Comments from another conversation, since I got a bit off topic:

greggs says
2 hours ago

calkins,

what is the "ZDT or PlecoDict"?  I am unfamiliar with these terms.

thanks

calkins says
21 minutes ago

Hi Gregg,

PlecoDict is an amazing dictionary/flashcard program for Palm OS and PocketPC handhelds (soon to work on iPhones as well). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It also has a great character handwriting recognition tool...excellent if you want to quickly look up a character that you don't know. 

There are many great features to this software, like importing your own vocabulary lists to add to the flashcards section (that's what I've added above).  Many here will swear by this software.  It will set you back a hundred (US) dollars or so, but it is invaluable.

 

ZDT is a free flashcard program that you can run on your computer.  It has lots of useful features.  There are a few similar programs out there, but this is the one I'm familiar with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If nothing else, I would highly recommend PlecoDict...there's nothing out there like it.

bababardwan says
11 minutes ago

calkins,

Thanks for explaining that 'cos like greggs I was wondering about it too ,and knew I should check it out as I think I saw it mentioned before on another post as well [by you I'm pretty sure].That PlecoDict looks supercool [particularly if you were in China on the move],but unfortunately I don't have any of the devices it runs on.Will content myself with checking out the ZDT in the meanwhile.Thanks also for sharing your vocabulary .txt files for these programmes.Champ!

calkins says
1 minute ago

bababardwan, no problem at all.  As far as not having a PDA, I actually went out and bought a Palm TX solely for the purpose of using Pleco.  Now I use the Palm for other things, but you can get a list of fairly inexpensive PDA's that will run Pleco here.  P.S. I'm not getting kickbacks from either of these companies (unfortunately!).

If you have PlecoDict, here is a great flashcard set with about 250 成语.  It goes great with version 2 and the new audio feature.  Enjoy!

Click here to download the zip file.

Good news for those who have been waiting for the iPhone version of Pleco.  The following is from Michael Love, the owner of Pleco:
 
Greetings,
 
I'm delighted to announce that after almost a year in development, the
iPhone (and iPod Touch) version of our Chinese dictionary software is
finally available.
 
Flashcards aren't included yet (those will be coming in early 2010), nor
are user-created dictionaries (should be coming soon too), but pretty
much every other major feature from our Palm and Windows Mobile software
is now on iPhone, and there are some great new ones like a fullscreen /
multitouch handwriting recognizer interface, a much simpler registration
/ unlocking system, a heavily souped-up document reader, and easier
lookups of Chinese words in dictionary entries.
 
And better still, most of your purchased Pleco dictionaries / add-ons
can actually be transferred over to iPhone / iPod Touch for FREE; the
only exceptions are stroke order diagrams (which we licensed from a
different company for our iPhone version; you can repurchase them on
your iPhone) and the Oxford dictionary (which we haven't yet licensed
for iPhone at all). And the Pleco iPhone app itself is a free download
(taking advantage of Apple's new policy of letting free apps sell paid
add-ons and upgrades), so you may literally end up paying nothing at all
to switch to the iPhone / iPod version.
 
For product information and a download link, see:
 
http://www.pleco.com/pleco2ip.html