Chinese Toolbox 2011 -- software for learning Chinese through reading

[atsherrill]

I just want to let you all know that Chinese Toolbox 2011, an innovative Chinese reading assistant, is finally out the door. It is a huge update with many new features. Version 11.0.0.3 is very stable and reliable. For a full list of improvements, check out New Features in Chinese Toolbox 2011. To download the new program, just click on Download Chinese Toolbox 2011.

Chinese Toolbox 2011 merges CT FREE and CT READER into a single program. It includes two dictionaries, and now with CT 2011, word functionality is complete and extensive. The program includes numerous advanced features for studying Chinese at the document, word/phrase, and character level. Supporting this project financially is now possible. However, the Chinese Toolbox FREE tradition continues with FREE Mode. FREE Mode supports character-based functionality for studying Chinese; it features have been significantly improved since the 2009 release; and it is entirely free to use and always will be.

The hallmark of Chinese Toolbox is a feature called “marking for unassisted reading” that helps you separate the characters/words that you know from the ones you don’t know. In this way you’re better able to focus on what you DON’T know. Chinese Toolbox is being aggressively developed with new releases planned for every two or three months. Current development for version 11.0.1.0 (September target) is focused on improvements requested by current users. In planning for the next major release, I need to hear from more of you. It’s okay to say what you like, but providing constructive criticism will help me focus on features and improvements that are most important.

For those wanting to know how Chinese Toolbox differs from other Chinese reading assistants, check out Why Chinese Toolbox?. This webpage provides a good list of things that set Chinese Toolbox apart.

Regarding competitors, I just want to say that I laud the efforts and have much respect for those who develop software to simplify the learning of Chinese. Anyone who attempts to develop a Chinese reading assistant invests not months of effort, but years. Like Chinese, managing large programming projects can be difficult. It’s easy for a small project to grow so large that it becomes unmanageable and unmaintainable.

Finally, welcome to Chinese Toolbox. I hope you'll give the program a try and let me know what you think.

A. Todd Sherrill

Author, developer, and publisher of Chinese Toolbox software

http://www.chinesetoolbox.com

Email: atsherrill@toolboxcoding.com

[jbradfor]

The hallmark of Chinese Toolbox is a feature called “marking for unassisted reading” that helps you separate the characters/words that you know from the ones you don’t know.

I will have to check this out! This is a feature I've been wanting for a long time, and would have done myself if I weren't so lazy (and have a full-time job and a family and....). I think it could be very useful in reading native material.

[roddy]

includes two dictionaries

I always wish people would say which dictionaries they include.

[atsherrill]

Character dictionary: portions of the Unihan dictionary from Unicode

Word dictionary: CC-CEDICT from mdbg.net (cedict_ts.u8)

[querido]

I'm going to take a look because of this statement:

"The Unknown Words in Current Document tab in the Reader shows all the words in the current document that you haven’t yet learned."

[atsherrill]

Note that as you switch documents (and you could have numerous documents loaded, accessible from the Documents menu), the list of unknown words will change. In a subsequent release, I want to include a configurable option to show unknown words in all loaded documents. If you want to save an unknown word list for a particular document, say for use in another program, you can copy the entire list to the clipboard.

[coolrat]

I just started using Chinese Toolbox 2011.

So far I'm quite impressed. For years I have exclusively used DimSum by MandarinTools because it is very easy to use, and the interface easy to understand.

I'm still experimenting and testing Chinese Toolbox 2011 and will write more about my experiences later.

But for now, I can say that the “marking for unassisted reading” feature is very useful.

As you read a text in Chinese, you can mark the words that you know and thus the program will know which words you DON'T know. This is very useful for reviewing later, as you can review only the Chinese characters that you are NOT familiar with.

So far, I know of no other tool with this feature.

Has anyone else used this compelling application?

[atsherrill]

It has been about 10 months since the previous release, and finally the feature-rich and very reliable Chinese Toolbox 2012 is available. In addition to the many new features and improvements, Chinese Toolbox 2012 now supports two types of charge-free use: Chinese Toolbox FREE and Perpetual Trial.

Chinese Toolbox 2012 is all about focus and efficiency in learning to read Chinese. Timestamping, frequency lists (dynamic and published), document analysis, lists (known, unknown, need-to-learn) are all designed to help you decide what you want to learn and what will benefit you most.

The following are the key aspects of Chinese Toolbox 2012.

1. Designed for learning, not just dictionary lookup: Chinese Toolbox 2012 helps you to focus your efforts by separating and keeping track of what you’ve learned (Known list), what you need to learn (Need-To-Learn list), and what you haven’t yet learned (Unknown list). Frequency lists (dynamic and published) represent what you should learn. These lists can all be exported for use in third-party flashcard programs, such as Pleco and Anki, via the Flashcard export command on the File menu.
   
