point about the newline markers, no reason we can't just ignore those. Getting rid of the entry scroll buttons would be tough because of how the whole dictionary search system is structured - it'd have to be a pretty big update before we change that. Reading audio for characters anywhere would also be tough for reasons discussed elsewhere - it's hard to consistently pick the right pronunciation for each character. Hardware button reprogramming I'm not sure about - what would be the usage scenario for that?
Voice sets we can certainly look at improving if and when we make the female audio an official add-on, but we won't be doing much with that until then.
F_Kal - good idea about the clock, though it would have to be optional since screen space seems to be particularly precious in the reader. Good point about the newline markers, no reason we can't just ignore those. Getting rid of the entry scroll buttons would be tough because of how the whole dictionary search system is structured - it'd have to be a pretty big update before we change that. Reading audio for characters anywhere would also be tough for reasons discussed elsewhere - it's hard to consistently pick the right pronunciation for each character. Hardware button reprogramming I'm not sure about - what would be the usage scenario for that?
Voice sets we can certainly look at improving if and when we make the female audio an official add-on, but we won't be doing much with that until then.
but I would not like to have duplicate cards then, but be able to immediately switch the FC's previously assigned definition to the one currently displayed, when I enter the "Add To FCs" button. Much better, as I said before, would still be to directly be able to access the "Edit Card" Screen for a currently displayed dictionary entry by simply pressing one button. Is that tough to put into practice? I know nothing about programming...
i'll report about the input compatibility issue in the bug forum.
Well along with overriding there could also be a "replace" option to substitute in the new definition (perhaps even keeping the old card's statistics) - it's not that adding an Edit Card link would be hard, but it would be really awkward / tricky to use and I don't think a lot of people would take advantage of it, whereas a simple "what do I do with this card" prompt would be a lot easier to understand.
either way would be fine. of course you have to try to keep the programme as logical and easy to use as possible. It often happens to me though, that when I look up a word and want to add it to my FCs and then the "Duplicate Card" alert tells me that it is already in my FCs, that I would like to be able to directly look at and edit this card's settings/definitions. So either with a button or maybe as an option (in the small "tap hold"-menu) somehow like "go to card", which would then simply send the current dict entry as a search result to the manage FCs screen or so.
I'm sorry to keep on talking about this topic, but I really wonder would other users who are reading this thread think about it. don't you ever quickly want to access a card like this?
I'm sorry to keep on talking about this topic, but I really wonder would other users who are reading this thread think about it. don't you ever quickly want to access a card like this?
sinoreen said:
hehe, seems to be an "austrian" problem... certainly i also want a method to get more information than the "Duplicate Card" alert, and a method to jump from a dict-entry directly to an "edit flash" or at least search for the headword would be a very nice feature... i would prefer to be able to map it to a hardware button, because i like one-handed operation
I've found useful in the reader to be able to speak out a character with the press of a hardware button, to switch between different pronounciations of the character with the press of a another button etc. Actually I find very convenient keeping one hand on the arrows, and not having to use the touch screen for additionaly operations, makes reading closer to the book experience where it can be done with just one hand!
I think a reader options page that shows up without having to go back to the dictionary with options such as "Font size","Screen Orientation" and all these on-the-fly changeable would come handy. The screen orientation, actually I think should be separate for the reader:I find it very useful in the reader to have a left-handed orientation while in the dictionary I want a right -handed one. I'm a bit strange, I know
Finally it seems that when jumping to one page in the text, based on percentage, it doesn't accept decimal points with "." or ",". It would be nice if it did, since in big texts, 1 to 2 decimals make a difference in which page you are!
I think a reader options page that shows up without having to go back to the dictionary with options such as "Font size","Screen Orientation" and all these on-the-fly changeable would come handy. The screen orientation, actually I think should be separate for the reader:I find it very useful in the reader to have a left-handed orientation while in the dictionary I want a right -handed one. I'm a bit strange, I know
Finally it seems that when jumping to one page in the text, based on percentage, it doesn't accept decimal points with "." or ",". It would be nice if it did, since in big texts, 1 to 2 decimals make a difference in which page you are!