ZDT: Most annoying things about the ZDT

[jbradfor]

simon_w, are you using the latest version? [0.7.0] Chris worked very hard to improve the import feature (at my nagging....) and addresses most of your concerns.

(一) This is not quite correct. There does seem to be some words that it won't import (all of which are not in the dictionary), but I've gotten it to import words that aren't in the dictionary. If you can, find some words it won't import and send to Chris -- I'm hoping the more people nag him about this the sooner he'll fix it for me :-)

(二) It will import tab-delimited files -- I know because I do it all the time. You need to, when importing files, ensure that "Import Format" is "custom', then click on 'next" from the first screen, and set the values accordingly.

[simon_w]

Hi jbradfor,

Thanks for your advice/clarifications.

(一) Fair enough - I made an inappropriate inductive step! I have a list of half-a-dozen or more already, and I not an advanced student of Chinese by any stretch...!

(二) Again, maybe it's just me then. I fiddled for a while using Excel and OOo Calc to reformat my files to see what I could get to work, and I couldn't get anything to work except for semi-colon delimiting. I actually had exactly the same experience using Ubuntu as on Windows, so I had to port my vbs to python...!

I'll see if I can see what's causing my problem, and I'll post some info if I can. I have no experience with eclipse, except for a brief spell using it as a php IDE, but I didn't like it for that purpose! However, maybe it's time I gave it another spin...

Thanks!

Simon

[bogleg]

Hi Simon,

Send me the lists you're having a problem with and I'll take a look at what's going on. (fongcn at gmail dot com). One of the things ZDT tries to do is look up the traditional characters (if you're importing simplified only), and if it can't find it in the dictionary, it will complain. Should it be so strict? Or should ZDT be more flexible and allow "incomplete" entries? I'm curious to know.

Chris

[jbradfor]

Simon, if you like post a small example of a tab-delimited file and I'll check if I can see if anything is wrong.

For what it's worth (very little....), the files I import are created as follows. I created them the MS Word, with format

character pinyin def

and save them in Unicode format. When I go to import them I set Input Format to "custom" and file encoding to "UTF-16". Then I click on next, set input format to "T P D", element delimiter to "tab", and def delimiter to "nothing". You should see things showup correctly in the preview section.

[Luobot]

should ZDT be more flexible and allow "incomplete" entries? I'm curious to know.

Yes.

Why not allow it if the user elects it as an optional (global) override?

It might be good to see a little symbol on that row indicating that the questionable entry was entered via the override. That might inspire the user to do further research to determine if the entry is invalid (in which case, he can delete it) or valid, but just not yet in the dictionary.

The default could still be the current behavior.

[maku777]

I'm a new user and found ZDT at this webpage: http://www.pleco.com/dictaddons.html . I have pleco and am getting ready to start Chinese language study using the Chinese Made Easier (CME) books. I downloaded the complete set of flashcards for CME from the above website link as well.

The flashcard files appear to already be in tab delimited format. I went through and deleted the //Lesson #'s out of the file, but am having difficulties successfully importing these flashcards into ZDT.

I have now deleted everything but just one lesson which has 33 vocabs. I have reformatted and saved the file in Excel, Wordpad, & Notepad using what seems to me every possible combination including Unicode, UT8, UT16, Text Only, Tab Delimited, etc. I have deleted the tabs and tried using both "/" and ";" as the delimiters but that doesn't work either.

When I import, I am selecting the file, choosing the Custom setting, tried both UT8 and UT16, on the next menu, I am putting S P (I have also put S, P) (and S [P]). These flashcards don't have traditional or definition with them.

I have selected Use the dictionary and use the flashcard for the definition source. The import will then start, go through it's process and then find nothing, or maybe 1 or 2 of the cards.

One time I saved in tab delimited format it put " " quotation marks around the Chinese text and pinyin, and the import found 27 of the 33 vocabs, but it also included the "" quotation marks in the flashcard. That time it automatically put the correct dictionary definition as well. 4 of the missing 6 vocabs showed up as an error saying it was not found in the dictionary.

Ok, so to get to the point, is it possible to import these flashcard files into ZDT?

Thanks,

-Maku

[jbradfor]

1) Try saving it using Word in Unicode format, read it in as UTF-16

2) Post a sample file and maybe someone can get it working.

[flameproof]

1. The very slow start

2. That it's not easily possible to edit the data base*

* to give an example: 说 in most beginners circumstances is SHUO, but the Annotator makes it SHUI

I mainly just use it as a dictionary. For Flash I use Pleco.

[Luobot]

to give an example: 说 in most beginners circumstances is SHUO, but the Annotator makes it SHUI

I was also planning to ask about the Annotator's choice of translations, and what can be done about it.

