Search results were nil, thus the new topic.
If you don’t know about the perapera plugin for Firefox, and you are learning CN, JP, or KR, prepare for ecstasy. You can pick the zhong character as an alternative icon for CN rather than the PRC flag.
Hover, readings, definition, one plugin for CN and JP, and soon, KR. Yummy. 
thanks so much for posting this
Indeed. If you’re a student of both CN and JP, Perapera is revolutionary. Even more so with KR in the pipeline, if one is a CJK kind of dude. The Big Lebowski of Language.
I also use it. Useful for reading stuff online and when you don’t know a word or two…
I personally prefer MDBG reader. It comes with a 15-day free trial, but you can continue to use it even afterward. The only thing is you don’t get some of the extra features that paying for it gets you, such as the ability to change the 拼音 to 注音.
After the 15 day trial, all you have to do is when you first load it, click “skip” to load the dictionary, and then every now and then it will pop up again…so the second time it pops up, just drag it to the bottom of the screen and you won’t see it anymore and it won’t bother you anymore.
Here’s the link.
http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=chinese_dictionary_windows
You can still update the dictionary after the 15-day trial too, just right click on the icon in your taskbar tray.
Oh, and MDBG is the website that has the official CC-CEDICT files that are updated daily.
Enjoy^^
I like them, also. I use the online dictionary sometimes. Especially when I want the pinyin for a phrase and I’m too lazy to type it…
MDBG has more features, at a price, but is Mandarin only. One big advantage is that it works in any app, not just Firefox.
I also find Perapera-kun pretty useful. I also have the gTranslate add-on for Firefox. With that, you can highlight a word, phrase or short sentence and right click and get the translation from Google Translate.
When I’m focused on practicing reading, I’m more likely to use Perapera-kun. When I just want to know wtf is going on, I’ll use gTranslate or head straight to Google Translate for more lengthy items.
If you need Japanese (and soon Korean^^), then yes, perapera-kun is very nice. However I still recommend MDBG Chinese Reader. I just recently found a way to (I think) have most of the options that the “full” version has. That said, you can put the dictionary into 注音 (zhuyin) which is ideal for all of you out there.
Plus, you can use it in any window. Not sure what a file on your desktop says? poof, problem solved. Very very useful. I use it everyday 
What’s more, the dictionary is updated daily and if you find an error or have advice or even want to add an entry, you can do so on the site and they will review your entry and (if correct) will add it to the dictionary. Oh, and the dictionary shows Taiwanese Mandarin pronunciations for characters (not compounds, so you have to select the character by itself to be sure.)
mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.p … ry_windows
(I’ve noticed that with Google Chrome it doesn’t automatically show definitions for words when you hover your mouse over them. You actually have to highlight them. Works fine with other browsers.)
Another very useful tool is the 心同文堂 (New Tong Wen Tang) for Firefox. It is a plugin that allows you to convert websites from simplified to traditional in a split second, no waiting. You can also convert from traditional to simplified. Two other very useful features that it provides are an automatic convert for all websites or specific ones that you choose, and something that I really like: a clipboard converter. You can copy any text anywhere, click on the 繁 or 簡 button and have your clipboard converted then paste it wherever you like.
addons.mozilla.org/addon/6113
I wonder if I should make a thread about useful tools for learning Chinese instead of putting it here…
If anyone has any questions about either of the two tools either send me a PM or just ask here and I’ll respond.
(Here is a picture. Sohu.com is normally in simplified. I also used PopupChinese’s tone color plugin just to show another potentially useful tool, however I don’t like it. I don’t think I would make the effort to remember the tones and I would just look at the color, similar to reading pinyin under hanzi instead of remembering the reading. If you want this one, you can find it here, popupchinese.com/chinese/download)
I use Zhong Wen 0.2.1. I used peraperakun for a while and often found it would turn itself off and I would constantly have to turn it on in the menu again and again. I don’t have any issues with Zhong Wen. Well…perhaps just one. The wife gets annoyed with it as it pops up on everything and often gets in the way of copying words or clicking links. So I suppose both require a little patience in different areas.