Slim Smith
秀才
Glad to read other users are interested in this feature. Count me in!
iPhone Feature Requests
- Thread starter mikelove
- Start date
Glad to read other users are interested in this feature. Count me in!
alanmd
探花
mikelove said:
This might be a moot point now that such a big UI revamp is taking place, but tap-holding shows a list of “all dictionaries”, not “all of the dictionaries with results”. Selecting a dictionary that doesn't have an entry for the current search (or current word if viewing a word) quietly selects the next dictionary after that one that does have a result.
alanmd said:
Already corrected in the revamp, though it'll actually be even more of a moot point since the default behavior will most likely be to see every dictionary with results.
(we're probably going to keep an option to bring back the old behavior, though - we're trying to be very sensitive about that in general, there's likely going to be a whole "make things work like they did before" settings screen since there'll inevitably be people confused by or ticked off about some of the changes and unlike on other platforms we have no way to offer people a re-download of the old version after we update)
mikelove said:
I'm just going to throw this out there, no idea if it'd be a real problem or not. But, If your doing this a lot, given that there are already a few comments about the complexity of the settings, its probably worth hiding options like these under some global switch (e.g. "Enable old mode options.") which is off by default. A disclaimer that said features may or may not disapear sometime in the future might be a good idea as well. (Even if there were no plans to remove them. You ideally want new users to use the app the new way right?)
And on the same topic: (I didn't read through the rest of the thread so maybe nothing new.)
- An "Advanced mode" switch to reduce the number "rarely changed" options visible to new users. (not the functionality, just the options)
- In app help for the settings page. Brief descriptions, maybe w/ images to help explain what does what. Not as descriptive as the manual.
sandwich said:
That's the plan, actually - however, we'll put that in a very prominent location (e.g. the top of the sidebar) for people upgrading from the old version, with the ability to remove it from the sidebar if they don't need it.
sandwich said:
That's been requested a few times - honestly I'd rather just get rid of a lot of these options for everybody; if there are a few that turn out to have been popular we can always reintroduce those, but there's a bunch of stuff in there now that's very difficult to justify keeping any longer. In general I'm not wild about an "advanced mode" because if it's not really obvious how to turn it on (which would defeat the whole point) we'll inevitably get masses of support email asking why this option that appears on somebody's friend's iPhone isn't available on theirs; however, we could certainly do a better job of burying advanced options in other ways, e.g. burying them in their own "Advanced Settings" subscreens.
sandwich said:
Working on that, though it'll probably be more like a couple of lines of text below the option rather than a dedicated help page for it.
Trickyt57
秀才
Feature Request 1:
I would really like a notepad-like function. The clipboard doesn't work well because it overwrites every time I "cut". I would use it in class as the teacher often puts phrases on the blackboard, that I would like to review later in Pleco. Of course I could use my iPad's Notes app, but that's not easily integrated into Pleco.
Feature request 2:
When I write a character wrongly in the flascards, would it be possible to not only tell me the correct character, but also tell me what I actually wrote?
Feature Request 3:
Optional 30 second timeout for flash cards (marked as wrong, if not answered correctly within 30 secs.)
I would really like a notepad-like function. The clipboard doesn't work well because it overwrites every time I "cut". I would use it in class as the teacher often puts phrases on the blackboard, that I would like to review later in Pleco. Of course I could use my iPad's Notes app, but that's not easily integrated into Pleco.
Feature request 2:
When I write a character wrongly in the flascards, would it be possible to not only tell me the correct character, but also tell me what I actually wrote?
Feature Request 3:
Optional 30 second timeout for flash cards (marked as wrong, if not answered correctly within 30 secs.)
1) That's already supported through our Text File Reader, actually - create a new text file (New File command in File Browser) and open it and you can tap on the pencil icon edit it.
2) It should be doing that now, actually - isn't that character appearing in the red box at the top of the screen? Tapping on the red box should bring you to that character's dictionary entry.
3) Good idea, thanks.
2) It should be doing that now, actually - isn't that character appearing in the red box at the top of the screen? Tapping on the red box should bring you to that character's dictionary entry.
