iPhone Feature Requests

[mikelove]

Have you thought of context-sensitive settings? A tiny popup if you hold down on a button to adjust what it can do, or something similar? I've been using Pleco for so long that I didn't even know this "search-everywhere" was a feature that was available.

Submenus in general are something we've been playing with a lot - buttons that reveal other buttons, in other words; already do that a little in OCR but the interface isn't very pretty and they're too close to their original buttons, we ideally want them in some sort of little "bubble."

The dictionary definition and Character Info screens are actually being merged (as they already are on Android), so there should only be one type of screen to dig into and that should make it a lot easier for us to put at least this particular function somewhere where people can get at it more easily.

Great, that's exactly the behaviour I was after. Could be worth highlighting this in some sort of faq in your upcoming wiki/knowledge base - much easier than figuring it out from the manual's descriptions of what the various buttons do. Thanks!

The new UI will most likely be accompanied by an array of tutorials / FAQs / etc, but we're not spending a lot of time further documenting what we have now since it's all due for a change very soon.

 

[singlung]

is it possible to add a total count of individual characters in the flashcard statistics? would like to know how many characters i know based on my flashcards.

 

[mikelove]

is it possible to add a total count of individual characters in the flashcard statistics? would like to know how many characters i know based on my flashcards.

Certainly possible, yes - been on our to-do list for a while, just waiting for us to finish updating flashcard statistics.

 

[gabor]

Hi,
I switched from Wenlin to Pleco not long ago. I am really happy, only one thing bothers me: it is really difficult to create dictionary entries. I have to add traditional characters manually? And pinyin as well? Most characters have only 1 or 2 pronunciations, Pleco even knows these from its own database, why doesnt it simply popup the possibilites (eventually featuring the option "add new")? The same goes for traditional versions, Pleco seems to have all the variations in the database, yet I have to manually enter them. Wenlin doesn't offer choices on pinyin when creating a new dictionary item, but at least fills the field with the most common pronunciation of the word. I'd love to use Pleco for translating, so I am happy to see I can edit texts in the reader, but why can't I just create a new file there right away? And if I am editing a file, do I really have to click on "read" to check up a word? Why not lets say "tap and hold" or something, "double tap"? And why can't I edit load long texts loaded into the reader without Pleco telling me it might become unstable? Will it suddenly crash on me and I lose all my work?

Don't misunderstand me, I love your product, would love it even more with such small problems cleared up

Greatings,
Gabor

 

[mikelove]

I switched from Wenlin to Pleco not long ago. I am really happy, only one thing bothers me: it is really difficult to create dictionary entries. I have to add traditional characters manually? And pinyin as well? Most characters have only 1 or 2 pronunciations, Pleco even knows these from its own database, why doesnt it simply popup the possibilites (eventually featuring the option "add new")? The same goes for traditional versions, Pleco seems to have all the variations in the database, yet I have to manually enter them. Wenlin doesn't offer choices on pinyin when creating a new dictionary item, but at least fills the field with the most common pronunciation of the word. I'd love to use Pleco for translating, so I am happy to see I can edit texts in the reader, but why can't I just create a new file there right away? And if I am editing a file, do I really have to click on "read" to check up a word? Why not lets say "tap and hold" or something, "double tap"? And why can't I edit load long texts loaded into the reader without Pleco telling me it might become unstable? Will it suddenly crash on me and I lose all my work?

That's true at the moment, yes. To be honest, the user dictionary feature sees very little use so we've had a hard time finding the time in our schedule to improve entry input / full-text search / etc... I suppose if we did improve those things that might make more people use it, but it's still fighting for time with things like flashcard sync support and document reader search and so on.

Text editing is also sort of a "hack" at the moment, though we think a more robust text editor would see a lot of use among translators etc (especially if supported a "split screen" mode) so that's perhaps a bit higher on our priority list. Both the lack of easy lookups and the file size limit come from the fact that we're using our own custom system for drawing text in "Read" mode but switching to Apple's built-in text editor for "Edit" - once we add text editing support to our custom system it'll be much easier for us to support large documents and in-document lookups.

