I'm sure this has been discussed many times, and that you guys are working on it, but I'll say it: I need context on the Skritter iOS app! I'd mostly like to see what common words a character appears in. And then maybe example sentences.

See, the problem is that using the iPad is too convenient! I hardly ever use the web app anymore. But I do find I am struggling a bit, partly because I have a big backlog to review, but also because I see a lot of characters in isolation, which makes it very hard for me to remember them: the tones, the pinyin, everything.

Having the radical breakdown of a character is great, and helps me "go down" into the character's logic. But I also really need to "go up" and put the character in the context of where it is used.

Actually maybe it's good: I am forced to think about context a lot more, and search around on my own for it. Maybe it's good for Skritter not to do all the work for me...

Plus one for sample sentences in app... iPad layout

Have you tried Skritter's Pleco integration?

To launch Pleco from Skritter just click on the INFO button in the top right corner of the Skritter character screen, then click on the Pleco button in the top left corner. Now in Pleco, you can view the example sentences in the definition, or you can click on the character, then click on the 字 icon on the top right, then click to see the following information for the character:
- Details: Selected info from the Unihan database
- Strokes: Stroke Order
- Chars: Character Decomposition
- Words: Words that contain the Character

A bit cumbersome, but based on other forum posts, it sounds like the interface is going to be more streamlined in upcoming Pleco versions.

+1 for example sentences, I'm also eagerly awaiting that function.

Come to think of it, it would be pretty cool with a page where you could follow which functions are being worked on and some kind of percentage done. Just to wet the appetite a bit more.. :)

You're talking about the holy grail of software project management- unfortunately it doesn't usually work in the real world.

You don't usually get more work or more accurate predictions from people writing software by asking them for more frequent and/or more precise estimates, in fact sometimes quite the opposite. We get quite a bit of information as it is- lets just wait patiently for new features to arrive.

Another +1 for example sentences. For me they are more useful then mnemonics or even the definition of the words themselves.

@lechuan thank you for the detailed instructions on using Pleco. I should use Pleco more. I feel dumb, because I know Pleco is a great tool, and I do use it, but I have difficulty with its interface, which I find confusing. So that helped, I think I get it now!

One nice thing about the "Words containing X" list on Skritter web is that it's a selection of words -- the Pleco list can be overwhelming, and it seems to be ordered alphabetically by pinyin, not by frequency.

One question about Pleco: the character info choices I get are: Details, Words. I don't see the Strokes and Chars tabs. Do I need to buy an Add-on to see those?

@Kai Carver: For Pleco, you'd need to get the Stroke-order add-on or one of the bundles to access the Strokes and Chars tab.

That being said, the word list on the Skritter web version looks really nice. Hope to see it make it onto the iOS app one day.

@Kai Carver: sorry for the interface confusion. We're making lots of improvements on that front - no more tap-on-the-character-then-tap-on-that-inconspicuous-little-button-in-the-corner-of-the-screen-to-accesss-stroke-order business.

Frequency-ordering for "words containing" is already implemented for our next major update; the "Chars" tab in character info may actually be getting a free version depending on whether or not we can resolve some licensing questions with a new data set we've found, but "Strokes" will remain a paid add-on.

@mikelove Pleco interface improvements are good news! I know it's quite hard to make an easy interface. Look forward to an updated version. Pleco is my go-to mobile dictionary (are there even any others?), just like MDBG is my go-to dictionary on the web.

I believe this post provides more support for the need for a function to import information into Skritter. If I have sentences or phrases in Skritter (either in a notes section or via some Skritter study mechanism), that would easily transfer over to Pleco's reader via pasteboard or some other integration method. With the Pleco reader, users would break down sentences.