Fill-in-the-blanks Suggestion

[Shun]

Hi, I've read that the four-character limit for Fill-in-the-blanks tests is going to be eliminated. Could one also make it so that the user can't tell beforehand how many characters the word/phrase prompted for is composed of? This could work as follows:

For a word of any length, the user is first presented with a white rectangle to fill, with a grayed-out white rectangle next to it. When the user has entered the first character/pinyin and confirmed it with a two-finger tap, the second rectangle will turn white, a third grayed-out rectangle will appear next to it, and so on. If the phrase is more than 4 characters long, the user would be able to swipe left-right to move within the phrase. When the user thinks they have entered the complete word, they tap "Done".

The extra "Done" tap needed is a small disadvantage, though it would be outweighed by the positive learning effect of not getting a strong hint when presented with a new definition. Perhaps one could also make Pleco sense when the user has entered the correct phrase and then automatically switch to the answer screen. I think users would understand this UI change intuitively. Thanks.

 

[mikelove]

The tentative plan is actually to just have a single text input field - get rid of the boxes altogether. (we'll highlight characters in that field with different colors based on their correct / incorrect status, something that was nigh-on impossible when our flashcard system launched on iOS 3 but is quite easy to do now)

 

[Shun]

That sounds great, of course.

 

[rustifer]

Sorry for resurrecting this 9 year old thread... but has the 4 character limit fix been implemented yet for fill-in-the-blanks flash cards?

I've spent probably an hour poking around through settings trying stuff but I just can't figure out how to get around the 4 character limit.

Any help appreciated!

Love the app!

Edit: just realized I'm In the IOS forum section. I actually use an android. Has it been fixed on one platform (IOS) but not the other (android)?

 

[mikelove]

It’ll be fixed in our next major update on both platforms. (But we’re not sharing anything about release dates until the day the beta of it ships)

That being said, having worked with the in-development version a great deal, personally I dislike this change and would not use it myself - long fill-ins make it easy to make stupid mistakes and disrupt the sense of “flow.”

 

[Shun]

I agree, I wouldn't use it myself now, either. I prefer Self-graded tests now.

 

[rustifer]

What do you mean by stupid mistakes? Any examples? Like using an equivalent/acceptable word but it still gets marked wrong because it's not the exact word used on the card? I'm okay with that. I'm still closer to the beginning of my language journey and don't know too many synonyms for a lot of words.

I can't really write characters (yet) either so I like being able to type in an answer. I'm getting great practice with the short phrases and would love to get that same practice with the longer phrases.

 

[mikelove]

I mostly mean misspellings, similar characters, that sort of thing. Certainly your experience might differ from mine though.

 

[rustifer]

I mostly mean misspellings, similar characters, that sort of thing. Certainly your experience might differ from mine though.

Makes sense. Thanks Mike. Looking forward to the next major release.

 

[Hailibu]

Makes sense. Thanks Mike. Looking forward to the next major release.

我也是。I check the website and this forum on a regular basis on the off chance there may be something about the beta or Pleco 四。