2. Help Tips and Online Help: The “Help Tips” feature is designed to provide concise and to-the-point guidance to help you understand how to use Chinese Toolbox. More complete help is available for each tip by clicking on the “Illustrated help on this tip” button.
   
3. Document Analysis: This helps to determine the value (in learning investment) of studying a certain document or set of documents. The analysis compares the current document or all loaded documents against the currently selected character frequency list. A summary appears on screen after the analysis is complete with the text of the complete analysis written to a file.
   
4. Multiple documents: Chinese Toolbox allows you to maintain up to 50 documents and conveniently switch between them. Each time you switch documents, characters and words you had marked as Known in one document will show up correctly parsed in the document you’re switching to. You can name documents as you see fit with document names appearing in the Documents menu of the main window. With the Unknown tab context menu you can specify whether to show unknown characters and words for the current document only, or for all loaded documents. Support for multiple documents is also integrated into the Document Analysis feature, as well as the Flashcard export feature.
   
5. Dynamic character frequency list: Character frequency lists are commonly available for studying Chinese, but Chinese Toolbox 2012 dynamically keeps track of the characters you see most frequently. Each time you import a document into Chinese Toolbox 2012, the characters of the text are counted and added to previous tallies. When you click on the Character Frequency tab of the Reader, a list of characters is shown beginning with the most frequently occurring character. By regularly reviewing this list, you can ensure that you are focusing your attention on the characters that occur most frequently in your reading.
   
6. Published character frequency lists: Two published character frequency lists are integrated into Chinese Toolbox 2012; they are accessible from the Frequency List menu. One is primarily for simplified characters and the other for traditional characters. Like the dynamic character frequency list, these can help you to focus your learning efforts on characters that occur most frequently in Chinese texts.
   
7. Access online resources within Chinese Toolbox 2012: With Web Links, you can connect Chinese resource websites to Chinese Toolbox. Clicking on one of these web links does not merely open a website in your browser. It shows the Chinese character (that you’re currently focused on) in the target of the web link, usually an online dictionary website. One of the web links plays the sound of the character from an online dictionary.
   
8. Reader text parsing control: Chinese reading assistants display the meanings of words according to rules built into the software. Sometimes part of a person’s name and the text that either precedes or follows the name may be incorrectly marked by a Chinese reading assistant as being a word when, in the current context, it is not a word at all. Chinese Toolbox 2012 provides two keyboard shortcuts that give you more control over how Chinese text is parsed. Ctrl-D marks selected characters as a temporary word. Ctrl-T temporarily removes a word from the word dictionary for the current run of the program only. See the Chinese Toolbox Keyboard Help window for more information (accessible from the Help menu).
   
9. Characters are time-stamped when selected. Chinese Toolbox 2012 keeps track of when characters were last viewed. Initially, characters do not have time stamps. Each time you select a character in the Reader, or view the character in the dictionary, a time stamp is either attached to the character, or the previous time stamp is updated.
   
10. Most data can be customized. In Chinese Toolbox 2012 all frames with red borders can receive text input. Customizable data frames exist in the character dictionary window (Pinyin, Zhuyin, Definition, and Notes), in the Radical Information window, and in the Word Dictionary window (Notes). For example, if you prefer “Human” instead of “Man” as the English name for radical #9, you can change it yourself in the Radical Information window.
    
11. Most data can be exported, modified, and reimported. When character dictionary and character understanding data is exported, it can be processed, analyzed, modified or selectively replaced. The Word Dictionary exists as a text file (cedict_ts.u8) in the Chinese Toolbox 2012 program directory. This file can be edited or replaced with an updated version from the mdbg.net website.
    
12. The program can be used offline.
    

Click here for the complete list of new functionality in Chinese Toolbox 2012. Features introduced in earlier versions of Chinese Toolbox can be seen on each version’s Release Notes page. See Version History for a list of all Chinese Toolbox releases.

[roddy]

Anyone* actually using this?

*Ideally not someone who registers to praise it then never logs in again. I'm looking at you, coolrat...

[laurenth]

It certainly looks interesting. I don't use this product but, as far as I can tell, it is quite similar to Learning with texts (http://lwt.sourceforge.net/).

Some key features (point 1 and 7 in post #8 ) are similar to those available in LWT.

However, LWT does not limit you to 50 texts (I have 71 currently) (point 4).

LWT allows you to do some analysis (point 3) before you decide to work on a document, but it could be easier, as in Chinese ToolBox. Also, as far as I can tell, there is no analysis of char frequency in LWT (points 5 and 6), probably because LWT can be used with any language, not just Chinese. As LWT is open-source, perhaps someone will add Chinese-specific features, one day...

Also, LWT has a built-in SRS system offering several possibilities for reviewing (Cloze deletions, single words, ZH-source language, source language-ZH, etc.).

