Feature Suggestions
- Thread starter stephanhodges
- Start date
Alright!
I too am a fan of the ability to split characters into their various radicals and components in order to better understand their meanings.
I too am a fan of the ability to split characters into their various radicals and components in order to better understand their meanings.
The Duelist
榜眼
I Think It Would Be Cool If The Audio Option Could 'Read' Any Highlighted Hanzi (-> Tap & Hold).
(Rather Than Just The Headword.)
(Rather Than Just The Headword.)
radioman
状元
Not sure if I am rehashing here, but now that I have been exercising the Beta 7...
1) When running a flashcard session I think think it would be useful to be able to highlight a word made of 2 characters and to a pop-up lookup on that specific word.
2) In the popup window, if I am on an entry, I believe that the pop-up window is fully functional. For instance if I look up in the popup dictionary the word "shou" and see "shouyinji", I would want to be able to add that to the flashcards. I click the plus sign and there is no indication on whether it was added or not. (I checked and in fact, the words are being added). The above I believe is very useful as I am running flashcard session and doing various side investigations on a given word. Many related words can now be added for review that can potentially be quickly memorized.
3) The pop-up dictionary does not check compounds that do not have the given character as the first character in the word. Is there any way to gain visibility to that?
4) The pop-up window comes up at a small portion of the screen. While I understand this is just a "pop-up" screen, it would be very useful to have it bigger. (even the whole screen, kind of like the scroll lists - more is is better).
1) When running a flashcard session I think think it would be useful to be able to highlight a word made of 2 characters and to a pop-up lookup on that specific word.
2) In the popup window, if I am on an entry, I believe that the pop-up window is fully functional. For instance if I look up in the popup dictionary the word "shou" and see "shouyinji", I would want to be able to add that to the flashcards. I click the plus sign and there is no indication on whether it was added or not. (I checked and in fact, the words are being added). The above I believe is very useful as I am running flashcard session and doing various side investigations on a given word. Many related words can now be added for review that can potentially be quickly memorized.
3) The pop-up dictionary does not check compounds that do not have the given character as the first character in the word. Is there any way to gain visibility to that?
4) The pop-up window comes up at a small portion of the screen. While I understand this is just a "pop-up" screen, it would be very useful to have it bigger. (even the whole screen, kind of like the scroll lists - more is is better).
radioman
状元
With regard to populating flashcards, Pleco's ability to immediately drop words into study for further study is extremely useful. However, along with increasing individual word vocabulary, I am strongly believe that the context around the word is extremely useful. The Tuttle dictionary is a great example of this, and in fact is yet further support for why I am making this request.
To get to the point, I would like a way to save phrases (or sentences) to a flashcard session. For instance, If I am on a word in flashcards, highlight a character, go to a pop-up definition of the character in Tuttle dictionary, and while looking through Tuttle, I see a phrase I want to memorize that might have a number of great words strung together, I would like to quickly save that to a custom flashcard.
The idea I had was to highlight the string of "interesting" text including Hanzi, Pinyin, and English. (typically they are clustered).
Then create a custom card (a click and hold menu item) - if it is Hanzi, it would go to the Hanzi field, Pinyin to the Pronunciation field, English to the Description field. Any one of the items is left out, then the card is created with those fields blank (or " TBD"). Maybe bring up the editor immediately for any cleanup.
To get to the point, I would like a way to save phrases (or sentences) to a flashcard session. For instance, If I am on a word in flashcards, highlight a character, go to a pop-up definition of the character in Tuttle dictionary, and while looking through Tuttle, I see a phrase I want to memorize that might have a number of great words strung together, I would like to quickly save that to a custom flashcard.
The idea I had was to highlight the string of "interesting" text including Hanzi, Pinyin, and English. (typically they are clustered).
Then create a custom card (a click and hold menu item) - if it is Hanzi, it would go to the Hanzi field, Pinyin to the Pronunciation field, English to the Description field. Any one of the items is left out, then the card is created with those fields blank (or " TBD"). Maybe bring up the editor immediately for any cleanup.