 

[keyclick]

Hey Mike!

First of all, I must say, it is very exciting to download a new copy of software and see a new feature that you requested has been added to the software! "Pause player audio during lookup" in Lyrics Reader... yeah that was all me! 8)

Thanks! Exactly what I wanted!

So, building on our successfull collaboration... :wink: ... I had another Lyric Player suggestion. Applies to both iDevice and Android implementations, but because of the locked down file system of iOs may have to be handled differently. Since there is no Feature Request thread in Android forum, I will talk about it here.

Right now, the only way to load a song (in my case, this is 99% Chinese learning podcasts with embedded 汉字 transcripts, rather than music songs, per se) into the player is via the itunes music browser dialog box (for lack of a better term). You obviously must use an API that lets you use the library that has been downloaded to the device with iTunes.

Due to the lack of "hard Drive" memory space on most iDevices (8 gig for me), I have just bought a new remote storage device (Seagate GoFlex Media Satelite) which is a 500gb portable hard drive that has it's own WiFi access point built in. So this acts as a media streamer, and you can browse the drive using their iOs App, or a browser. Problem is, it is not "mountable" as such, it does not show up (even in Android) as a browsable drive directory. In your Reader application, you can browse the web to look for text files to translate. (I can see the device when I do that) but there is no way to launch a mp3 file into the Lyric Reader section via the web interface. If the lyric reader also had a browse menu (using a web browser, or as regards Android... the ability to browse the directory structure looking for mp3 files on a remote device or in other app's storage locations) it would allow other possibilities. (including playing podcasts with embedded transcripts as lyrics) directly off the web instead of cluttering up the device with downloaded files.

Hope that made some sense! I will clarify if you are interested and want to understand the idea better.

Thanks again!

 

[mikelove]

Due to the lack of "hard Drive" memory space on most iDevices (8 gig for me), I have just bought a new remote storage device (Seagate GoFlex Media Satelite) which is a 500gb portable hard drive that has it's own WiFi access point built in. So this acts as a media streamer, and you can browse the drive using their iOs App, or a browser. Problem is, it is not "mountable" as such, it does not show up (even in Android) as a browsable drive directory. In your Reader application, you can browse the web to look for text files to translate. (I can see the device when I do that) but there is no way to launch a mp3 file into the Lyric Reader section via the web interface. If the lyric reader also had a browse menu (using a web browser, or as regards Android... the ability to browse the directory structure looking for mp3 files on a remote device or in other app's storage locations) it would allow other possibilities. (including playing podcasts with embedded transcripts as lyrics) directly off the web instead of cluttering up the device with downloaded files.

Thanks for the suggestion.

The problem here is that we don't really know of any built-in interface on iOS to parse / extract lyrics from an MP3 file; it's extremely easy to play them, and to extract lyrics from and play files in the device's built-in media catalog, but lyrics extraction from an MP3 would probably have to be done by us by parsing the actual file.

That's not by any means an impossible task, and it's one we'll probably have to undertake anyway if we want to support a Lyrics Reader function on Android, but it was a lot harder than reading lyrics from built-in iTunes media files so we undertook those first. We'll certainly consider extracting them from MP3s directly in a future release, though.

 

[keyclick]

The problem here is that we don't really know of any built-in interface on iOS to parse / extract lyrics from an MP3 file; it's extremely easy to play them, and to extract lyrics from and play files in the device's built-in media catalog, but lyrics extraction from an MP3 would probably have to be done by us by parsing the actual file.

Me not knowing anything about the iOs development process, I don't understand the distinction between mp3 files I transfer to the device via iTurds vs. the same mp3 transferred to the device some other way. Does iTurds extract the lyrics from the metadata when you import it and make it available in some API accessable way?

