mungouk Posted July 23, 2019 at 12:28 PM Report Share Posted July 23, 2019 at 12:28 PM Since arriving in Beijing I've been using a lot of APPs that have most or all of their user interface in Chinese text, meaning lots of (usually TINY) Hanzi that I need to look up. My current way of doing this (on iOS) is pretty clunky: Screen-shot the APP and save to Photo Library Start up / switch to Pleco Get out of whatever screen it's currently on and choose "Still OCR" from the big menu on the left Choose Photo Library > Camera Roll and find the screen shot Adjust the green rectangle so it selects the text I'm interested in Press Capture Finally get to see the captured text, and to tap on the Hanzi I don't know Not only is this clunky but it leaves a pile of screenshots on my phone that I have to remember to delete. Is there an easier way than this? I guess iOS probably prevents apps from screen-shotting other apps, but even if there's just a quicker way to get the screenshot straight into Pleco's Still OCR feature then that would be useful to know. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted July 23, 2019 at 01:52 PM Report Share Posted July 23, 2019 at 01:52 PM Have you got the Live OCR? You can just point the device at the text and it will give the translation. I only have the Demo version so it only does one character at a time but the paid version will do chunks of text at a time. P.S. I am using android, don't know about iOS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyJonesLocker Posted July 23, 2019 at 11:46 PM Report Share Posted July 23, 2019 at 11:46 PM As Shelly says, screen reader / OCR is what I use. I use it for what you mention. Works most of the time. I.e the gray floating buttons on the screen For wechat screen reader won't work so I use the ocr (the green square that pops up but for other apps it's a mixture depending on the app. This is for Android and paid version though. Maybe iPhone is different Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikelove Posted July 24, 2019 at 05:11 AM Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 at 05:11 AM No way to do Screen OCR on iPhone, but we do have two faster ways to OCR a screenshot at least: 1) If your phone has 3D Touch, go to Settings / Miscellaneous / Configure Shortcuts, remove one of the default ones and add one for “OCR Newest Screenshot” - this will let you get to OCR for your screenshot much faster. 2) Otherwise, in that same screen under Startup turn on “OCR latest photo” and “limit to screenshots” and that will do the same thing any time you start Pleco with a new screenshot you haven’t OCRed yet. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vellocet Posted July 24, 2019 at 05:40 AM Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 at 05:40 AM 15 hours ago, Shelley said: Have you got the Live OCR? You can just point the device at the text and it will give the translation. How do you point the phone's camera at the phone's screen? 29 minutes ago, mikelove said: 1) If your phone has 3D Touch, go to Settings / Miscellaneous / Configure Shortcuts, remove one of the default ones and add one for “OCR Newest Screenshot” - this will let you get to OCR for your screenshot much faster. Having done this, where does the shortcut live? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikelove Posted July 24, 2019 at 05:50 AM Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 at 05:50 AM 9 minutes ago, vellocet said: Having done this, where does the shortcut live? On the home screen - just Force Touch the Pleco icon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungouk Posted July 24, 2019 at 07:12 AM Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 at 07:12 AM @mikelove this is brilliant, thanks! I had no idea the 3D touch shortcuts could be customised. Now I have Live OCR, OCR Screenshot and Clipboard reader all one touch away! Btw for those hunting for Miscellaneous under the Settings for iOS, it's actually Settings near the bottom of the Pleco menu, i.e. inside the Pleco app itself. Lots of useful options — I wish more apps would let you customise the shortcuts like this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungouk Posted July 24, 2019 at 07:20 AM Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 at 07:20 AM 1 hour ago, vellocet said: How do you point the phone's camera at the phone's screen? Hmmm, actually I wonder if running the live OCR on my iPad while using the Chinese APP on my phone might be even quicker. I'll try it when I get home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vellocet Posted July 24, 2019 at 05:24 PM Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 at 05:24 PM Oh, I didn't see the "if your phone has 3D touch" part. I don't know what that is so I guess not. Force Touch is an unfamiliar keyword as well. Is there some magic shortcut that can easily pull up OCR on the most recent screenshot on an ordinary Android (Xiaomi Max 2)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted July 24, 2019 at 07:19 PM Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 at 07:19 PM 12 hours ago, mungouk said: @mikelove this is brilliant, thanks! Bluetooth monkey effect still works, I see. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikelove Posted July 24, 2019 at 08:26 PM Report Share Posted July 24, 2019 at 08:26 PM 13 hours ago, mungouk said: I had no idea the 3D touch shortcuts could be customised. Now I have Live OCR, OCR Screenshot and Clipboard reader all one touch away! Thanks! I believe that came just a bit after 3.0 so we kind of tacked it on without drawing much attention to it. (We offer it on Android too but their app icon context menu feature is even less well known than Apple’s) 2 hours ago, vellocet said: Is there some magic shortcut that can easily pull up OCR on the most recent screenshot on an ordinary Android (Xiaomi Max 2)? I don’t believe there’s a reliable way to query for the last screenshot taken on Android, though I could be mistaken - honestly with Screen OCR there hasn’t been much interest in recognizing regular old screenshots lately. 1 hour ago, roddy said: Bluetooth monkey effect still works, I see. Heh, yeah, gonna get worse soon too - “can I make up my own Cantonese romanization system using old Norse runes” type crazy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungouk Posted July 25, 2019 at 03:58 AM Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 at 03:58 AM 10 hours ago, vellocet said: Force Touch is an unfamiliar keyword Push harder on the icon (and hold). I'm not sure if Android phones support it, but recent iPhones have a pressure-sensitive touch-screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted July 25, 2019 at 09:50 AM Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 at 09:50 AM In android there is a make a Launch icon for these things but when I do it, it says the icon has been made but they don't appear on the desktop. I am running Android 7 and Pleco v3.2.66. I used this function on an older version of both and it worked fine. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vellocet Posted July 25, 2019 at 01:46 PM Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 at 01:46 PM 9 hours ago, mungouk said: Push harder on the icon (and hold). Nah, it just grabs the icon in preparation for moving it around the screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikelove Posted July 25, 2019 at 09:47 PM Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 at 09:47 PM Some Android phones also have a context menu you can access by long pressing the app icon - it’s a feature called App Shortcuts. Google added it all the way back in Android 7.1, but I don’t believe it’s one of the Android features that they forbid OEMs from messing with, and hence many of them remove it or replace it with their own crappy incompatible versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikelove Posted July 25, 2019 at 09:49 PM Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 at 09:49 PM 11 hours ago, Shelley said: In android there is a make a Launch icon for these things but when I do it, it says the icon has been made but they don't appear on the desktop. I am running Android 7 and Pleco v3.2.66. Google borked this a few releases ago (for vaguely-specified security reasons) - you can still create a shortcut icon but now you have to initiate the process from your app launcher settings (same place you go to add a widget to the home screen) rather than within Pleco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted July 25, 2019 at 09:56 PM Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 at 09:56 PM @mikelove Thanks, glad it isn't me. I will go and explore it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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