The Duelist
榜眼
I Think It Would Be Good To Have An Option To 'Tone Practice' Score Immediately.
Similar To The 'Free Answer' Option.
The Pleco DB Mover Needs Something/Counts To Indicate Progress.
Similar To The 'Free Answer' Option.
The Pleco DB Mover Needs Something/Counts To Indicate Progress.
The Duelist - adding audio support for any highlighted characters would be a little tricky, since it's hard to consistently map characters to their pronunciations - we'd probably need to license a separate text-to-speech system or something like that. If you bring up those highlighted characters in a popup definition window, though, you can play the audio for them in that (assuming that there's a dictionary entry for them).
Tone practice is already scored immediately if you have that option enabled for free-answer; we didn't put in a separate checkbox for it since there wasn't any room left on that screen
radioman - you can already highlight and look up a word during the flashcard session, it just has to wait until after the card is revealed - once it is, highlight it, tap-hold on the highlighted text and select "Popup Defn" from the popup menu to bring up the definition. (you can reconfigure that in Stylus Actions) You're right that there should be a notification when you add a flashcard through the popup window, that's probably a bug actually. And we've been toying with adding a line or two to that screen in the next beta, though making it more full-featured (editable text input, Char Info, etc) will have to wait for a post-2.0 release.
A phrase-collection flashcard feature is a great idea - we haven't really optimized the flashcard system around phrases yet in general (it certainly supports them, but we don't do some common-sense things like making the headword characters smaller when there are more than, say, 8 of them, or allowing audio playback for an unlimited number of syllables) but we've got a few people here using them for phrases anyway and certainly once we do get around to improving phrase support it would make sense to add a way to capture phrases from within definitions. (or the document reader, which might be an even more useful place for this)
Tone practice is already scored immediately if you have that option enabled for free-answer; we didn't put in a separate checkbox for it since there wasn't any room left on that screen
radioman - you can already highlight and look up a word during the flashcard session, it just has to wait until after the card is revealed - once it is, highlight it, tap-hold on the highlighted text and select "Popup Defn" from the popup menu to bring up the definition. (you can reconfigure that in Stylus Actions) You're right that there should be a notification when you add a flashcard through the popup window, that's probably a bug actually. And we've been toying with adding a line or two to that screen in the next beta, though making it more full-featured (editable text input, Char Info, etc) will have to wait for a post-2.0 release.
A phrase-collection flashcard feature is a great idea - we haven't really optimized the flashcard system around phrases yet in general (it certainly supports them, but we don't do some common-sense things like making the headword characters smaller when there are more than, say, 8 of them, or allowing audio playback for an unlimited number of syllables) but we've got a few people here using them for phrases anyway and certainly once we do get around to improving phrase support it would make sense to add a way to capture phrases from within definitions. (or the document reader, which might be an even more useful place for this)
radioman
状元
OK, waiting for the flaschcard to be revealed worked, Thanks for that.
On another topic, is there anyway to put in the software a small button or stylus swiping detection algorithm that will shut the Palm device down. The reason for this is that, if I am studying out of a book, I look something up (several dozen accesses over a few hours). Each time, I have to turn the Palm on and off. I can let it time out, but having the stylus invoked off function would save wear and tear on the hardware buttons.
(by the way, no crashes for the second day in a row...)
On another topic, is there anyway to put in the software a small button or stylus swiping detection algorithm that will shut the Palm device down. The reason for this is that, if I am studying out of a book, I look something up (several dozen accesses over a few hours). Each time, I have to turn the Palm on and off. I can let it time out, but having the stylus invoked off function would save wear and tear on the hardware buttons.
(by the way, no crashes for the second day in a row...)
