ShinKanjiFAQ
Q1: How do I enter a kanji to look it up?
You will need to use one of the builtin Japanese input
methods provided by apple. In the videos section of this website there
is a walkthrough on how to do this. In a future release additional ways
of looking up a kanji will be provided:
- Japanese specific character recognition
- search by radicals and stroke order
Q2: There is a kanji I looked up which is not in the program?
ShinKanji’s database contains more than 2300 kanjis. I will
happily add any new ones which are suggested to me. With version 1.0 a
change in the database requires a new version download. Starting with
version v1.1 the latest version of the database can be downloaded other
the air
Q3: I think this program is awesome but I think feature XXX
will make it even better, how do I ask for it?
ShinKanji is actively being developped by myself. I have a
list of pending features already but I am glad for any suggestion. I
can’t garantee when they will be available in the store but I can tell
you what priority they will have in my list.
Q4: You keep talking about the list of features you intend to
implement, can we take a peek?
Although I can’t give you a date at which any of this will be
available, here is the list. I will also update the status on each
feature.
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Automatically download DB updates | Done in v1.1 |
| Get kanji information from Kanjidic, use taka only for vector definition and structure | Done in v2.1 |
| Support for japanese to english dictionary lookup based on jmdict | in work for v3.0 |
| Support for list of kanjis | Done in v2.0 |
| List all word starting with the kanji, ending with the kanji, containing the kanji | in work for v3.0 |
| Support for taking notes on kanjis | planned |
| Support for reporting errors in the database | in work for v2.2.3 |
| Support for additional input method: radicals + stroke counts | Done in v2.1 |
| Support for additional input method: one and maybe 2 character recognitions | Done in v2.2 |
| Support for EPWING format dictionaries | Planned |
Q5: What is the difference between Shinkanji, Shinkanji-lite and Shinkanji-search-free?
Shinkanji is the full feature (for pay) application. Shinkanji-lite and Shinkanji-search-free are both free application with a subset of the Shinkanji features. Together they demonstrate the complete set of features in Shinkanji:
Shinkanji-lite:
shows all the kanji information including:
- readings
- meanings (in all available languages based on kanjidic2)
- animated stroke order diagrams
- structural navigation
On the other hand the kanji searches are limited to a set of predefined list.
Shinkanji-search-free:
shows all the kanji searches available including:
- Handwriting recognition using a large drawing area, undo/redo support and 10 proposed kanjis
- Multi-Radical search enabling selection of multiple radicals and stroke numbers (absolute, minimum, maximum or ranges)
- search by meanings
- search by readings (on-yomi, kun-yomi or both)
- direct search using apple provided japanese keyboards, kana pad and handwriting recognition
On the other hand the only information displayed about the found kanji is the english meanings and the kanji itself
