Pleco: a power-user guide

Overview

Pleco is the Chinese dictionary app I use every day, but most people only ever type a word into the search box and stop there. It’s got a search syntax and a set of dictionaries that reward digging in a little further.

Search tricks

Pulled straight from the Pleco iOS Manual (opens in a new tab) and worth memorizing:

• Mixed search: you can mix characters and Pinyin in the same search, at least for the first three characters, so you don’t need to know every character to find a word.
• ? wildcard: stands in for a single character you don’t know.
• * wildcard: stands in for up to three unknown characters in a row.
• v for ü: Pleco automatically converts a typed v to ü, so you don’t need to hunt for the umlaut on a phone keyboard.
• # full-text search: prefixing a search with #, followed by English or Chinese, runs a full-text search across dictionary entries instead of just headwords.
• C and E buttons: if the icon is hollow instead of filled in, the result is coming from a full-text search. C or E tells you the entry’s language, and a doubled C or E (CC, EE) means it’s a full-text search result within a dictionary of that same language.

Useful dictionaries you might be skipping

The UNI dictionary is Pleco’s name for Unihan (opens in a new tab), the Unicode Consortium’s Han character database. It’s a good source for stroke counts, radical breakdowns, and cross-references between simplified/traditional and variant characters that the regular dictionaries don’t always surface.

The Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters (opens in a new tab) is one I consider indispensable. It breaks down characters by their actual etymology instead of the folk explanations that circulate elsewhere, which makes components stick in memory instead of just being random strokes. I only use the Essentials Edition; I’ve never felt the need to upgrade to the Expert Edition.

You can add it to Pleco one of two ways:

• Buy it directly from Outlier’s site (opens in a new tab), which gives you an activation code to enter in Pleco, or
• Buy it directly inside Pleco, through its in-app dictionary store

Backing up your settings

Pleco has its own backup step, separate from backing up your phone. I fold it into my regular backup routine:

1. Open Pleco on iOS
2. Tap the sidebar menu (three lines)
3. Tap Settings
4. Under Backup/Restore, tap Backup Settings and/or History > Backup Settings Only
5. Tap Save when prompted to name the file

See my critical file backup guide for how this fits into a full backup routine.

Pairing Pleco with Anki

I added a field to my Anki note type that opens the current word directly in Pleco, using Pleco’s x-callback-url scheme:

<a href="plecoapi://x-callback-url/s?q={{Traditional}}">Pleco</a>

Tapping the link on a card takes me straight from the flashcard to Pleco’s dictionary entry for that word, without retyping it.

Forums and staying current

Pleco has an active community at the Pleco Forums (opens in a new tab).

Related

• Critical file backup process guide