[Unofficial] Feature Request / Suggestion List
- Thread starter Weyland
- Start date
Shun
状元
Flashcards: Component character hint
I have a feature idea for a post-4.0 version. When studying multi-syllable words in the English-Chinese direction in Flashcards, in addition to showing the English meaning, Pleco could show the English meanings (and only the English meanings, without any Chinese characters that give away the solution) of all the constituent characters as a hint.
For example: Instead of/in addition to displaying "telephone; phone" when asking for 电话, Pleco could display "electricity" and "word; talk" for 电 and 话, if we assume that the user didn't know the solution for the composite word. The user is then expected to enter "电话". Especially for more advanced vocabulary, I imagine this could be a winning way of giving the user a hint when they need it, making them use the knowledge they probably already have and strengthening their sense for how Chinese words are composed.
For such special app behaviors, what may be ideal for a post-4.0 release of Pleco is a simple scripting language that would allow users to automate various operations in Pleco—such as the one above—and share their scripts with other users.
Maybe there are even more elegant ways of achieving this effect, I just wanted to bounce this idea off the forums. Do others also feel such a feature would help their studying in a productive way?
Cheers,
Shun
I have a feature idea for a post-4.0 version. When studying multi-syllable words in the English-Chinese direction in Flashcards, in addition to showing the English meaning, Pleco could show the English meanings (and only the English meanings, without any Chinese characters that give away the solution) of all the constituent characters as a hint.
For example: Instead of/in addition to displaying "telephone; phone" when asking for 电话, Pleco could display "electricity" and "word; talk" for 电 and 话, if we assume that the user didn't know the solution for the composite word. The user is then expected to enter "电话". Especially for more advanced vocabulary, I imagine this could be a winning way of giving the user a hint when they need it, making them use the knowledge they probably already have and strengthening their sense for how Chinese words are composed.
For such special app behaviors, what may be ideal for a post-4.0 release of Pleco is a simple scripting language that would allow users to automate various operations in Pleco—such as the one above—and share their scripts with other users.
Maybe there are even more elegant ways of achieving this effect, I just wanted to bounce this idea off the forums. Do others also feel such a feature would help their studying in a productive way?
Cheers,
Shun
Last edited:
jurgen85
榜眼
On my keyboard you can hold down the number keys for a short period to enter superscripts like ⁰¹²³⁴. Sometimes I do this on accident, and it can take a while to notice what went wrong with the search. Could the search engine treat superscript numbers like normal numbers? (this could possibly be useful for some fringe copy-paste searching too)
I realize this might fall under the overheating spacebar user error category but I also don't see any harm. In fact, why not throw subscripts in there too for good measure!
I realize this might fall under the overheating spacebar user error category but I also don't see any harm. In fact, why not throw subscripts in there too for good measure!
Arqui3D
举人
Reading speed statistics
Hi! Please add this one, if it hasn't been added already.
The following stats could keep you motivated to develop the habit of reading more:
-Minutes in chapter and minutes left in book, similar to Kindle.
-Reading speed per day.
-Dictionary lookups per thousand characters, per day.
Lately I've been practicing touch typing on a website, and the stats keep me going! I think Pleco could do something similar.
Hi! Please add this one, if it hasn't been added already.
The following stats could keep you motivated to develop the habit of reading more:
-Minutes in chapter and minutes left in book, similar to Kindle.
-Reading speed per day.
-Dictionary lookups per thousand characters, per day.
Lately I've been practicing touch typing on a website, and the stats keep me going! I think Pleco could do something similar.
Not currently supported, but certainly possible as a potential 4.1 or later feature - speed calculations are a little dicey though given that an awful lot of the content people read in Pleco is transient stuff in the clip reader / web reader / OCR / etc and not just all easily trackable e-books.
Arqui3D
举人
Hi, Mike. Thanks for your reply. That's what I was thinking about: e-books. Both native Pleco e-books and epub/txt files loaded by the user.
This would benefit sales of Pleco e-books, because people would have extra motivation to finish a book, and after finishing one, they'll want more.
Shun
状元
Hello Mike,
I have a relatively simple feature request.
When studying a very large flashcard category using Fixed card selection (i.e., using fixed ordering), I think it would be nice to have a way to jump to a particular card number in the current test set—for example, to card number 800 of 2,371 cards. This would be useful when I actually write my answers on a piece of paper and use Pleco only for additional lookups regarding the sentences I have written on paper, in either Self-graded or Review mode. The sentences on paper are numbered from 1 to 2,371, and they are in the same order as in the Pleco flashcard category.
