Trick to get water radical recognized

H

Han Fei

Member
It's probably just my handwriting, which is now horrible in three languages (English, Russian, Chinese), but when I enter the water radical on the left side of a character in Plecodict I have a low success rate of getting it recognized. I've finally found a trick that works. Write the top two dots as usual, then, instead of the long stroke with a hookback at the end, write a backwards 'Ren2' person radical (a downslanted short stroke on top of a long straight up and down stroke). This is recognized as the water radical nearly 100%.

There are other characters that give me a lot of trouble (which is why I always have a 4-corner dictionary with me).

Anybody have other tricks for difficult characters?
 
H

hairyleprechaun

状元
I haven't had any problems with the water radical being recognized. However I find that when I write characters with the shu4xin1pang2 (vertical heart radical on the left side of characters), even though I am writing the characters with the proper stroke order, it tends to be difficult to get them to show up in the prediction field. Usually what happens is that characters with the dan1ren2pang2 or shuang1ren2pang2 show up instead. I have checked my stroke order books and I am sure that they are being written in the correct order. Any thoughts on this Mike?

I am using the windows mobile version (WM5) on an HP iPAQ hx2495.
 
K

koreth

榜眼
For what it's worth, the left-side 心 radical gives me trouble too; I'm using the Palm version. For example, no matter how carefully I write it, I am unable to make 慢 (man4 slow) appear as the first match, though it's usually the second or third. Occasionally I'll have to write a character a few times before it appears in the list of matches.
 
G

gato

状元
For example, no matter how carefully I write it, I am unable to make 慢 (man4 slow) appear as the first match, though it's usually the second or third.
Click to expand...
It showed up as the first character for me on a Treo 650. Can you upload a picture of your writing?
 
K

koreth

榜眼
Sure, here's one that came up as the second choice. I'm not a master calligrapher by any stretch, but I don't think it's that unclear.
 
G

gato

状元
It looks ok.

I see you are using the full-screen handwriting mode. What if you tap on the "笔" icon and use the dedicated handwriting mode? That's what I'm using, and I write fairly sloppily.
 
K

koreth

榜眼
Interesting. It works much better with the smaller area. Didn't even think to try that. I wonder why -- I'd think a bigger character would give less ambiguous data to the recognizer.
 
R

redpixel

秀才
imho it seems that the hand-writing recognizer is made for "real" hand-writing, and not stroke by stroke laowai hand-writing. :D

It usually works better for me to write a bit sloppily, not bothering to lift the pen between two strokes and so on, than writing it perfectly stroke by stroke. I'm no expert at chinese hand-writing but I guess that for example the xin radical might be written in just 2 strokes, a little hook and then a vertical stroke or sth... :)

I think having the right strokes matters a lot too, for example going bottom-to-top vs. top-to-bottom will make a big difference in what results you'll see.
 
J

johnh113

榜眼
xin radical

Dear Reader,

I've never had a problem with the 心 left side radical. I do however use the smaller handwriting input screen, and I do the little left and right strokes first and then the long vertical stroke.

The character that I can never get is 心. I have to input that one many times and still not get a recognition. I usually give up and go to pinyin input instead. Anyone else have trouble with this character, or have a handwriting input method for this character?

John
 
H

hairyleprechaun

状元
Hello John,

As for the 心 character not being recognized, I have never had that problem, even when I write it very quickly and rather sloppily. Just out of curiosity, which order do you write the strokes in? I first write the 左点 ， then I write the 卧钩， and finally the last two 点‘s， starting with the center one and then finishing with the one on the right.

I am using the pocket PC version of the software and writing in full screen mode. I don't use the handwriting recognizer screen.

Good luck!

Darrol
 
J

johnh113

榜眼
Dear hairyleprechaun,

Yes, that's the order I write the strokes, from left to right across the character. Usually the recognizer gives me a 必instead. If I try many times, the 必is most frequent and the 心comes up once in a while.

I'm using the small recognizer screen on the bottom left, and I'm on an old Palm.

John
 
H

Henry

进士
Cool, I'm glad to see this topic!

I was also getting 必 every time I wanted to write 心, for a while I resorted to writing an extra stroke at the far right- for some reason this would bring up the heart character :? ... but recently I figured out a better way, when you are drawing the first stroke (the short one on the left side) make sure it swoops down and to the left....

Sorry, I dunno how to post a picture, but give it a try to see if it works!

Henry
 
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