LWT could be more user-friendly, and it is not easy to install. It must run on a server (local or distant), which is not always easy to set up. However, if you install it on a distant server, you can use your material (read, annotate, review...) wherever you have an internet connection. I often use LWT on my phone.

[geo33]

I've used Chinese Toolbox 2012 briefly - I've just not had enough time to test out its full features.

But it is very well designed. The feature I like best is it keeps track of what characters you have memorized, and which ones you are having trouble with.

This makes review very easy.

I think this is a fantastic tool for Chinese study and am astonished that its not particularly well-known.

The developer responds to all emails quite readily, and is willing discuss with users the addition of new features.

I'm going to test it more and use it to help me read some more complex texts..

[atsherrill]

Introducing Chinese Toolbox 2012 version 12.1

If you want to learn Chinese well, just read! No kidding. If you read a lot and practice speaking what you learn from reading, your Chinese will be great.

Learning to write characters by hand is probably the best way to remember characters, but it is also time-consuming. If you just want to be able to communicate orally, read, and type with a computer, reading gives you more exposure to the Chinese language. A balanced approach would involve both reading and writing, but for many, this balance may not be feasible. Chinese Toolbox was created specifically to increase reading efficiency. If you’re reading efficiently and faster, then you’re probably also reading more. More reading means more exposure to the language resulting in a better understanding of Chinese.

Chinese Toolbox 2012 (12.1) has just been released and has everything you need to be a speed reader in Chinese. Its system of Marking for Unassisted Reading enables you to focus your effort on the characters and words that you don’t know. And when you come across a word that is not in the dictionary, you can now add your own entry. Both character and word dictionaries are fully editable.

There is so much in Chinese Toolbox 12.1, and there are so many features to help you learn. The program is rock solid and works as designed. Also, Chinese Toolbox FREE is better than ever, and is totally free to use -- forever. See What’s New in Chinese Toolbox 2012 (12.1).

New features in Chinese Toolbox 2012 (12.1):

1. Word dictionary editing: supports adding, removing, and editing of word entries.
   
2. Reader “Go To” enables jumping to any page.
   
3. Document state retention: The program keeps track of the page number and selected character for each document, restoring the page and character selection when switching documents.
   
4. Added support for Up and Down keys in the Reader; moves the character selector up or down one line at a time.
   
5. Radical Information window: Redesign the appearance and behavior of the Radical Information window. This window now appears automatically when the character displayed in the Character Dictionary window is a radical. It closes when the character shown in the Character Dictionary window is not a radical. A checkbox at the bottom of this window allows the automatic displaying of this window to be turned off.
   
6. Document limit increased to 1000.
   
7. Page count per document increased to 99,999.
   
8. Trial period restart: All new trial installations begin with a new trial period.
   
9. Two Chinese fonts (MingLiU and SimSun) are now selectable in the Settings dialog.
   
10. Window-snap: Enabled in the Settings dialog.
    
11. Radical and variant character frames in the Character Dictionary window: Clicking once on any of these immediately shows the clicked-on character as the main entry in the Character Dictionary window.
    
12. Limited copying of Reader text (10 characters) has been enabled for TRIAL mode. Previously, this was disabled entirely for TRIAL mode.
    
13. Simplified upgrading from previous versions. If learning data has been exported in version 12.0.2.0, launching version 12.1.0.0 will automatically upgrade the interface, re-validate the serial number, and import data from version 12.0.2.0.
    
14. Added support for wide space characters to visually clarify the delineation of words in word lists. This can be turned on or off in the Settings Dialog.
    
15. Added a File menu item for exporting custom word dictionary entries.
    
16. Zhuyin pronunciation data is generated automatically as pinyin is entered in the Word Dictionary window.
    
17. To deliniate character and word lists, “Character List:” and “Word List:” was added in Known view, Unknown view, and Need To Learn view.
    
18. Added a configurable setting in the “Document Analysis Settings” window to enable/disable writing of the analysis to a file. When disabled, executing a document analysis performs much quicker, enabling the analysis of longer documents without as much wait time.
    

[atsherrill]

geo33 commented that he was "astonished that it (Chinese Toolbox) is not particularly well-known". I am the developer of Chinese Toolbox, and I have always felt that if the quality was there, the product would sell itself. I am a software engineer, not a marketer or sales person, and so marketing is my weak point. So until I’m able to establish some partnership or find someone who’s as passionate about marketing as I am software development, my sole recourse is to continue developing the best software for learning Chinese that I can.

How I go about that is entirely by experience. As I use Chinese Toolbox to read and study Chinese, I identify what I want in the program, and I fix what I don’t like about it. It has been a long, tedious process, but I love it. Chinese Toolbox is now a program that I can confidently talk about. It has most of what I consider really important features in a program for learning to read Chinese, and some of the features are unique, not existing in any other program for learning Chinese.

