Simpler way to convert Pleco decks to Anki?

[CalebLA]

Hello,

Looking for a way to import my current Pleco deck into Anki, and I have a few questions.

1. Regarding converting current Pleco decks, I've read a few forum posts on it, like this Chinese-forums one or this Reddit one, but they are close to ten years old.
I was wondering if there is a simpler way available now? All I want in my flashcards is the 简体字 on the front, and the pinyin (with tones, not numbers) and definition (preferably OCC) on the back. I'm not concerned about colors. For example, when I exported my current deck as a .TXT file, the pinyin for the cards came out in numbers, not tones; e.g:

关心 guan1xin1

2. When I create new flashcards to import them into Ankidroid, is there any way to change the dictionary def. to OCC, instead of the PLC that results?

3. Lastly, is the HSK 3.0 vocabulary deck from Pleco available in such a way that it can be easily imported into Anki?

Thanks in advance!

Caleb

 

[Shun]

Hello Caleb,

I've never exported from Pleco to Anki, but FWIW, I always use Wenlin to convert between pinyin with numbers and tone marks. You'll see other ways when you google for "convert pinyin numbers to tone marks".

On 2: Are the flashcards all saved with OCC? I think OCC is one of those dictionaries that don't support exporting (which isn't Mike's choice, but the publisher's), so if they are, Pleco will probably leave the definition field empty. I suggest you try out the different dictionaries you have installed. At least two thirds of all dictionaries should export fine.

On 3: Yes, you can add the HSK 3.0 flashcards by going into Sidebar > Flashcards > Import / Export > Install Premade Cards > New HSK 3.0, which will create a new HSK 3.0 category that you can then export.

To influence which dictionaries the HSK 3.0 cards link to, you could first go into Import Cards > Import and choose your preferred dictionary order in Definitions > Dictionaries before adding them. The dictionary at the top will be used first, and if it doesn't contain a particular word, Pleco will try the second dictionary, then the third, and so on. If you wish to change the dictionary your flashcards link to after importing, you can do so in the Batch screen.

You're welcome,

Shun

 

[CalebLA]

@Shun, Yes, I am using OCC - I probably should switch then.

I Installed the HSK vocabulary some time ago and was reviewing it in Pleco, but I wanted to export it into Anki.

Does anyone know if there are other ways to do it other than the .TXT file?

Thank you,

Caleb

 

[mikelove]

To be honest, this isn't something we've ever really optimized around - our working assumption is that any deck you can get for Pleco you can also get for Anki (which has a lot more users than we do) so we haven't ever bothered to build a better / streamlined way to dump Pleco decks to Anki. We do have our AnkiDroid integration, but that's designed to work with the area people find our flashcards most useful - bookmarking individual words you encounter for study.

So TXT is pretty much it. We could certainly consider an Anki export feature in the future but at the moment we're actually more concerned with going the other way - allowing people to import Anki decks into Pleco and to more closely mimic Anki review behavior once they're there.

For #2, no, this is a licensing issue - we can't be dumping arbitrary amounts of unencrypted plaintext content outside of our app. (also a factor in why we don't support bulk Anki export)

 

[CalebLA]

One more question: Is there a list of which dictionaries are exportable and which are not?

For example, for the Professional bundle add-on, which dictionaries are exportable?

Thank you!]

Caleb

 

[mikelove]

It can vary based on license renegotiations, so I never like to post a specific list - I generally tell people to assume that any dictionary they buy from us might not be exportable in the future, and that they should not buy a dictionary unless they would consider it a worthwhile purchase without export support.

The ones I'm most confident in mentioning are the ABC Chinese-English and English-Chinese, since that's a very old license and one where for reasons I can't get into, the likelihood of things getting more restrictive in the future is extremely low.