This release introduces two major new features: multiple character input via the Simeji mushroom, and stroke order diagrams in character details, as well as a number of improvements and bug fixes.
Multiple character input has been one of the most often requested features since the introduction of Simeji mushroom support in 1.5. While you had to call Kanji Recognizer from Simeji for each character you needed to input before, now you can input a string of characters with a single invocation. After you select a character from the candidates list, it is added to the input buffer and the drawing area is automatically cleared. You can add as many characters as you want, and return the string to Simeji by pressing the green tick icon on the right. If you want to clear the buffer and start over, you can press the cross icon. As before, this is a premium feature: you can try it out, but to actually be able to return characters to Simeji, you will need to upgrade. IME integration is not limited to Simeji: it works with every input method that supports the mushroom protocol, such as OpenWnn or ATOK. Here is how the new mushroom input mode looks like:
The other major feature added in this release is access to stroke order diagrams from the kanji details view. In the previous release, stroke order diagrams were only available as part of the writing quiz, this release integrates them into the main dictionary as well. Strokes are numbered, with the number displayed near the start of each stroke. To get a more dynamic representation, you can also press the 'Animate' button to play a stroke-by-stroke animation. Diagrams are downloaded on demand from a dedicated server, so you need to have Internet access to use this feature. All other dictionary features are accessible offline. Future versions may introduce the option to download all stroke order data locally, if this feature proves to be popular. A screenshot of a stroke order diagram animation in progress is shown below:
The kanji quiz, introduced in the previous release, was missing a small, but important feature: there was no visual indication of whether your answer was correct or not besides the score at the top. As of 1.7, a green circle is drawn at the bottom of the screen for a correct answer, and a red X for an incorrect one. The correctness marker is displayed for a while, and automatically fades away along with the current character as the quiz advances. Here's how a correct answer is displayed now:
Other changes and improvements in 1.7:
- Configurable size of candidates font (small/medium/large)
- Resources files are automatically deleted on uninstall on Android 2.3 and later
- Improved landscape layouts and initial support for tablets
- Old recognition models (full and alternative) have been removed
- Various bug fixes and stability improvements
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