Another round of bug fixes and tweaks - we've now reached a level where there's no longer really any reason anyone should ever have to go digging in /Android/data/com.pleco.chinesesystem/, by adding in-app access to the only two functions it was still needed for (user dictionary and custom font file installation).
The next couple of Android releases are going to focus on testing out various new cross-platform-code-heavy features that we want to have ready to go in iOS 2.3 but which we didn't quite manage to finish during the initial Android version development process.
New Features
Design Tweaks
Bug Fixes
The next couple of Android releases are going to focus on testing out various new cross-platform-code-heavy features that we want to have ready to go in iOS 2.3 but which we didn't quite manage to finish during the initial Android version development process.
New Features
- Greatly simplified the process of installing a custom Chinese font file - it can now be done through Settings / General without having to kill and reopen Pleco.
- Also greatly simplified the process of installing and backing up user dictionary databases - the former can be done through the "Add User" command in Manage Dicts, the latter through the "Backup Database" command on the individual dictionary's configuration screen.
- Added an option (in Settings / Dictionary / Main screen interface / Portrait (or Landscape) orientation) to hide the gray "definition toolbar" that appears at the bottom of dictionary entries (but only in two-panel mode).
- Added an option (in Settings / Dictionary / Main screen interface / Portrait (or Landscape) orientation) to replace the microphone and OCR buttons in the input selection toolbar with Full and Wild buttons, mimicking the design of our iOS software.
Design Tweaks
- Made merged multi-dict search ignore Pinyin tones for multi-syllable words, which should improve its ability to merge entries from dictionaries with slightly different interpretations of Pinyin. (mostly an issue with neutral tones)
- Made the flashcard batch "rebuild from dict entries" command clear out any previous custom flashcard definitions, so that cards will always pull text from their linked dictionary entries on a "convert to custom card."
- Shrank and de-3Dified the "clear" button icon in the search bar, to fit with the rest of the app's theme better.
- Android-ified the handwriting interface a bit by getting rid of the button background on the "undo" button, changing the "night mode" stroke area background to pure black, and making the backspace icon thinner and more Android-like.
- Made the handwriting results box scroll back to the first item after every new stroke.
- Made the OCR system remember the last recognition area size when reopened.
- Made files in the "Updated" section of Add-ons display their updated dates.
- Made the full-text highlight easier to spot by coloring the background behind the highlighted text rather than the text itself.
- Made the default user interface layout on the Galaxy Note that of a normal-size smartphone rather than a 7" tablet.
- Made the Chars and Words screens correctly jump to the top of their respective lists when a new character is selected.
- Reduced the amount of keyboard "flicker" when starting up in handwriting input mode on devices running Android 4.0 (though we haven't been able to eliminate it altogether yet).
- Added an alert pointing people to our own online store on the first attempt to make an in-app purchase after previously canceling one.
- Made the OCR system copy text that you "send to reader" to the clipboard, so that you can easily get back to it later.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that caused the handwriting input system to enter a new character after every stroke on Android 4.0 when using the Google Pinyin IME.
- Fixed a bug that could occasionally cause purchases made through Android Market to fail to register correctly in Pleco's system until you "Restore Market Purchases."
- Fixed a bug that could cause characters tapped on in the "Chars" tab, or in the "Radical" button below stroke order diagrams, to bring up info on their opposite-character-set versions.
- Fixed a bug that could cause dictionary search "from first" to fail to trigger correctly when switching a dictionary with handwriting or radical input open.
- Reduced the frequency of connection timeout errors when downloading a file in Add-ons.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the order of dictionaries in Manage Dicts to reset itself on a dictionary update. (it will continue to reset on a new paid dictionary install, though)
- Fixed a bug that made the character bar at the top of the definition screen scroll vertically instead of horizontally on devices running Android 4.0.
- Fixed a bug that prevented our new install-addon-from-SD-card feature from working correctly after a device reset.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the "Radical" appearing below stroke order diagrams to be in the wrong character set (simplified or traditional).
- Fixed a bug that prevented the "Radical" below stroke order diagrams from appearing at all on normal-size smartphones in two-panel mode in portrait orientation.
- Fixed a bug that prevented full-text search results that partially overlapped with a dictionary entry headword from being highlighted correctly.
- Fixed a bug that caused changes to settings for score-based flashcard test subject selection to fail to be reflected on the screen.
- Fixed an obscure bug that could prevent a few devices from activating any paid add-ons correctly.
- Fixed a few very obscure crashing bugs (mostly in the add-on manager screen).