Hi,
First of all: thanks for this nice product, I LOVE it.
I use Pleco for studying Chinese and use mainly the flashcards, but also all the other functionalities. During the last few weeks I wrote down some of the things that would be nice to have. However, I of course understand that sometimes they are not easy to implement, please just just use them as suggestions for further development:
1. I use the Reader functionality to study texts I entered myself before. It would be nice to have a read aloud function while following the characters. As far as I know I can so far click on each character separately and listen to the pronunciation, but nothing automatically that reads words step by step? I know that might sound a bit wired and not fluent at all, still would help a lot while scanning through the texts.
2. Also regarding the reader: is it possible to see the Chinese characters coloured depending on their tone? I have seen this in your flashcard section where you have used the different colours. It would be nice while studying a text to see the colours so that I can focus on the right pronunciation.
3. This has been mentioned before but I also would support flashcards with pictures. I think the visual aspect would make memorizing easier. You said it would take lots of MB due to high data volume, still would be nice to have simple, small pics attached in the flashcards maybe just for the most important words.
4. Also regarding the flashcards and also mentioned before: it would be nice to have the “stroke order test” type for words with more characters. I think the stroke order section is a great way to study the flashcards, however if half of the flashcards are not available (as they consist of two or more characters) it significantly reduces its usage. If you can't let them test together, maybe there is some option to split them somehow so that the user tests separately or something (no idea whether this works or whether it is useful)
5. Is it possible to use the “stroke order” test type and somehow show the translation somewhere? So far I see a character, memorize the stroke order but often don't remember the translation. In this case I have to go to “Edit”, then “Card Info”, then go back, etc. etc.
6. If I study the words the first time I just use the test type “Review only”. Is it possible to somehow not only directly print the characters but also let them “draw” according to the stroke order (like you also have in the dictionary section)? If you don’t only look at the character when it is prompted directly but see (and memorize) how it is drawn I think that would help me studying the words more easily.
7. Last but not least: a widget would be nice for example with “flashcard of the day” which shows some flashcards out of a predetermined list for memorizing on that day. I know, I know, I start dreaming now ;-)
OK, I know that was really a lot, just ran across those things from time to time. Maybe some of that is already possible but I just don’t know how. Thanks in advance, please continue your great work.
Marco
First of all: thanks for this nice product, I LOVE it.
I use Pleco for studying Chinese and use mainly the flashcards, but also all the other functionalities. During the last few weeks I wrote down some of the things that would be nice to have. However, I of course understand that sometimes they are not easy to implement, please just just use them as suggestions for further development:
1. I use the Reader functionality to study texts I entered myself before. It would be nice to have a read aloud function while following the characters. As far as I know I can so far click on each character separately and listen to the pronunciation, but nothing automatically that reads words step by step? I know that might sound a bit wired and not fluent at all, still would help a lot while scanning through the texts.
2. Also regarding the reader: is it possible to see the Chinese characters coloured depending on their tone? I have seen this in your flashcard section where you have used the different colours. It would be nice while studying a text to see the colours so that I can focus on the right pronunciation.
3. This has been mentioned before but I also would support flashcards with pictures. I think the visual aspect would make memorizing easier. You said it would take lots of MB due to high data volume, still would be nice to have simple, small pics attached in the flashcards maybe just for the most important words.
4. Also regarding the flashcards and also mentioned before: it would be nice to have the “stroke order test” type for words with more characters. I think the stroke order section is a great way to study the flashcards, however if half of the flashcards are not available (as they consist of two or more characters) it significantly reduces its usage. If you can't let them test together, maybe there is some option to split them somehow so that the user tests separately or something (no idea whether this works or whether it is useful)
5. Is it possible to use the “stroke order” test type and somehow show the translation somewhere? So far I see a character, memorize the stroke order but often don't remember the translation. In this case I have to go to “Edit”, then “Card Info”, then go back, etc. etc.
6. If I study the words the first time I just use the test type “Review only”. Is it possible to somehow not only directly print the characters but also let them “draw” according to the stroke order (like you also have in the dictionary section)? If you don’t only look at the character when it is prompted directly but see (and memorize) how it is drawn I think that would help me studying the words more easily.
7. Last but not least: a widget would be nice for example with “flashcard of the day” which shows some flashcards out of a predetermined list for memorizing on that day. I know, I know, I start dreaming now ;-)
OK, I know that was really a lot, just ran across those things from time to time. Maybe some of that is already possible but I just don’t know how. Thanks in advance, please continue your great work.
Marco