E dictionary

you can view the pdf as a text file also by clicking on text file at the bottom of the page in the footnotes or by changing the URL to .html instead of .pdf

roll-overs work on the text file I believe.

Thanks RJ. Since my last post, I started trying out MDBG Reader trial version. It seems very good so far. I will probably buy it. It doesn't seem to give pop-up translations when I hover over my CPod PDFs though. Guess I can just view the transcripts on a given CPod lesson page and get pop-up translations that way.

thanks RJ, I think I can handle 24MB.

Well I remember the actual site from which I downloaded the setup file was hard to find. I kept the setup file and have been using that to transfer to various computers. The setup file name I have is:

powerwordlite25269.3011.exe

I would send it to you but it is 24 MB. I will see if I can find the website again. And you are correct,, it is all in Chinese but the install is easy once you figure out how to get the executable file. Kingsoft word is made for Chinese learning English (so some of the English definitions have choices with a decidedly British slant to them. A bit ridiculous for Chinese learning English for the first time) but it works well for us too. I have had the full blown version before, and I still have the 2005 version somewhere on a CD but this one takes care of all my needs as far as I can tell. The only thing I miss from the CD version is the audio. It does sound out the words so I may dig it out someday and re-load it. I just didn't bother when I replaced a couple computers recently.

this may help you. Finding a site that makes it easy to download the exe file is the trick.hehe they are mostly in chinese. Here are some instructions and a link to a download page. Powerlite is a joint venture with google btw.

http://www.wreac.org/study/253-language-tech-powerword-lite?start=2

RJ,

Hey I like the sound of this free Kingsoft lite. I think Mandarin popup is another one that works outside a browser but it wasn't free and it slowed down my computer every startup.

I guess this is the Kingsoft you're referring to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsoft_FastAIT

..right? ..and there actual site:

http://www.kingsoft.com/

..being all in Chinese I still find downloading and installing not for the faint hearted. Do you have a link for the best place to download this kingsoft lite and was it all in Chinese? was it hard to install?

Well, in Firefox I use "IM translator", "words pop up Chinese dictionary", and even "perakun" at times. IM even has audio. In Internet explorer I use "live search." In Chrome I use "multilingual translator" and "zhongwen popup dictionary". The point is that each browser has multple "add-ons" (firefox), "accelerators" (IE), or "extensions" (chrome). There are several translators available for free and they all can be added from the browser toolbars. Each has its own best features but they all work pretty well. Outside of a browser you have to cut and paste into something like babel fish or google translate. Loading kingsoft (kingsoft lite is free) will allow you to translate individual words by roll-over in email, word or whatever. PDF may be a challenge. Im sure there are more.

sorry RJ, I forgot. You can use radical look up in iced. I need to play with it more too.

calkins,

That's awesome, thanks mate. I'm not sure about the tap feature [ sounds good as long as it's not too sensitive and makes things disappear when you don't want them to...I guess I'll just have to try and see...and I guess you wouldn't be happy with that feature either if it had a tendency to do that]. The better character recognition and being able to look up via radicals offline sound like cool selling features.

Hey guys, Pleco's CR does use the whole screen (I think this might be only in the paid version though), and you don't need to get the stroke order perfect. Actually, there is an option to have it recognize cursive. My Taiwanese friend has used it, writing cursive that I couldn't make out in a million years, and Pleco had no problem understanding it.

One other cool feature that I love when using the full-screen CR, is that you can write over existing dictionary entries or flashcards. For instance, if you're editing a card (which I do often), you can open the card and write on top of the hanzi or English. It's pretty amazing.

Oh oh, one more cool thing which I love (ha ha!) is the double-finger-tap feature. If you're writing a character and you screwed up, or just want to start over, use your thumb and index finger, tap the screen, and your writing disappears. Doesn't sound that great, but really useful.

Oh, and you can look up using radicals.

Baba, I owe you an email! 等我一下...

Hey, one thing that would be cool is if pleco can look up via radicals. I don't know for sure, but I don't think this can be done with iced and I'm pretty sure it can be done with pleco. I can always go online on the iphone and use mdbg, but doing this offline is much more fangbian.

when I get a chance to play, I will send you my critique and compare the two.

I was going to mention that I thought I'd heard pleco uses the whole screen. These screens aren't that big to start with so that could be a definite advantage. I'm also interested in how the character recognition software compares. I guess pleco is also stroke order sensitive, right?

You're right. I-touch settings made the difference. In fact there is a section on "iced" settings. I need to spend some time in the itouch settings function it seems. I have paid money for something I could have had for free. I just assumed all the settings would be inside the iced app itself. I do notice one difference right away, the pleco function allows use of the entire screen to draw on. Much bigger. Thanks for the tip mate.

I just googled for you and it looks like it should be available on itouch. Click on settings...general...keyboard...international ..then click on Chinese ...simplified and or traditional. I hope you have these options. good luck.

No world symbol on mine. Perhaps the itouch is a little different. Pleco works but I had to pay for it. Sorry, cant compare the two. Pleco seems to be about the same as MDBG. For me its always a function of my lousy artwork. Once I draw it decent its there.

btw, this ability to input the hanzi seems to come from the iphone itself rather than iced because it is the same input that is used in email, sms, notes etc. Still iced can then deal with the hanzi imput. I guess I'm really wanting to know how the iphones character recognition [which is similar I guess to online character recognition like in mdbg] compares with pleco's.

Ok mate, I'll step you through it. Click on the iced icon to open it. If this hasn't taken you straight to search then click on search down the bottom left. Now up the top to the left of the search field is the symbol for how your looking it up. I'm guessing you've been entering English words and finding out the Chinese. If I'm right then the symbol should be 英。 If you tap on that it changes to 拼 for pinyin imput, and if you tap again it changes to 汉 for entering Hanzi. Now down the bottom left of your screen 2nd from the left is a world symbol. Click on that twice till most of the bottom of your screen is blank and waiting for you to draw the characters with your finger. This is how it works on an iphone at least. I'm hoping it's the same on an itouch. Let me know how you go. Good luck. :)

My iced does not, unless Im missing something. If the free version of iced allows you to draw characters, then you need to teach me how to do it. :-)

Thanks RJ. Iced lets you draw the characters to look them up too. I'm guessing the pleco one is better though?

well, as I said, the version of the actual dictionary I use from pleco is free. They have a more extensive one that is not free but I havent seen the need. If I cant find in pleco I look in iced or vice versa. This has served me well. The pleco add-on that I use allows defining drawn characters (skritter style) on the itouch. This is not free but much cheaper than buying the whole pleco package to get this. To me this is important. When you are on the street in China and see a character you dont know, this is the only way to look it up. Calkins raved about the pleco package, which contained this feature, the dictionary, and a flashcard function with SRS. Back then I think you had to buy all or none, and he was happy with all of it, but now (at least for the itouch/iphone) you can buy separate functions if you like. Take a look at the iphone apps in the app store under pleco and they give descriptions. I am happy with what I have so I dont want to pay for things I wont use or already do elesewhere such as flashcards.

oh, well RJ, you're the perfect one to ask then. I have "iced" and it has served me well. I haven't worked out yet what Pleco has over "iced" and thus why I should fork out. Everyone from Calkins onwards has raved about Pleco so my feeling is that it is better, but I'd like to know the advantages first. What do you reckon? [ I know others have spelled out the advantages before, but I haven't worked out whether those advantages are covered in iced or not...it's a time thing I guess...I haven't got around to sussing either out properly and so far iced hasn't let me down. ]

Pleco is the one...their iPhone app is not cheap, but it's the best