July 29, 2009

Important change:
When searching for Pinyin words, do not use spaces to separate the individual syllables.
This will work: nihao, beijing, zhong1wen2
This won't work: ni hao, bei jing, zhong1 wen2
Pinyin word searches now behave the same way as Chinese words searches.

Help! Where is ...
- Pinyin tone mark and tone color settings -> Click the "Show Display Options" link after making a query
- Text annotation -> Click "Look up All Chinese Words in a Text" and choose "Inline / popup annotation" from the second option field
Don't worry, MDBG has a new look, but all the tools are still here!

New features:
- Mandarin pronunciation can now be searched and displayed using ㄅㄆㄇㄈ (Zhuyin Fuhao)
- Pinyin can now be displayed either with or without spaces between the syllables
You can set your preferences through the "Show Display Options" link after making a query.

New page layout:
All of the features of the "Basic word dictionary", "Advanced word dictionary" and "Annotation" pages are now merged into a single page called "Word dictionary". In this page you can easily switch between "Look up Chinese, Pinyin or English" and "Look up All Chinese Words in a Text":

"Look up Chinese, Pinyin or English"
Search for entries in the dictionary by Chinese, Pinyin, English or any combination of the three. A powerful search syntax allows you to make more specific searches, just click the "Show Examples and Help" link for more information about the search syntax or click the "Advanced Search" link for a wizard help you get started.

"Look up All Chinese Words in a Text"
Just paste a piece of text and the dictionary will split the text into individual Chinese words and show details for each of them. You can display results in a table form showing the words in the order in which they appear in the original text (handy for translating a text), as a vocabulary list (handy for getting an overview of the words used in a text) or using inline / mouse over popup annotation.

Additionally several small changes have been made to the user interface to make it less cluttered and more user friendly.

Also recently released: MDBG Chinese Reader 5.3 (free update for all v5.X users)

We've updated the internal "engine" for greater performance on a wider range of systems, including the new netbook computers with Intel Atom processors. On slower systems, you'll notice much faster mouse cursor motions (no more "drag").

For Windows 7 RC1 users, you'll be pleased to know that this update also marks our first official support for Windows 7 RC1 (both x86 an x64).

Installation: When starting Chinese Reader, accept the automatic update and you'll receive the free update to Version 5.3.

Not using MDBG Chinese Reader yet? Download it now and try it out for free.

Support MDBG by purchasing our products, thanks!