Pleco/Oxford C>E E>C Version 2 is finally here!

Language Learning Chinese
1

The new version of the Pleco/Oxford C>E E>C dictionary for Palm OS is now available on;
www.pleco.com
It’s free to existing registered users. I’ve got it, and it has some useful new stuff such as flashcard function (you can use the Pleco Chinese fonts with that I think, so if you only want Chinese display functions for a dictionary and a flashcard program then you needn’t install CJKOS).

It also has a create custom and import dictionary function which looks good although I haven’t tried it yet.

2

What do you think of it ? How good is the flashcard thingy ? Is there anything you don’t like about it ? Would you recommend it?

3

I like it. I briefly tried the flashcard thing. It works fine, although I think you can only lift entries straight out of the dictionary - you can’t add your own notes. There again, you could presumably create your own entry in a custom dictionary and then use it in the flashcard app. It’ has an entry panel in the lower half of the screen for writing the character yourself before you reveal the answer.
Actually, I’m not attempting to learn characters at the moment so I don’t use the flashcard app.; instead I’m learning some vocabulary items by using pinyin in the Supermemo program produced/converted by Mapletop Software.

As for the main dictionary app, there are some small improvements such as remembering searched terms between sessions. It’s definitely a good dictionary program. If I only wanted a pocket-sized dictionary without all the other applications of the Palm, however, I’d still opt for the Oxford Chinese Minidictionary (a real book) over the Pleco Oxford conversion, for reasons I’ve mentioned before which I reproduce below:

"I like the Pleco/Oxford dictionary for Palm OS but it has a serious flaw from my point of view. When you look up from pinyin to English, the example Chinese phrases (to show use of the word in different contexts) are only shown in characters, not in pinyin.

For this reason, I prefer to use the Oxford Chinese Minidictionary at home. It’s pocket-sized and it’s especially designed for English learners of Chinese. It has loads of useful contextual and grammatical information, radical and character indices and a separate section for measure words."