I have played around with adding 'lyrics' (again, really the transcript of a podcast) to some of my downloaded podcast mp3's using a tag editor. (maybe Widows Media Player's advanced option) so I would guess it is similar to the ID3 tag type of info.

So, before you answered, I thought of a related question, and given your response above, it is even more relevant...
I noticed that even if I download a podcast 'From iTunes" directly using the built-in iTunes app in my iPod Touch, this does not even show up in the lyric reader browser dialog box. So does that list get populated only with stuff that gets put on there via the iTurds software synch process?

thanks,

 

[mikelove]

Does iTunes extract the lyrics from the metadata when you import it and make it available in some API accessable way?

Yes, and there isn't really a way to get it to do that with a file that came in some other way.

So, before you answered, I thought of a related question, and given your response above, it is even more relevant...
I noticed that even if I download a podcast 'From iTunes" directly using the built-in iTunes app in my iPod Touch, this does not even show up in the lyric reader browser dialog box. So does that list get populated only with stuff that gets put on there via the iTunes software synch process?

We've actually had them work just fine even with downloaded podcasts - are you sure that the ones you're downloading actually have embedded lyrics? Does it help matters any if you queue the podcast up in the regular iPod app before you open it in Pleco?

 

[chird]

I think Pleco is one of the best pieces of software I've used in a long time, and its an integral part of my study.

I purchased the ABC dictionary. Is it possible to search/list by 'part of speech', or 'register'? For example, it would be great to be able to list all the entries that are deemed a CONJ (conjunction), ON (onomatopoeiac) or <F.E> (fixed expression). I've tried using the full-search but it seems to disregard these sections of the dictionary entry, for all dictionaries.

 

[mikelove]

I think Pleco is one of the best pieces of software I've used in a long time, and its an integral part of my study.

I purchased the ABC dictionary. Is it possible to search/list by 'part of speech', or 'register'? For example, it would be great to be able to list all the entries that are deemed a CONJ (conjunction), ON (onomatopoeiac) or <F.E> (fixed expression). I've tried using the full-search but it seems to disregard these sections of the dictionary entry, for all dictionaries.

Not possible at the moment, no - we could conceivably add it in a future release, but we're kind of concerned about the user interface; we're not confident that we could make it easily discoverable / accessible without cluttering up the already incredibly busy search input area.

 

[jamesquek]

Mike,

How about a adding a new feature where you can rope in characters with same phonetic components, e.g., 京，惊，鲸，or 旦，坦，但，担。It would be great for character studies. Clavis sinica has this.

 

[johnh113]

Mike,

How about a adding a new feature where you can rope in characters with same phonetic components, e.g., 京，惊，鲸，or 旦，坦，但，担。It would be great for character studies. Clavis sinica has this.

Dear JamesQuek,

You can do something like this by selecting the character and clicking on the 字 button. This brings you to a page where you can select a tab for "Details," "Strokes," "Chars," or "Words." Select the "Chars" tab and it has a list of all the components of that character. Click on one of those and it will show you a list of words that use that component. Very useful for exactly the reason you describe.

John

 

[jamesquek]

Oh, that feature exists in the ipad/iphone version? I have not migrate over yet. Still stucked in the wm version. And as far as I know, this feature does not exist here. I thought both versions are equal in features. So that is one good reason to migrate asp.

Thanks...

 

[goldyn chyld]

I think Pleco is one of the best pieces of software I've used in a long time, and its an integral part of my study.

I purchased the ABC dictionary. Is it possible to search/list by 'part of speech', or 'register'? For example, it would be great to be able to list all the entries that are deemed a CONJ (conjunction), ON (onomatopoeiac) or <F.E> (fixed expression). I've tried using the full-search but it seems to disregard these sections of the dictionary entry, for all dictionaries.

