Perapera-kun
***Updated 11.1.2006
Latest version: 0.5.22 (Firefox 2.0 Compatibility Release)
***Just like the Rikai-chan plugin for which this is modded, you need to also install a dictionary plugin. These can be found on his site: http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/ Scroll down, skip step #1, and install just the dictionary extension from step #2. ***
Added the despirately needed ability to export words you highlight to the latest version called Rikaichan 0.5.12 and I call it Perapera-kun after my study site. This is how it works:
- First goto the Perapera-kun options in the extensions menu to choose where your save file is located
- When you have a word displayed in the popup window press the CTRL key and it will add the top word to your vocab list.
- You can choose output format (EDICT or tabbed), and whether to append な to な adjectives, する to する verbs, and to remove kanji from words usually written in kana.
It exports in Shift_JIS format so make sure you open/import it with a program that reads this format. It will look like jibberish under a non Japanese windows system thanks to Mircosoft defaultly reading every file as the systems default encoding rather than looking at the file!! Not a big deal really, but annoying. (Constructive) comments and ideas welcome. I plan to at least change the icons for the next version to something nicer than a red book so its easier to distinguish from the Chinese version of Perapera-kun (for those who are studying both languages like me). Enjoy.
Also if anyone has any ideas for other features to add, please submit a comment here and I will collect them and try to add them in the next release. So far I have:
- Ability to choose which entry in the popup to export and not default to the one at the top
- Better dictionary file???
Love the plugin. Was using rikaichan for a long time, but sadly it isn’t updated too often. I left a comment on the FF extensions page too, btw. I have trouble getting the names dictionary to work. Like hovering over 群馬 only gives me info on the individual characters.
Also, as I mentioned on the FF site, combining this with a sidebar like moji could make for a killer study app.
same problem with the names dict.
also the options dialog needs to be smaller (its still too big even at 1152×864), and it needs an ok or apply button.
Other than that its totally awesome, great work!
[...] Perapera-kun is actually a mod of rikaichan that uses the same dictionaries. It has a few additional features, though, such as exporting vocabulary to a file for later perusal. I decided to switch to this because of Chinesepera-kun, which is basically Perapera-kun for Chinese. I could probably stay with Rikaichan while using Chinesepera-kun, but I like consistency. [...]
just found out that pressing enter changes the dictionary. You need to do it twice tho, since the first time, it changes to kanji view. Shift also cycles the dictionaries.
Tks to your application, my level of Japanese has greatly increased lately! Saving words directly on a file is a real good idea!
And to make it even more convenient, 1 modification is needed:
Make available the choice of keyboard shortcut.
(when I do a copy/paste of any word in my browser (Ctrl+C or Ctrl+V), perapera-kun saves the last word once again, or a “って” in the file (because of the Ctrl key pressed). Really annoying…
Look forward to the next versions!
perapera-kun is fantastic. I really got exicted when I realized it works in Thunderbird as well as Firefox — being able to trivially read email from my colleagues is a huge win.
The current perapera-kun doesn’t work with the final Thunderbird 2.0 (only up through 2.0a1). If there’s any opportunity for an update that would be great!
Is it possible to have a dictionary to lookup the other way around? ie. hover an english word and get its japanese equivalent?
Hi,
Many thanks to you for developing Perapera-kun. I live and work in Japan, and I use it everyday. I cannot say it saved my life, but without Perapera-kun, life would be harder…
My message is also to ask for a favour. I was using Perapera-kun as a Thunderbird plugin and it was working flawlessly in a beta Thunderbird version (I cannot remember which one, sorry…
but it’s not compatible with latest versions of the program. I needed to update to Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 and now the Perapera-kun doesn’t work anymore (cannot install it, not compatible).
Is it difficult to make a new release for Thunderbird ? Did you do some specific steps to allow using Perapera-kun in Thunderbird or was it working by compatibility with Firefox ?
Could you think about making a release compatible with Thunderbird ? It’s really helpful to read Japanese emails, very “productive” I must say.
I would be happy to help if you needed, please let me know (my email is gmeurant[at]yahoo.fr )
Thanks again for this great tool anyway !!
[...] a Facebook user and are learning Japanese, give the Kanji Box app a whirl. And no cheating by using Perapera-kun or Rikai-chan at the same [...]
I second the earlier comment relating to the Ctrl key: making the Ctrl key a Peraperakun command all by itself really does interfere with every other shortcut in Firefox that is a combination of Ctrl and another key (of which, needless to say, there are a great many).
[...] characters. To know more about this plugin, you can either check out it’s official website at Perapera.wordpress.com, or you could just head to the addons page to download it. But wait, that’s not all! In order [...]
[...] gets better if you are at home and you have Firefox, because then you can use Perapera-kun. Perapera-kun builds on what Rikai did. There is another tool called Rikai-chan that does the same [...]