Palm - pleco software - which dictionary ?

[flameproof]

BUT, I use also ZDT, that uses Cedict (as far as i remember) and it lets me look up put in english words and look up the pinyin and chinese.....

[beirne]

A few years ago I used another dictionary program that had a reversed CEDICT, but Plecodict doesn't have it.

[flameproof]

it's really confusing....

I D/L now the Demo. The dome comes with the OX only dictionary. EN>CN works only for the letter A in the Demo (that's fair), but i.e. ARGENTINE, ALPS, is are not in the OX dict.

Seems ABC does not have EN>CN at all. I can also see no reference to PINYIN lookup, although, in OX I can lookup with Pinyin and get CN and EN.

I am still puzzled what Dict to use. OX will probably not really cut it...

I am using Ectaco now which claims 400,000 entries and can search in both direction. However, it does not have char recognition included and no easy flash cards.

I feel like still being at square one now.....

[roddy]

The Oxford dictionary has both language pairs. That's your 'basic' bundle at $60.

The ABC is a purely C>E dictionary, and comes with the NWP E>C dictionary in the $100 professional bundle.

Or you can get all four for $120, the Complete bundle.

I don't have the Oxford installed, but it only has 13,000 E>C entries so I'm not surprised it's missing some stuff. The print version of this is pocket-sized, it's by no means comprehensive - but it does make extensive use of pinyin, which is why it's valuable for learners.

[beirne]

I D/L now the Demo. The dome comes with the OX only dictionary. EN>CN works only for the letter A in the Demo (that's fair), but i.e. ARGENTINE, ALPS, is are not in the OX dict.

I have all of the dictionaries so i checked for you. Argentina is only in the free LDC dictionary. The same with Alps. Geographical names are normally not in the body of dictionaries, so this could be a problem with lots of them.

Seems ABC does not have EN>CN at all. I can also see no reference to PINYIN lookup, although, in OX I can lookup with Pinyin and get CN and EN.

Correct. ABC is CN>EN only. For some reason two-way dictionaries are not common with Chinese. You can definitely do pinyin lookup with the ABC dictionary.

I am still puzzled what Dict to use. OX will probably not really cut it...

If you can afford it I'd recommend the bundle that has the NWP and ABC and add the free dictionaries. Otherwise use Adsotrans for CN>EN and LDC for EN>CN. You'll have to do reverse lookups to interpret the characters in the LDC definitions, though.

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

im a little confused. it seems like a lot of people are looking for free dictionaries, and are trying to compare options. that is good. me, however, i just want to have a funcitonal dictionary. by that i mean:

1. simplified/tradidional characters

2. EN>CN; CN>EN

3. flashcards: show the english on question side, have the pinyin/characters (preferably traditional and simplified) on the answer side?

I will save and pay whatever it takes. what can i do?

i would research teh matter more myself, but i have a lot of classes this quarter, and i dont have much time to sit and read everybody elses experiences.

thanks in advance

陈秉劲

[Long Pan]

Following the comments of this thread from which I learnt about the magic Pleco (never heard about it before ) , last Sunday I downloaded the basic Oxford on my Palm Z22 (too small to handle the ABC ). Although the Oxford dictionary has definitely some gaps, I highly recommand it to all Z22 holders. It really changed my way learning Chinese - I now spend my time during lessons adding flashcards and then sort them + review them once out

[roddy]

You won't regret the purchase - but if you are enjoying the Oxford, it's really worth selling a kidney and upgrading your PDA to get the full package - especially so with Pleco 2.0 on the (how distant?) horizon.

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

since my last post, i have purchased a palm tungsten E2, and pleco dict with the NWP and the ABC. It has been most of what i want, but teh NWP doesnt have everything i want to look up. But i guess that is not Pleco's fault. Also, when I have the window open to write the hanzi on the screen with teh stylus, that is when i can see the dictionary, not teh dedicated screen, i get an error after a while, and i have to restart my computer. Does that make sense? does anybody else have this problem? is it something else that is causing it?

[roddy]

Does that make sense?

Not to me. What error message are you getting, and what exactly are you doing before hand?

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

well i am reluctant to repeat the situation on my palm because it might be bad for it, so i dont remember the error. If necessary, i will repeat it and find out, but what i am doing is this:

when you press the 笔 and hold it, it says left right top bottom, so i choose one. this puts the HWR on the main screen. then in the course of using the HWR there on the main screen, it prints an error message, and shuts down my Palm.

[muyongshi]

Old thread...but oh well...Pleco is still alive.

New version coming out soon so what are everyone's plans for which dictionaries they will use? What upgrades if any will you get? I am very super extremely excited about the 现代汉语规范词典... Unfortunately I only have the basic package right now so it means I am going to have to shell out a lot of money for the upgrade. Oh well...blame me for not going with the professional back in the day...

[Xiao Kui]

I'm not really interested in the new features of Pleco 2.0, for me the current features are everything I need, but the new Chinese-Chinese dictionaries do sound really exciting. I hope I will have 79.95 to spare when the time comes!

[ipsi()]

I'm quite interested in the pronunciation feature, along with the stroke order diagrams. The new dictionaries are probably not essential, but they will be nice. I'll grab them anyway just so I can show them off to teachers and students alike

Probably the biggest thing is the document reader. I currently use Blazer, but it's not perfect. And having it integrated with Pleco would be awesome