I'd like to compose Chinese character text messages by entering pinyin to look up words in Pleco. Once a character is found, I'd like to automatically have it added to a clipboard somewhere, then go on to the next character of my message, and then paste it, too, adding it to the end of the message. Once I've accumulated all the characters to form the message, I'd like to copy and paste the whole thing into a text message of Chinese characters, and send it in that format. Is there a way to do this, or am I asking for a new feature?
accumulate dictionary finds into a message?
- Thread starter JimmyTheSaint
- Start date
Jim[quote="JimmyTheSaint said:
New feature - we've been playing with a few sketches for a "dictionary IME" for a few years but it's one of those super-labor-intensive features that's tough to find the time to implement... maybe if Apple adds third-party IME support in iOS 5 (or the Android version sells really well) we can consider it, though.
Actually, it would be a big improvement if I could just accumulate the characters onto a pasteboard somewhere. When finished, I could go to the pasteboard, copy the whole message, then paste it into the text message to send. Something like the "+" button that automatically accumulates dictionary entries into the most recent flashcard category.
As it stands, I have to:
1) find the proper dictionary entry
2) touch the character three times for the "copy" option to pop up
3) copy it
4) go to the memo app
5) touch the current memo to bring up the keyboard
6) touch-hold the last place in the accumulating message to bring up "paste"
7) paste it
8) go back and get the next character for my message
It's really, really cumbersome. I'm thinking the eight steps could be cut to three.
As it stands, I have to:
1) find the proper dictionary entry
2) touch the character three times for the "copy" option to pop up
3) copy it
4) go to the memo app
5) touch the current memo to bring up the keyboard
6) touch-hold the last place in the accumulating message to bring up "paste"
7) paste it
8) go back and get the next character for my message
It's really, really cumbersome. I'm thinking the eight steps could be cut to three.
JimmyTheSaint said:
Well you can streamline step 2 a bit if you go into Settings / General / Popup Reader and turn on the "Show copy button" option - then you just need to tap on the character once.
An "append to pasteboard" option per numble's suggestion would probably be the way to go - wouldn't be difficult at all to implement, and that would let you accumulate a bunch of characters without switching into Memo.
numble said:
It works like the email composition screen - you can dump a bunch of text into an SMS composition window but you can't do much with it after that. So not likely to provide a significant advantage over that concatenation idea.
Yes, "append to pasteboard" would be sweet.