yes, it does, but the optical character recognition add-on won't work

pleco's website answers a ton of questions about the app

Bear in mind that even without the OCR, pleco's paid for packages include their great handwriting input to look words up.

So far I've had no trouble quickly drawing any character that I couldn't recognise, and I'm sure most skritterers will be the same.

Thanks to icebear, I learned about this great feature today. Wish I had known about it while in China, as Pleco's OCR just plain sucks for anything other than textbooks (for which Skritter has all the lists already anyway).

quick question about pleco. I actually don't have the app.

After looking up words on the app and saving desired words, will the saved words all show up in app's SRS system. Is it that simple?

I use one of the many free dictionary apps that are available, and it has a flashcard feature which is cool, except it doesn't have SRS.

I've said it before that I think only area that Skritter is lacking a necessary feature is English to Chinese definition practice (without interfering with writing practice). I really don't like the interface of Anki, and I couldn't figure out how to use it after trying nearly a dozen occasions. Not joking at all, and I'm not as dumb as I sound right now.

I'm probably going to purchase the pleco app, primarily for the reason of English to Chinese definition practice with SRS. In the short term, SRS isn't important, but in the long term it makes a big difference.

You can access several dictionaries for free through Pleco, and you don't need to buy their handwriting input either. The iPod already comes with that feature, it's just a matter of changing your language settings.

I haven't paid for anything from Pleco, and even so the free features are extremely useful. I don't use their SRS though so I can't comment on that.

@junglegirl I'm guessing the free version of Pleco doesn't include flashcards, right?

No, that's a paid feature. As I recall you can pick and choose which features you want to buy, or get the whole package.

Most features have a demo mode that you can download and try out first. I can't remember if the flashcards have a demo mode anymore but you should check it out.

Something in Anki's defence, though, is that in Anki you are prompted without any clues, whereas in Pleco you are made to chose from alternatives, which makes answering a lot easier.

@Olaf
choose from alternatives? I don't understand, can you elaborate a bit?

@Olaf Not true. Pleco's flashcard system is incredibly flexible, to the point of confusion for beginners. My own preferences had me quizzed in a way very similar to Anki, with simple one side to another and grades of 1-4.

Tell me about it. Took me a while to figure out how to make Pleco show only simplified characters with Traditional characters next to it.
Apparently you can also test your reading, but have not tested that yet.

I don't quite understand this one. May be this is because I don't have any one of these Apple devices. It seems that one can already draw the Chinese characters after adding any one of the Chinese keyboards. Than, what's the use of the pleco's handwriting input?

@pts: You are exactly right; there is no use.

pts, because the iOS handwriting input is very poor. On my ipod it takes 5+ seconds to recognise a character. Pleco's is instant. Pleco's is also fullscreen. It also does a better job at recognising characters, and gives you more characters to pick from if you did a bad job at writing it.

Byzanti is right, Pleco's handwriting recognizer is worlds better than Apple's built in one. Most Pleco users tend to buy bundles anyway which has all the addons including the handwriting recognizer.

Thanks to all that answered my question. I now understand better.

Icebear, maybe I've missed something, will look into it deeper.

To answer your question, Bohan, in my setup when I'm shown a card I'm given answers to choose from, like a multiple-choice test.

Olaf, you can change the type of question. Multiple choice is only one. One I'm fond of tests tones. Pleco is totally dedicated to Chinese, unlike Anki. And I second the other comments on the first-class handwriting recognition.

Margaret

I started off with ordinary flashcards for practice to complement Skritter, but now am devoted entirely to Pleco's flashcards. Wonderful practice, with male and female voices, for those in-between moments when Skritter is not convenient. Good off-line practice.

could you please tell me how to see up pleco flashcards like anki?

@gwilymjames, a good question to ask at www.plecoforums.com

Once you have your character in the pleco handwriting app will it then give you an English translation