Not possible at the moment, no - we could conceivably add it in a future release, but we're kind of concerned about the user interface; we're not confident that we could make it easily discoverable / accessible without cluttering up the already incredibly busy search input area.

It would be quite awesome if you could possibly add the "search by register" option though. Speaking of that, does anyone know any Chinese dictionaries that would support that?

 

[mikelove]

It would be quite awesome if you could possibly add the "search by register" option though.

There's actually been a little progress on this in the last week - it's looking like we might add an "advanced search" screen to cover a number of cases like this, turns out to be a good solution to a couple of other problems too.

 

[app]

I'd like to be able to save individual flashcard test sessions. Sometimes tests takes several days for me to complete to my satisfaction. In the meantime, I'd like to move on to testing myself on different categories and then return to a previously started but incomplete test.

For instance, I like to gradually test myself on my entire database of learned cards, knowing that I haven't left any out or repeated. This takes several days. Then I usually need to review my most recently learned cards before I have to time to complete the first test.

 

[mikelove]

I'd like to be able to save individual flashcard test sessions. Sometimes tests takes several days for me to complete to my satisfaction. In the meantime, I'd like to move on to testing myself on different categories and then return to a previously started but incomplete test.

For instance, I like to gradually test myself on my entire database of learned cards, knowing that I haven't left any out or repeated. This takes several days. Then I usually need to review my most recently learned cards before I have to time to complete the first test.

The problem with this is that there are a lot of session types for which it would be deeply problematic - for example, in any kind of spaced repetition test you'd be screwing up your review intervals so much so as to render the whole thing almost meaningless.

We might be able to add a feature that supported a few very specific types of test while you were in the middle of another session - some sort of "review" where the card scores wouldn't actually be affected, say - but I don't think we could make it possible to have more than one session of any variety going at once without introducing a whole lot of problems / inconsistencies.

But you could actually achieve something a lot like this right now using card filters. Set up a new profile (linked to your old scorefile) with "random" card selection (just duplicate the "simple" profile, basically), set it to include cards in all categories, then in "card filters" set up a time filter to include a card if it was "last reviewed" "before" whatever the current date is, and a score filter to only include cards that were past your "learned" cutoff. When you feel like reviewing your old cards, run a test with this profile and it will only show you learned cards that you haven't reviewed recently; any card you review during that test will now have been reviewed after the cutoff date, so you won't see it again. Eventually, you'll have worked through all of your cards and when you try to run that test you'll get an error saying there are no cards left to review, at which point you can go back into "card filters," re-set the cutoff date to the current date, and begin the process again. This lets you avoid having to juggle multiple sessions, and has the added benefit of automatically adding cards that become "learned" while you're in the middle of working through the list.

 

[jstrauss]

Because this is my first post here I would like begin by saying thanks and that I am really enjoying the software and using it daily. It's great.

My feature request is this:

When looking up a single character and displaying the words containing it (i use the 'both' function), have option to automatically sort the word list by frequency rather than by alphabetical order.

I think the value here is pretty evident. Unless my purpose is to locate a word I know exists, the alphabetical listing has no relevance to me, while the frequency does. Usually I access that 'both' function when i'm exploring the character to make more associations. It would be much more efficient and stimulating to see the characters starting with the highest frequency.

What do you think? Is it programmable?

Thanks. And thanks again for the great software!

 

[mikelove]

When looking up a single character and displaying the words containing it (i use the 'both' function), have option to automatically sort the word list by frequency rather than by alphabetical order.

I think the value here is pretty evident. Unless my purpose is to locate a word I know exists, the alphabetical listing has no relevance to me, while the frequency does. Usually I access that 'both' function when i'm exploring the character to make more associations. It would be much more efficient and stimulating to see the characters starting with the highest frequency.

What do you think? Is it programmable?

Not only possible, but coming soon - we had to add frequency sorting anyway for the sake of our new merged multi-dictionary search feature (too many results to scroll through otherwise) but now that we've got it it should appear in several other places too.