It might be possible with a hack / app-launcher type program - certainly it's something that can be done programmatically and there are plenty of programs that look for / capture stylus actions. A quick check of TealLaunch suggests that that would let you assign a pen stroke to the power off button, though it's a bit of an expensive solution since you'd need a HackMaster replacement too - there's probably something out there cheaper just for power-off if you hunt around.
The Duelist
榜眼
Hi Mike
I Would Find It Very Useful If The Flashcards Profile Name Could Be Displayed
At The Top Of The 'New Flashcard Session' Window.
This Would Save Exiting The Screen To Find Out Which Profile Is Being Used.
Another Feature That Would Be Useful,
Is The Ability To Export/Import Flashcard Session Profiles.
The Duelist
I Would Find It Very Useful If The Flashcards Profile Name Could Be Displayed
At The Top Of The 'New Flashcard Session' Window.
This Would Save Exiting The Screen To Find Out Which Profile Is Being Used.
Another Feature That Would Be Useful,
Is The Ability To Export/Import Flashcard Session Profiles.
The Duelist
Good point about the profile names, that would be very handy. We actually already wrote most of the code for importing/exporting profiles, but we were worried it would introduce a bunch of new bugs so we left it disabled in the current release - it should appear in a post-2.0 one, though.
The Duelist
榜眼
Suggestions To Improve Multiple-Choice UI
Hi Mike
I Have Some Suggestions That May Help Improve The Flow (& Integration Into PD2) Of The Multiple-Choice Test UI.
:idea: 1) Have Soft-Buttons(Or Maybe Tap & Hold) That Link To A 'Modified' Popup Defn Window For Each 'Defn' Option,
Instead Of Moving To The 'Confirm' Selected Defn Screen.
This Could Then Also Allow For An Auto-Score Option For MC Tests.
:idea: 2) Have An Option For Hardware Buttons To Be Assigned To Move Up/Down MC Answer Options.
The Duelist
Hi Mike
I Have Some Suggestions That May Help Improve The Flow (& Integration Into PD2) Of The Multiple-Choice Test UI.
:idea: 1) Have Soft-Buttons(Or Maybe Tap & Hold) That Link To A 'Modified' Popup Defn Window For Each 'Defn' Option,
Instead Of Moving To The 'Confirm' Selected Defn Screen.
This Could Then Also Allow For An Auto-Score Option For MC Tests.
:idea: 2) Have An Option For Hardware Buttons To Be Assigned To Move Up/Down MC Answer Options.
The Duelist
The Duelist
榜眼
'Pleco Flashcards' Screen Layout
Hi Mike
:idea: I Have Some Suggestions For The 'Pleco Flashcard' Screen Layout.
The 'Manage' Session Profile Button (Manage FC Sessions :?: ) & 'Advanced...' Buttons (Adv FC Sessions :?: )
Could Both Be Under The 'New Flashcard Session' Button.
The 'Statistics' Button Could Be Moved Next To The 'Profile' Drop Down List (Or Next To The 'Done' Button).
I Think This Would Be A 'Logical' (Re)Arrangement For These Functions.
(The 'Manage' Button Could Probably Be Just Another Button At The Top Of The 'Advanced Settings' Screen.
But I Guess There's No Room For Another Button. :wink: )
Maybe The 'Advanced Settings' Screen Could Be Titled 'Adv FC Session Profiles'.
I Think The 'Advanced Settings' Screen Also Needs A Flashcard Profile Name Heading.
What Do You Think?
The Duelist
Hi Mike
:idea: I Have Some Suggestions For The 'Pleco Flashcard' Screen Layout.
The 'Manage' Session Profile Button (Manage FC Sessions :?: ) & 'Advanced...' Buttons (Adv FC Sessions :?: )
Could Both Be Under The 'New Flashcard Session' Button.
The 'Statistics' Button Could Be Moved Next To The 'Profile' Drop Down List (Or Next To The 'Done' Button).
I Think This Would Be A 'Logical' (Re)Arrangement For These Functions.
(The 'Manage' Button Could Probably Be Just Another Button At The Top Of The 'Advanced Settings' Screen.
