Reader: "Scratch pad" and in-line bopomofo (注音)

etm001

状元
Hi,

Just a few enhancements I'd love to see in Reader:
  • "Scratch pad"
    • Desired functionality: same as available in the flashcard module, i.e. I can click the 字 button and write characters on screen. All screen real estate available for writing, excluding top menu bar. An semi-opaque layer overlays on top of the text in the Reader, so as to be able to clearly see what I'm writing on screen.
    • Benefit: quickly writing an unfamiliar word a few times helps me to better remember it.
  • In-line bopomofo
    • Desired functionality: display bopomofo in-line with text in the Reader. Be able to select from which dictionary (or dictionaries, in preferred order) pronunciations are derived.
    • Benefit: helps me quickly determine the pronunciation of unknown words.
I think the "scratch pad" functionality would have universal appeal. In-line bomopofo admittedly appeals to a smaller audience, but anyone who has read a book with in-line bopomofo (typically books for children/juveniles) can appreciate how quick and efficient it is. (I'll also note that, thus far, every book I've read with in-line bopomofo has vertically oriented text, with bopomofo in-line on the right of the Chinese characters. I'm not sure how well, or common, in-line bopomofo works with left-right printed text). Finally, the ability to select which dictionary to use to determine pronunciation is really important, as I would want to use pronunciations from the Taiwanese MOE dictionary (which is available as a user installable dictionary via these forums).
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Thanks.

A few people have asked for a scratch pad there, but it's kind of tough to find toolbar space for some of these things, particularly with us wanting to reserve a little space for new features we might add in the future. And a scratch pad in particular doesn't seem like something for which being 2 or 3 taps away would be sufficient - really need a button right there.

Inline pronunciation requires us to come up with a better text segmenter and a better system for picking the right pronunciation in ambiguous cases like 得 - both things we're working on, though.
 

etm001

状元
Inline pronunciation requires us to come up with a better text segmenter and a better system for picking the right pronunciation in ambiguous cases like 得 - both things we're working on, though.

I've been working in reader a lot lately and wanted to add a variation to this request: if you are at an intermediate/advanced level, you might only want to display inline pinyin/bopomofo for just a select few words (i.e., words you don't know). Displaying pinyin/bopomofo for just those words would be great. (Presumably the user would highlight/indicate the words in the text for which they want pinyin/bopomofo displayed).

Taking this even further (probably into fantasyland), it would be cool if Pleco took a flashcard database/score file as input and automatically displayed pinyin/bopomofo for words that have a low score, have not been reviewed in a long time, or which are considered unlearned. This could work well for material that is meant to be paired with a vocabulary list (for which you have a flashcard set).
 
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