Importing a list of characters

[kiwisinchina]

I have a list of characters but am having real trouble importing it into Pleco to make flash cards. Can you please suggest what is the easiest and most fool-proof way to do it? I have tried the following:
Creating a document using QuickWord - but I cannot get that to recognise the characters.
Creating a new Memo - I can get Pleco to export to Memo Pad, but I cannot even get Wenlin to read the encoding, even though it was meant to be exported as GB2312. If I paste a GB2312 encoded list into a new memo pad, all I get are question marks. And yes, I have been putting "// etc" at the beginning of each memo.
Text documents - I can't get Pleco to find them on my card...

I have asked friends who use Pleco, and they haven't been able to do it either. I have been trying for ages - please help!

 

[mikelove]

In general I'd say text documents are the most fool-proof way. If you enter the directory and file names correctly PlecoDict should have no trouble finding the file - make sure you select the correct volume if you have more than one (e.g. the internal drive and SD slot on the LifeDrive and T5).

With QuickWord, I don't know if it's possible to save in PalmDoc format or not - if you can save the file in PalmDoc it should work, but there's no way PlecoDict could read a proprietary QuickWord file.

And with Memo Pad, are you using the latest version of Palm Desktop? Mac or Windows? You might want to try saving the cards out to a GB format text file in Wenlin, opening the file up in a "regular" text editor like NotePad (so they'll come up as gibberish but not as ?s), then copy and paste the text into Palm Desktop from there.

 

[kiwisinchina]

A method that works

Hi Mike, thanks for your reply. I persevered with the text files, and this is what I found worked. I would appreciate any tips you have to shorten the process, Peter.

Importing new chars into Pleco
1.Export dummy list using Pleco
2. Read card using card reader
3.Open list with Word - encoding GB2312
4.Paste new characters
5.Save file - clicking 'yes' to lose formatting as saving it as a text file
6.Put card back into Palm
7.Open Pleco and then import the file - remember to input the file name not the list name
8.Done

 

[mikelove]

About the only thing I would cut out of that is the dummy file export. The only formatting unique to Pleco is the list names (which are really pretty easy), aside from that any GB-2312 text file should be readable by PlecoDict; it handles both DOS/Windows and Mac line separators, and there are no byte-order issues because GB/Big-5 are always big-endian. So if you just paste in the characters and add the list names in the appropriate places, any GB file saved by Word should be importable into PlecoDict.

We've thought about developing a desktop-based flashcard editor/manager for PlecoDict (possibly along with some other capabilities like a Kingsoft-esque desktop version of Instant Access) but unless/until that's available there really isn't any good way for us to simply the process.

 

[Luo Yang]

It would be great if there was some sort of desktop-based flashcard editor/manager.

Until now I ahve been using another flashcard program which allows me to create all of my flashcards in Excel, save them as Unicode text, and then their program transforms them into the correct formatting and adds them to the Palm.

I would enjoy being able to use the PlecoDict flashcards as it has some very useful features, but I am still having trouble getting my flashcards imported correctly from my Excel databases (I have tried saving as text, putting into Outlook Memo pad and syncing the text file with DoctoGo. Nothing has worked. Once I got a bunch of scrambled letters that I could make out as the words I was importing, but they were scrambled and did not include any Chinese.

For now I will continue to use my other program and play around with trying to import into Pleco.

 

[mikelove]

You're referring to Anki, right? Not a bad program, but they don't seem to be working on it that much anymore, and our eventual desktop version (which has gone from possible to amost-certain in the last few months) should hopefully be able to do everything their software can and more.

As for your importing problem, probably the most reliable way to import words is as a plain text file (since that can be copied directly to an SD card without HotSync manager getting in the way). Try this: download the demo version of EmEditor (http://www.emurasoft.com - fantastic program, handles even the entire ABC dictionary database file beautifully), open up the text file in that and use the Encoding menu in the Save As screen to set the encoding to UTF-8. And make sure to uncheck the "BOM" checkbox.

After that, copy the text file directly to your Palm's SD card using either an SD reader/writer (if you have one) or a card mounting utility like Card Export (http://www.softick.com/). Import the file into PlecoDict (make sure to select UTF-8 encoding in the importer) and it should hopefully come out as something other than gibberish this time.

 

[Luo Yang]

Yep, I have been using Anki but I wasn't sure if mentioning other companies specifically was kosher. I am very glad to hear that the desktop version is likely to be reality and to see your comment that it should "hopefully be able to do everything their software can and more". Anki has worked very well for me, but I am also looking forward to seeing what you are coming up with.

Thanks for responding and letting me know the good news!
Luo Yang

Editing my post:
I just tried the the steps you mentioned above, and it worked great. It would be nice of PlecoDict had a search feature for the file instead of my needing to write in the path name, but that is just a minor issue. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[mikelove]

You're very welcome! And no, I don't have any issue with people mentioning other products in here, as long as they aren't doing so for the purpose of luring people away from our software - I suppose if we had more competition my views on this might change, but right now I think discussion of the alternatives helps people understand the unique qualities of our software better.