3) Good idea, thanks.
It would be nice if it were possible to play example sentences via TTS while studying flashcards.
Currently, most of my interaction with Pleco is not looking up words but learning vocabulary. With new words, I often do not remember the exact meaning and cycle through dictionaries to read the example sentences. It would be nice if I could play the sentences in this moment, just to practice listening too.
Just the same TTS button as in the dictionary would do it. Or did I overlook a setting already doing this?
Currently, most of my interaction with Pleco is not looking up words but learning vocabulary. With new words, I often do not remember the exact meaning and cycle through dictionaries to read the example sentences. It would be nice if I could play the sentences in this moment, just to practice listening too.
Just the same TTS button as in the dictionary would do it. Or did I overlook a setting already doing this?
Feature request #372 
Be able to bring up the dictionary from within the document reader, quickly look up a word (or three) which is not in the document, then dismiss the dictionary and be right back in the reader; i.e. save two clicks and two scans of the function menu. Here's what happens for me; I'm reading a historical document in the reader, and then I want to read a comment on the text (for which I don't have the electronic version, just a pdf containing text plus commentary) but then there is a char I don't know in the commentary. To look it up I need to hit Qian (i.e menu trigram symbol), scan listing for Dictionary, click Dictionary, look up the word, Qian, scan listing for reader, click doc I'm reading. Lots of clicking and scanning. I'd like another symbol atop the reader page (along with the existing five) that immediately launches the dictionary atop the document in the reader in which you are able to look up a brand new character not in the text itself, and then when done with the dictionary use "<" to dismiss the dictionary (just like when you are several deep looking up chars that do exist in the document) and be back in the reader. Possible?
Be able to bring up the dictionary from within the document reader, quickly look up a word (or three) which is not in the document, then dismiss the dictionary and be right back in the reader; i.e. save two clicks and two scans of the function menu. Here's what happens for me; I'm reading a historical document in the reader, and then I want to read a comment on the text (for which I don't have the electronic version, just a pdf containing text plus commentary) but then there is a char I don't know in the commentary. To look it up I need to hit Qian (i.e menu trigram symbol), scan listing for Dictionary, click Dictionary, look up the word, Qian, scan listing for reader, click doc I'm reading. Lots of clicking and scanning. I'd like another symbol atop the reader page (along with the existing five) that immediately launches the dictionary atop the document in the reader in which you are able to look up a brand new character not in the text itself, and then when done with the dictionary use "<" to dismiss the dictionary (just like when you are several deep looking up chars that do exist in the document) and be back in the reader. Possible?
... However although 'long-press the ☰' does indeed flip over to the dictionary 'long-press ☰' again doesn't jump back to where you were in the reader unless you don't actually look up a char in the dictionary. If you do look up a char, it doesn't appear to take you back; it just displays the menu listing where you once again have to hit the current doc under 'Reader'. Also, if you have immediately looked up a char beforehand and the definition is displaying in the reader window, then the long press of ☰ doesn't do anything until you dismiss that definition... all it does is dismiss the definition, so you have to hit it 2X.
If I had a vote, I'd ask for a 6th button on the top. Love the app; use it daily.
If I had a vote, I'd ask for a 6th button on the top.
Love the app; use it daily.Very good! Because if you can't dismiss the keyboard, then you can't scan (much of) any substantial dictionary entry; just about the top 1/3 of the window in what might be a several full window dictionary entry, or you have to try and scroll in that small top 1/3 of the screen. :-(
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@laobaigou - Looks like this is actually just a bug; if you simply reopen the keyboard before you long-press the menu button it should jump you back to your previous screen correctly.
It'd be great if the score filter for an endless flashcard test was re-evaluated when each iteration of the test completes. This way, cards reaching a certain threshold could be eliminated while the test would go on with the remaining ones, until all cards reach the upper score limit and there are no cards left anymore.
I use a profile for learning new words where such a feature would be of great use. Right now the same effect can be achieved by setting the "Maximum number of cards" to "All" and re-running the test but making the test "Endless" and not having to relaunch it repeatedly would be much more convenient.