In fact, I started to prepare a list of typical, annoying subprime annotations, such as the following:

的 dì --instead of--> de

了 liào --instead of--> le

都 dū --instead of--> dōu

还 huán --instead of--> hái

说 shuì --instead of--> shuō

It appears from the above examples that ZDT takes the first translation available to it (which you can see by mousing over the above characters in the annotator). I'm not sure what determined that particular order (though I guess it's the arbitrary order in CEDICT), but "de" and "le" have got to be some of the most frequent characters.

How about a checkmark column in the dictionary so that, when there are multiple definitions for a character, the user can check his definition of preference. The annotator would use the check marked definition (if any) over the default. These preferences should be transportable from one user to another (an export-import function) and from one version of ZDT to the next.

Thanks for considering it.

[maku777]

saving in Word unicode 8 format, then reading in ZDT unicode 16 format could not display the Chinese characters...instead it displayed a long list of garbled characters.

If I save in Word unicode 8 format, then read in ZDT unicode 8 format, it displays the first Chinese character and pinyin, but trying to import, the green progress bar goes half way through and stops and no cards are imported.

I read through the forums extensively and saw a tip from the ZDT author to another user and he recommended just copying and pasting....and that WORKS! I do have to chose the correct definition for a few of the words on the list in each lesson though since I did not supply the definition in my flashcard list.

Thanks for the help and the program.

-Maku

Here's a sample list of lesson 1 of the CME books though that I was trying to import..maybe you can see what is wrong:

林 Lin2

先生 xian1sheng

王 Wang2

太太 bu4

英国人 Ying1guo2ren2

[jbradfor]

First, I recommended to save in Unicode format, not Unicode-8 format, to read in with UTF-16.

Second, the list of words below contains an error:

太太 bu4

ZDT seems smart enough to do a bit of sanity checking on the words being imported; alas, when it finds a problem, it doesn't always handle it the best, as you noted when the import stopped half way through.

Third, attached is a file that ZDT will import. File encoding should be UTF-16, Import format should be 'S P' (since you have simplified characters). HOWEVER, for reasons unknown to me, it will only import 3 of the 4 words. Chris???

test.txt

[flameproof]

I forgot one really annoying thing which maybe can be corrected:

I can copy only one line from the search results. If a search have, let's say 3 hits, I can copy only one at a time.

[Luobot]

I can copy only one line from the search results. If a search have, let's say 3 hits, I can copy only one at a time.

Try clicking the 1st line and then shift-clicking, say, the 3rd line. All 3 lines should be highlighted. Then you can copy them. I do it all the time in the dictionary. It also works in the flash card lists.

What's interesting is that in the flash card list, you can "select all" and then do a copy, which copies all, but you can't do a "select all" in the dictionary. No big deal, though, as you can select the first row and the last row, as I described above, but a "select all" in the dictionary would be consistent and remove one step.

[vr2nr]

Not sure where to post this so I will post it here.

I have a MacBook I bought a few months back. For ZDT, when I move to export cards to plecodict, I get the following message.

"... Can't start the AWT because Java was started on the first thread. Make sure StartOnFirstThread is not specified in your application's Info.plist or on the command line."

Anyway to solve this issue easily?? I'm running leopard...

[bogleg]

Yup, try using this sandbox release here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133341&package_id=242433&release_id=585912

Remember to keep backups of your files so you don't lose anything!

Chris

[vr2nr]

Chris,

That solved the issue. Many thanks.

I also had a question, with regard to importing Pleco ==>ZDT... Is that possible?

It would be great to have the flexibility to reimport, and modify flashcard decks with a desktop computer. My own personal presence....

Many thanks.

Ed

[vr2nr]

One other thing. Is there an "easy" way to import cards from "flashcardexchange.com" ?

there are many decks that have been developed and I tried a few different import formats and could not get any to work. Having access to all those various decks easily would be great.

Ed

[jbradfor]

flashcardexchange.com requires a registration fee to d/l files, making it difficult (costly) to answer your question. Could you post part of a file, and someone can take a look at it?

[vr2nr]

The flashcard exchange has a number of different ways to export files, including

- export to cvs

- export to word processor

- export to spreadsheet

- export to adobe reader

- export to tab separated values.

I chose tab separated values which results in the file attached. Note that I changed the extention name from ".tsv" to .doc to allow me to attach here.

The actual card list print looks something like but the file shows the real data config.

Question Answer Note/Hint

啊 ah a1

啊 ah a

矮 short; low ai3

爱 love ai4

爱人 husband; wife; sweetheart ai4ren

....

flashcard_exchange-tdf.doc

[jbradfor]

It imports fine. Well, mostly.

The file is in UTF-8 format, so set "file encoding" to that.

Unlike your example, the attached file doesn't have pinyin, just the characters and the defs. So set the "Import Format" to "T D".

However, it won't import as-is. zdt, alas, doesn't handle the case well of duplicate entries, of which there are several in this example. So you'll need to go through and manually remove the duplicates.