So that feature would easily allow me to continue where I left off on a previous test session. Right now, I would do it with split categories or a time filter, though it would certainly be much simpler if direct jumps were possible.
Might this type of functionality already be implemented for version 4.0? If not, perhaps a tap-hold on the card number indicator to bring up a card number input dialog box would do?
Thanks!
Shun
I have a relatively simple feature request.
When studying a very large flashcard category using Fixed card selection (i.e., using fixed ordering), I think it would be nice to have a way to jump to a particular card number in the current test set—for example, to card number 800 of 2,371 cards. This would be useful when I actually write my answers on a piece of paper and use Pleco only for additional lookups regarding the sentences I have written on paper, in either Self-graded or Review mode. The sentences on paper are numbered from 1 to 2,371, and they are in the same order as in the Pleco flashcard category.
So that feature would easily allow me to continue where I left off on a previous test session. Right now, I would do it with split categories or a time filter, though it would certainly be much simpler if direct jumps were possible.
Might this type of functionality already be implemented for version 4.0? If not, perhaps a tap-hold on the card number indicator to bring up a card number input dialog box would do?
Thanks!
Shun
Last edited:
Shun
状元
It definitely would! Thank you!
LeonardoM
进士
Hello Shun,
I could not but notice your screenshot, and I asked myself: "how does he practice with sentences-like flashcards??"
I use Pleco mostly for learning characters using flashcard system, but i never encountered a sentence. May I ask how you do that?
Shun
状元
Hi LeonardoM,
sure! I suggest that you import the flashcards from this post:
This is possible because Pleco's flashcards system is so flexible already now, and will become even more so with version 4.0. The only thing you cannot do is use a Fill-in-the-blanks test, because that is of course limited to at most four characters, but you usually don't get sentences perfectly right, anyway, so it does not matter that much. You can use Self-graded and write the sentences on paper/your tablet instead. You can also try these flashcards:
I like to study using sentences because it not only trains your vocab, but also your knowledge of word usage, sentence structure, and finer grammar points. When you discover any new pattern while studying, I suggest that you write down separately what you found out, so you're more likely to do it right when you encounter a similar sentence later on, consolidating what you've learned.
Hope this helps, enjoy,
Shun
sure! I suggest that you import the flashcards from this post:
Randomly Ordered Sentences Game
Dear all, dear @leguan, I've just had a promising idea for a new way of learning sentence structure using Pleco Flashcards and the Tatoeba sentences. It reminds me of similar questions in IQ tests. The game is simple: You are shown a sentence in your language and the corresponding Chinese...
plecoforums.com
This is possible because Pleco's flashcards system is so flexible already now, and will become even more so with version 4.0. The only thing you cannot do is use a Fill-in-the-blanks test, because that is of course limited to at most four characters, but you usually don't get sentences perfectly right, anyway, so it does not matter that much. You can use Self-graded and write the sentences on paper/your tablet instead. You can also try these flashcards:
79,000 Chinese-English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish sentences
Dear all, here is an archive containing translated Chinese sentences in the following language pairs, ready for importing into Pleco: Chinese-English 41,955 sentences Chinese-French 15,740 sentences Chinese-German 4,566 sentences Chinese-Italian 3,800 sentences...
plecoforums.com
I like to study using sentences because it not only trains your vocab, but also your knowledge of word usage, sentence structure, and finer grammar points. When you discover any new pattern while studying, I suggest that you write down separately what you found out, so you're more likely to do it right when you encounter a similar sentence later on, consolidating what you've learned.
Hope this helps, enjoy,
Shun
You mean like an arbitrary number instead of a multiple of 5 or whatever?
Yes, I mean an arbitrary number but a multiple of 5 would be ok too. Currently I can only choose from 5 to 200, "All" and "Endless".
Sorry, so you mean that you'd like to be able to pick something higher than 200 but less than "all"?
Yes, I'd like to pick for example 350 or 520, ...
Weyland
榜眼
Would be neat if I could hide the other characters set (traditional/simplified) when I review my flashcards. Currently, I have set my fonts such that 4 characters are able to fill the first line without overflowing, but whenever the traditional characters are shown in brackets after the simplified ones it messes up the layout.
Also recently, I've mostly been reviewing characters hands-off with an auto-clicker and it would be neat to have an indication of whether I have to scroll down further to see the entire dictionary entry.
Also recently, I've mostly been reviewing characters hands-off with an auto-clicker and it would be neat to have an indication of whether I have to scroll down further to see the entire dictionary entry.