The profile is a score-based fill-in-the-blanks test that keeps asking me progressively more difficult questions (pron from audio, pron from chars, chars from pron, chars from defn, chars from audio). On correct answer, it adds +100 to the score, which moves me to the next question on next run, while an incorrect answer resets the score back to 100. Once the score for a card reaches 600, it is considered learned and should not appear in the test anymore. (I then move these cards to another category, which includes them in my repetition-spaced review schedule; a completely separate test with a separate scorefile.)
I use a profile for learning new words where such a feature would be of great use. Right now the same effect can be achieved by setting the "Maximum number of cards" to "All" and re-running the test but making the test "Endless" and not having to relaunch it repeatedly would be much more convenient.
The profile is a score-based fill-in-the-blanks test that keeps asking me progressively more difficult questions (pron from audio, pron from chars, chars from pron, chars from defn, chars from audio). On correct answer, it adds +100 to the score, which moves me to the next question on next run, while an incorrect answer resets the score back to 100. Once the score for a card reaches 600, it is considered learned and should not appear in the test anymore. (I then move these cards to another category, which includes them in my repetition-spaced review schedule; a completely separate test with a separate scorefile.)
I bring in a lot of text from the Chinese Text Project and the copy and paste brings it in along with the English language menu items, link titles, etc. It would be a really handy addition to the select all text dialog in edit mode to be able to remove all non-Chinese content. I would think it isn't difficult to code.
By the way, thanks for the switch Traditional/Simplified in there. Very handy.
Regards,
Chris Gait
By the way, thanks for the switch Traditional/Simplified in there. Very handy.
Regards,
Chris Gait
The simplified/traditional switch actually comes from Apple, not from us, though we're trying to figure out if there's a way we can tap into it via an API in other screens where it might be useful.
Select all also comes from them, but we might be able to add a custom item to that menu to remove all non-Chinese content - will investigate.
Select all also comes from them, but we might be able to add a custom item to that menu to remove all non-Chinese content - will investigate.
Two things:
- Transform variants into normal character for word lookup.
I am currently reading DeFrancis Reader scans and my finereader OCR (correctly, I think) recognized 說 as the the Kanji, so when I tap it Pleco will say it's the Japanese variant, but there are no words with that one. It would be useful if Pleco can convert it to the normal 說 so that I can expand the selection in the reader to look up the whole word.
- "soft" SRS
This might already be possible, but I am waiting for the big flashcard update to implement this. I am currently using the lyrics reader to go through sentences, and while it's more relaxing than flashcards I get the feeling that it could be more efficient if I wouldn't have to go through all the simple ones, too. So my idea was to have a SRS mode wich doesn't ask if I got a card correctly but instead I can say when I would like to see that card again. Something like: "Soon", "Sometime", "Never". In this mode there are no flashcards "due" or anything like that, you just do as many cards as you feel like and that's it. Some or maybe even most of the SRS efficiency gain would be lost but especially for sentences there is not always a clear right or wrong, and it would also enably the user to go through a large amount of cards without worrying about backlog in the future.
- Transform variants into normal character for word lookup.
I am currently reading DeFrancis Reader scans and my finereader OCR (correctly, I think) recognized 說 as the the Kanji, so when I tap it Pleco will say it's the Japanese variant, but there are no words with that one. It would be useful if Pleco can convert it to the normal 說 so that I can expand the selection in the reader to look up the whole word.
- "soft" SRS
This might already be possible, but I am waiting for the big flashcard update to implement this. I am currently using the lyrics reader to go through sentences, and while it's more relaxing than flashcards I get the feeling that it could be more efficient if I wouldn't have to go through all the simple ones, too. So my idea was to have a SRS mode wich doesn't ask if I got a card correctly but instead I can say when I would like to see that card again. Something like: "Soon", "Sometime", "Never". In this mode there are no flashcards "due" or anything like that, you just do as many cards as you feel like and that's it. Some or maybe even most of the SRS efficiency gain would be lost but especially for sentences there is not always a clear right or wrong, and it would also enably the user to go through a large amount of cards without worrying about backlog in the future.