Welcome -- what you will find on this site

This is the home page to Pablo and Pingrid.

• Pablo, a free dictionary for Windows. Probably the best for beginners.
  current version of Pablo: 2.18b

         Pablo supports the following languages:
         Chinese - English (CC-CEDICT dictionary)
         chinois - français (dictionnaire CC-CFDICT)
         Chinesisch - Deutsch (HanDedict)
         kínai - magyar (CHDICT)

• Pingrid, a clever and effective game to train your Chinese vocabulary.
  current version of Pingrid: 3.7e

• Tips on how to install Chinese speech synthesis in Windows.

Pablo gets an update

Good news for Pablo users, the program gets an upgrade. Version 2.15 contains various improvements and 2 main features.

Upgrade in handwriting recognition

I have worked to improve the recognition. It is especially noticeable if you write in a cursive form, that is, by linking together some of the strokes, as often happens in natural handwriting.

Improved definition area
When displaying info for a single character, the definition character now shows the alternate pinyins of the same character, as well as the most frequent words using the character. In addition, Chinese characters in the definition area now work as hyperlinks: clicking on them searches for the word directly.

Learning Chinese -- PABLO, my personal Chinese dictionary

Introducing Pablo A treat for Chinese learning beginners: a compact, nifty, featured-packed and free Chinese-English dictionary for Windows. Pablo is probably the best Chinese-English dictionary alternative for beginners.

Unrivaled search features

• English, Chinese and pinyin
• Find a character from its radical
• (exclusive!) Find a character from its various elements
• Simplified and traditional characters
• Quick navigation (no java, no long downloads!)

All graphical interface

• Handwritten character recognition
• The best collection of character animations (4,700+ characters!)
• Navigate through search results with one click

Based on the acclaimed CEDICT Chinese-English database, over 110,000 entries. Pablo also supports German, French and Hungarian dictionaries.

⇦ click to zoom

1 download	Get the installer from the Download box in the left part of this page. This is a self-extracting file that installs or updates Pablo automatically.
2 support	Pablo is a one-man effort. Please donate to support developments and updates. You can try out Pablo for free, but if you like it and continue using it, it is only fair to contribute a small amount, don't you think? Suggested amount is $15, any amount is welcome-- feedback from users is a treat!
3 make it speak	To install a Chinese voice on your computer, follow the step-by-step instructions here.
4 try Pingrid	Be sure to check out Pingrid, a fun and effective game to train your Chinese vocabulary.

For tips and support, visit the online forum at: http://pablopingrid.freeforums.net

Discover PINGRID, complete Chinese vocabulary game

Make your learning time 100% useful

Pingrid was born as a clever game designed to learn Chinese vocabulary.

Later, it incorporated a powerful spaced repetition model, to detect the words you need to train and therefore make your learning time 100% useful.

What makes Pingrid unique is that it is completely tailored for Chinese. In Chinese, you need to learn the 3-way relation between writing, meaning and pronunciation. 

Pingrid combines two game modes.

1: Picking words		2: Handwriting
Picking words in the grid lets you associate word, sound and meaning. Its power: super fast training. Priceless when you are serious about learning and have sizeable vocabulary to absorb.		Handwriting lets you draw characters with the mouse. Its power: active memorization. If you can write a word, then you are much more certain to recognize it.

Pingrid's adaptive, spaced repetition model directs your effort to the words that do need repetition. No more cramming, your training time is 100% useful.

1 download	Get the installer from the Download box in the left part of this page. This is a self-extracting file that installs or updates Pingrid automatically.
2 support	Pingrid is a one-man effort. Please donate to support developments and updates. You can try out Pingrid for free, but if you like it and continue using it, it is only fair to contribute a small amount, don't you think? Suggested amount is $15, any amount is welcome-- feedback from users is a treat!
3 make it speak	To install a Chinese voice on your computer, follow the step-by-step instructions here.
4 try Pablo	Be sure to check out Pablo, a great Chinese-English dictionary for beginners.

For tips and support, visit the online forum at: http://pablopingrid.freeforums.net

Pablo spricht Deutsch - Pablo parle français !

Open Pablo's options and select your language. Pablo supports the following four great language databases:

English CEDICT
German HanDeDict
Français CC-CFDICT
Hungarian CHDICT

Introducing Pablo and Pingrid's support forum

Hello Pablo and Pingrid users

Your feedback is important to make Pablo and Pingrid always better. In order to give more space for your comments and make reading them easier, I am pleased to introduce the support forum.

Check it out at:
http://pablopingrid.freeforums.net

A special category is dedicated to receiving your suggestions for future evolutions of Pablo and Pingrid.
 
Thanks for your loyalty.

Install a Chinese voice in Windows

A frequently asked question on this blog is: how to install Chinese voice in Windows? Voice synthesis is a great enhancement to Pablo and Pingrid.

SOLUTION 1: Use free speech engine Ekho

Download the installer from http://sourceforge.net/projects/e-guidedog/files/latest/download
or go to Ekho's home page http://www.eguidedog.net/ekho.php (look for the paragraph: "here are some recommended versions".)
Download the file suited for your system and open it to install the package.

Then go to Windows Control Panel and click on the Speech icon. Change the Voice Selection from default to the newly installed one.
Click on the Audio Output button and check that the voice is directed to the correct audio driver or sound card.

SOLUTION 2: Use Microsoft Chinese voice

Quality is not as good as Ekho but is is free as well. Here are some step-by-step instructions, reposted from a comment by Benjamin Lim on this blog (thanks, Benjamin).

Follow the Lingoes link http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/speech.htm
(Lingoes is a very good freeware translation tool).

At the Lingoes webpage look for the following paragraph:
Recommended Excellent TTS Engine
Microsoft Simplified Chinese Voice
PackageFile Size: 1.55 MB
Download: Mirror 1, Mirror 2

Download and it will appear as "Microsoft_TTS_51_chs.msi". Double click on the msi file once it is downloaded

Go to Windows Control Panel and click on the Speech icon. Change the Voice Selection from default to the newly installed one. In my case Microsoft Simplified Chinese. Then click on the Audio Output button and check that the voice is directed to the correct audio driver or sound card.

SOLUTION 3: Commercial voices

Other high-quality voices exist. As far as I know, all of them require buying.