I just released 12.1.0.0 this month, and it’s not easy to focus on the marketing effort I know I need to do. There is still so much to develop.

Also, as geo33 mentioned, I want to hear from you guys! My focus is to develop software to make learning Chinese easier. I know what I want in a program for learning Chinese, but hardly anyone is telling me what they want. Most of what I’ve developed is free, as in Chinese Toolbox FREE. So if you guys would let me know what features you’d like to see in a program, there’s a good chance that at least some of the features will be free to the Chinese learning community.

[geo33]

Yes. I really liked Chinese Toolbox and felt its a very powerful tool for learning.

If you read a text in ChineseToolbox, it will keep track of which charcters you know, and which you do not know and you can use these wordlists. Seems brilliant to me!

Lets see if we can provide atsherril with some advice, feedback and constructive comments!

[atsherrill]

Get a Chinese Toolbox 2012 READER mode license for only $9.95. Offer good only until January 1, 2013.

A lot is happening in the Chinese Toolbox world: updates, mobile development, great offers and more. If you've tried Chinese Toolbox and like it, but need more than what CT FREE offers, now is the best time to lock in a long term license. Only until the end of this year, you can get a 3-year license for $29.95 or a 5-year license for $49.95. I have never offered Chinese Toolbox READER at such low prices, and this offer will be good only until January 1. On that day regular prices will be restored. See the Chinese Toolbox Buy page for more information.

[alakasam]

What's the difference between the FREE　ｌｉｃｅｎｓｅ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅ　ＲＥＡＤＥＲ　ｌｉｃｅｎｓｅ？

[atsherrill]

I apologize, but I just logged in to chinese-forums.com, and i saw this question about FREE and READER licenses. Please send questions about Chinese Toolbox to me (the developer) at support@toolboxcoding.com.

The FREE license allows you to use the program without needing to pay any license fee. Some features are limited with the FREE license. The READER license is the full-featured license. READER mode of Chinese Toolbox is enabled when you purchase a READER license through the Buy page at http://www.chinesetoolbox.com.

[atsherrill]

Chinese Toolbox 2013 (13.0.0.0)

As always, I'm pleased to announce a new release. Chinese Toolbox 2013 is undoubtedly the most stable, reliable, and useful version of Chinese Toolbox ever. Every problem has been worked out, and the program performs as designed.

If you're studying Chinese and you're not yet using Chinese Toolbox, you really are missing out. This is a program designed by a learner of Chinese. As a learner of Chinese, I understand the problems one faces when trying to learn Chinese. I created this program firstly for my own study, and it really is very useful, especially if you need to read online Chinese documents.

Years ago I used flashcards to review Chinese characters, but eventually I realized that if I did more reading, my reading would function as my review of characters. Reading refreshes the memory of what you've already learned, and continued reading keeps your memory of Chinese characters and words fresh.

Chinese Toolbox 2013 is an incremental upgrade. Mostly, what 's been added simply fills out what was already there in Chinese Toolbox 2012. Possibly the most important aspect of this release is its stablity and reliability. MUCH effort went into testing. Every little problem that crept up was corrected. At this point, I know of no problems with this release. But if something does come up, it will be fixed right away.

Chinese Toolbox is a living project. I have so many ideas of how to streamline the learning of Chinese. Technology is great, but so far most of what I've seen in software for learning Chinese tends toward a rehashing of old ideas, like computerizing of flashcards. I believe it is possible to develop a more effective way of learning Chinese, and you will see these ideas take shape in future versions of Chinese Toolbox. So stick around. If you're looking for software tools to make Chinese easier to learn, follow this project. More is on the way!

[roddy]

Actually we'd prefer it if questions get asked and answered on the site - that's what we're here for after all.

Some concrete info on new versions would also be appreciated, rather than paragraphs of breathlessness. What new features are there? Etc. If you've fixed bugs, which?

[atsherrill]

Concrete information about the newest release is available at http://www.chinesetoolbox.com/Version_History/CT_2013/ct_2013.htm. I don't think this forum would be the best place to post so many details of the project. I just want to let people know what's available. If you try Chinese Toolbox and don't like it, I would hope to be the first to know. Nothing would please me more than to hear some recommendations and constructive criticism of what to include or change in the next release. I am endeavoring to offer something that is genuinely useful in learning Chinese. About 95% of my work on this project is free. After the 30-day trial expires, Chinese Toolbox is free, and this newest version does take the free functionality a major step forward. Do you have questions about Chinese Toolbox? Please do ask. There needs to be some engaging dialog about this project. Chinese Toolbox is not easy to understand, and the only way I know to clarify things is to respond with direct answers to areas of confusion.