Multiple Word Seach/Translation

[Troc]

Sorry if this question is a repeat. Didn't see it being asked in the forum or addressed in the manual.

Is there any way to have a string of Chinese characters translated word for word? When I do this right now, I only get the definition of the first word or couple of words that match with an entry in the dictionary. I don't get all the words translated at once, so what I do is delete the ones that are translated and then let Pleco translate the next character until I'm done.

Would be nice to have all words translated and have the english words displayed in the same sequence as the characters. Sentence may not make sense, but would not be an issue for me.

I have the professional version running on a Treo 650. Love the software. I live/work in Shanghai and use Pleco every day.

Regards,
Troc

 

[AJ]

If I understand your question correctly . . . .

I don't have a particularly thorough understanding of Pleco's search capabilities, but I don't believe there is any current way to achieve the results you are seeking.

Pleco will search the characters you input as a string only for matching entries. If you put in a multiple character string, it's going to search for a dictionary entry of that multiple character string including partial matches of single or multiple characters at the front of that string. Ultimately, what Pleco returns is dependent on what entries are available in the dictionary(ies) you have loaded.

The kind of results you are seeking would seem to be more akin to a translation function. Something like the result you would get from Alta Vista's Babel Fish. Since you are running from a Treo, perhaps you might try to achieve the results you want from their site, though I have no idea how mobile friendly it is.

That kind of function could be quite interesting to have as a preference / mode setting in Pleco however.

 

[mikelove]

We've gotten a few requests for a feature like this, actually, and we're planning to incorporate something a little like it into the document reader we're working on for Pleco 2.0 - you can quickly bring a string of text into the document reader (loading it from a Memo record or PalmDoc file or pasting it from the clipboard) and then tap on words in it in succession to bring up their definitions in a pane at the bottom of the screen.

As for giving single-word translations, though, I'm afraid there's nothing like that currently in the pipeline - doing it well would indeed involve a full-fledged translator like AJ describes, since words in Chinese can have many different meanings depending on context and it's difficult if not impossible to map an arbitrary word in Chinese to a corresponding word in English.

 

[stirra]

This is exactly what we need! We use this kind of feature all the
time in Wenlin, and have been wishing PlecoDict had it.

You mention copying Chinese text from a Memo record. How do
you do this? I've tried, unsuccessfully, to paste characters from
Pleco into a Memo or a Note. I'd like to create some phrases I
can show when my fractured Mandarin is not understood.

-- Ralph

 

[Troc]

All thanks for your feedback.

AJ, I have a shortcut to Babel Fish on my Treo brower which I use to translate long messages. Just trying to minimize my data transfer costs by doing it via Pleco.

Mike. looking forward to 2.0.

Ralph, For phrases that I have a hard time remembering, I add them to my Pleco Chinese USR dictionary. Input the characters, pingyin & your english translation. Then when I need it, I list out all my USR dictionary terms and pick the one I need to show or say to someone. Work great for me when I have to tell a driver the Chinese name of a building I want to go to or when I forgot what Diet Coke or certain brands of beer are called.

 

[hairyleprechaun]

I agree, I think it would be a great feature to have. I understand it must be very difficult to implement a translator function, though that would be a great feature to strive for in the future. However, even if the string just showed the pinyin (pronunciations) for the string of characters, without translating at all, that would still be a usefull feature for many of us.

Looking forward to an update on the progress of Plecodict 2.0

Darrol

 

[mikelove]

stirra - what happens when you try to copy-and-paste text from PlecoDict? Does it show up as gibberish or does it not paste anything at all? If it's gibberish, do you have a Chinese display system installed on your Palm? If not, you'll need one in order to display Chinese characters correctly in Memo - the most popular one is called CJKOS and is available at http://www.dyts.com/.

There's still not much to report on 2.0, but a couple of things that we've been waiting on all summer are finally starting to come together, so hopefully within another month or so we'll be able to provide more detailed information about release dates, pricing, upgrade policies, and so forth.

 

[stirra]

Mike,

I've now installed CJKOS, and I can paste characters into Memo,
but unfortunately, it isn't the character I selected. I suspect
a GB2312/BIG5 or some such encoding problem, so I'll play some
more with the CJKOS installation to see if I can make it work.

Thanks again for a great product, great support, and the promise
of more to come!

-- Ralph