DIY customisable dictionary?

[Guest realmayo]

I would love to know if the following exists (or could be achieved):

 

A programme:

 

1. Into which I could paste (Chinese) text

2. If I click on a character in that text, a new window pops up with my definitions (various fields, e.g. pinyin, different English usages)

3. I can bulk-import 'my' dictionary, i.e. characters and various fields with their definitions etc

4. The programme runs on a windows PC.

 

I think #2 rules out some tweaking of Imron's CTA.

In an ideal world I'd run a separate version of Wenlin with a radically altered set of definitions.

Otherwise I'll stick to treating Anki as a dictionary.

 

(Also it's quite frustrating searching google.com if you need to include the word 'dictionary'...)

 

[Dlezcano]

Since you are a frequent user of these forums I will take for granted that you know pleco, so I would ask you in which way this program does not fulfill your requirements.

[Guest realmayo]

Good question. In response I've added condition #4! The programme must run on a Windows PC.

 

I suppose I could try running Pleco on my PC again but I'm not sure that's ideal.

[mungouk]

Probably not answering your question, but...

 

Pleco on an iPad is great, and now that iPadOS includes cursor support you can use a mouse with it as well as a keyboard.

Edit: It looks like Pleco on iPad is going to get even more amazinger in the next year or so.

 

 

[roddy]

I really thought this would be an easier question to answer, but I can't see any way of doing it. 

Edit: Hacky and overkill, but a free computer-aided-translation tool?

[Shelley]

I only know of Wenlin.

[889]

Wenlin lets you edit the Wenlin dictionary entries and it also permits you to import your own dictionary, though I'm not clear about the formatting rules. I assume this is useful for those who want dictionary entries in their native language, not English.

[Tomsima]

Ive used OmegaT for a few translation projects before, and that's actually a pretty good idea, I have a lot of personalised glossaries on different topics that I can import in easily for reading and translating more difficult technical articles. it's not pretty, but it does the job of you really need that personalization. That being said, my current setup that I use to work around this problem at present is my phone with a full Bluetooth keyboard and mouse that can switch between computer and phone on hotkeys. it basically feels like you're switching apps most of the time, rather than devices. For pasting across to pleco, I just use WeChat, but you could use any number of methods I'm sure you're already aware of. It's not perfect, but it works much better than the omegat in the long run from my experience, omegat is just too clunky.

[imron]

11 hours ago, realmayo said:

I think #2 rules out some tweaking of Imron's CTA.

Depends what you mean by new window, but if the popup dictionary window in CTA is ok, then this is do-able in CTA today if you have your own definitions in CC-CEDICT format.

 

Then just add them to c:\users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\ChineseTextAnalyser\data\cedict_ts.u8

 

You can optionally set it so that CTA *only* uses this dictionary (see here for details).

[Guest realmayo]

Thanks for all the suggestions. One issue is that I'd like some kind of ultimate flexibility: several different fields for each character, some entries could be several lines long themselves. It's for Classical Chinese: I find it useful to have more grammar-based, 'heavy' definitions alongside the definitions given in, say, a textbook that I'm working through. It's also nice to keep a record of where I've come across a character in a particular usage. I think this would be to messy via CTA (too many fields etc). Wenlin appears to have the same problem. If I could add, say, 5 definition fields it would be fine, but I think they would all have to follow in a horizontal list, like CTA. OmegaT - again I think the stumbling block is the presentation of the definitions.

 

I actually toyed with the idea of MS Access. But I don't think I could get it to look up a single character from a bunch of text, just by clicking on the character.

 

Maybe I should just settle for some kind of database solution (Access is the only one I've ever used) where I type the character to trigger a search. However that's not much different to using Anki's browser.

 

[roddy]

I'm wondering if Access is your best bet, with some VBA or a macro to handle the searching. Either reading the document in Access in a big text field, or in Word. It's somewhat beyond me though. I can see how you'd do it in php /mysql, for what that's worth, but that's because that's all I know, not because it's the best tool for the job.

[大块头]

I've previously gotten Pleco running on my Windows desktop by using an Android emulator (Bluestacks I think?).

 

I eventually switched to using Pushbullet to send snippets of copied text from my computer to my phone.

[mungouk]

6 minutes ago, 大块头 said:

send snippets of copied text from my computer to my phone

 

I discovered it by accident, but with iOS devices and MacOS / OSX if the devices are paired then you can copy on one device and paste on another.  

 

I can't imagine how I managed without it earlier...

 

[Tomsima]

5 hours ago, mungouk said:

you can copy on one device and paste on another.  

I noticed recently that some of the newer logitech mice can do this as well, so you can switch between pc and android with a click of a button and the mouse will carry your clipboard with it, sounds amazing

[Guest realmayo]

Just to update on this, I ended up using Wenlin in the end. It's not 100% ideal, because there aren't multiple 'fields' as such, and it involves a fair bit of manually adding entries rather than bulk importing. But not too onerous. And I've always really liked Wenlin.

 

So now I have a dictionary/glossary for Literary Chinese! Mouse-over gives me the briefer definitions as provided by one of the textbooks I'm using (Rouzer) and clicking gives the often much longer, more detailed definitions from another textbook (Shadick) and any other ad hoc sources I choose to add. These I would be digitising anyway, to add to flashcards. I do have the big Kroll dictionary but I don't find it that useful at this early stage (quite broad a timeframe, no grammar).

 

So far so good: I'll print out a text to read but I'll have it up on Wenlin at the same time too, so if I need to look up a word or figure out the grammar of a given sentence, it's all at my fingertips. Ctrl+J lets me switch between my custom dictionary and the main Wenlin one which is handy too.