But I Guess There's No Room For Another Button. :wink: )
Maybe The 'Advanced Settings' Screen Could Be Titled 'Adv FC Session Profiles'.
I Think The 'Advanced Settings' Screen Also Needs A Flashcard Profile Name Heading.
What Do You Think?
The Duelist
Good ideas on multi-choice. With the Pleco Flashcards layout, I actually prefer to have the profile selector and its Manage button on the main screen of that since they also affect scores used in the Manage Flashcards screen (so basically every function except Import/Export is tied to it in some way). We want to give the sense that the current profile selection applies system-wide. The Advanced button I'm not sure about, but I think there are some benefits to having it on the main screen - makes people more likely to discover it (whereas if we put it in New Session they might not be), and since the settings on it tend to be things that are changed less often than the ones in New Session it feels logical to have them in a different place.
mikelove said:
Adding some sort of stream-lined phrase support would be excellent. I've been experimenting with adding some phrases/sentences from the dictionaries to flashcards but it is quite a task! With the Tuttle dictionary, I copy the characters, pinyin, and example all together and then enter flashcard mode, then manage flashcards etc etc and create a new flashcard and then paste all the info into one of the fields. The scroll arrows don't appear automatically -- you need to open and close the flashcard for the arrows to appear in each field. So after pasting it all in the headword field, I exit, then I edit the flashcard and try to cut/paste into the definition (the Tuttle pinyin doesn't appear to be pleco compatible?) but I'm only able to highlight one extra line outside of view, so I need to cut and paste several times to move the data from headword to definition. With ABC you need to add an extra step because you have to copy the word itself in the examples b/c the word appears as a "~". Basically, if the process could be streamlined especially for example sentences in the dictionaries, that would be great!
This process is what I thought I would have to do for every single vocabulary card for Supermemo before I discovered Pleco but, I've been totally spoiled by Pleco's ease of managing individual words so far.
The scrollbars not updating sounds like a bug, actually - they definitely should be updated after you cut or paste text. With the Pinyin not being compatible, have you tested that with b7(b) yet? Because starting with that release we check for / cleanup Pinyin before pasting it in, so it should come through correctly even from the Tuttle examples.
Alright, Pinyin from Tuttle works fine now in b7(b). Thanks Mike. The scrollbars not appearing without re-opening the card after saving enough text in the field still holds, however. Also, even if you have scrollbars, you still cannot scroll down automatically when highlighting text so if you want to highlight everything from your position down, you can only highlight the current line and the line below it (at least in my configuration).
The Duelist
榜眼
Re: 'Pleco Flashcards' Screen Layout
But To Suggest 'Logical' Button (Re)Positions,
And 'Clearer' Titles For The Existing Screens.
eg Grouping Flashcard Session Setup Buttons Under The Main Flashcard Sessions Button.
(Keeping Buttons Their Current Size)
Pleco Flashcards
( :arrow: Profile: Dropdown) ( :arrow: Statisics)
( :arrow: New Flashcard Session )
(_________________________ )
( :arrow: Manage FC Sessions) ( :arrow: Adv FC Sesssions)
(My Best??? Attempt To Suggest An Advanced GUI Design Using A Web Text Editor :lol: )
The Duelist said:
My Main Idea Here Was Not To Move Functions Off Their Current Screens,mikelove said:
But To Suggest 'Logical' Button (Re)Positions,
And 'Clearer' Titles For The Existing Screens.
eg Grouping Flashcard Session Setup Buttons Under The Main Flashcard Sessions Button.
(Keeping Buttons Their Current Size)
Pleco Flashcards
( :arrow: Profile: Dropdown) ( :arrow: Statisics)
( :arrow: New Flashcard Session )
(_________________________ )
( :arrow: Manage FC Sessions) ( :arrow: Adv FC Sesssions)
(My Best??? Attempt To Suggest An Advanced GUI Design Using A Web Text Editor :lol: )