Features
JISHOP/Android has a tab-based interface. The interface consists of the following screens
The Kanji Search tab is used for searching in the kanji database.
The search parameters are specified in the top part of the window:
- In the Word box, you can provide the reading (onyomi or kunyomi) of the kanji you're looking for, either in rōmaji or in kana. If you know the Japanese spelling of the word, you can provide it there as-is.
- The four cells in the second row contain the selected radicals.
- The Search button runs the search by the specified parameters (reading, radicals, etc.).
The lower part of the main window is occupied by the radical table. From version it can run in one of the two modes:
- In Wide mode (default), the table is divided into pages. A page contains all radicals with the same stroke count. You can scroll between pages by means of the arrow buttons in the table header. The traditional Android-style panning gesture only performs vertical scrolling within a page.
- In the Classic mode, the structure of the table is practically identical to that of JISHOP/Windows. Radicals are arranged in columns by stroke count, except for the table bottom. Stroke count is displayed in the table header.
Clicking on a radical in the table selects it and places it into a free cell; clicking an occupied cell clears it.
If you tap and hold a radical in the table, the table will collapse - all radicals will disappear, except for ones that are related to the one tapped. In JISHOP/PC you can get the same result by right-clicking a radical twice. The relation between radicals is defined loosely; two radicals are considered related if:
- They look alike
- One contains the other
- One historically evolved from the other
- One if an abbreviation of the other
- They often go together
To restore the full table, click the Menu button on your phone, then tap on the "Show all radicals" command.
The "Categories" menu command also performs a table collapse, but it lets you collapse a table by a semantic or graphic radical category - top radicals, enclosing radicals, people, animals, katakana characters, etc.
The "Radical Info" menu command switches the table into the radical info mode. In this mode, clicking on a radical would bring up a panel with a brief note about a radical - usage, placement, phonetic value, similar or related radicals. In JISHOP/Windows you can get the same result by right-clicking the radical with the Shift button held down. To escape from this mode, tap on "Radical Info" again.
JISHOP also supports searching by word meaning (i. e. English translation).
To use it, you have to click the 
Details button:
To change even more search parameters, click the "More" button. These parameters are:
- The "Stroke count" box lets you limit your search to kanji with the specified number of strokes. It's handy if you're used to traditional Chinese character dictionaries.
- Checking the "Enable deep decompositions" box turns on searching by deep decomposition of kanji into radicals. It's useful when you're looking by primitive strokes. For example, if you're looking for the "dot" radical, you won't normally find the "dog" kanji. But with deep decomposition enabled, you will.
- Checking the "Enable nonstandard decompositions" box makes JISHOP consider non-standard decompositions of kanji into radicals. Some popular misconceptions and radical misidentifications are covered by this option.
- Checking the "Selected characters specify the kanji fully" box makes the search only look for characters that consist precisely of the selected radicals. Without this check, radical search finds all kanji that contain the selected radicals and maybe other radicals as well.
Deep and Nonstandard modes persist between runs of JISHOP. The rest of these extra parameters are reset to their default values.
When you click "Search", JISHOP first goes through its kanji list. The matching kanji are displayed on the Results tab. If not a single kanji was found, and either meaning or reading was specified, the app searches the compound words dictionary for the same reading/meaning, and displays the results on the Compounds tab.
The reading can be specified either in rōmaji , or in hiragana, or in katakana. You can specify long vowels either with a colon, or as "ou/uu".
You can also provide the Japanese word directly in the "Word" box.
The Results tab contains the list of the found kanji and the dictionary entry for one of those.
You can select a kanji in the list by tapping on its line. If only one kanji is found, there's no list. The name of the kanji in the list is its most basic meaning; it does not necessarily cover the full range of possible translations. To see all possible translations, navigate to the dictionary entry of the kanji.
The layout of the dictionary entry is identical to that of the JISHOP/PC; you can find the description in the JISHOP/PC's manual. All kanji in the entry are hyperlinks - if you tap a kanji with your finger, the kanji's own dictionary entry will be displayed. Clicking the large kanji image will activate the Compounds tab and place the kanji into a search cell.
To navigate from the kanji entry back to the list, click the phone's Back button.
Since v.1.70, the Decompose command invokes the interactive tree decomposition screen. On that screen, you can see the way kanji is built from its elements. All elements are clickable. To invoke the old action of the Decompose command - i. e. collapse the radical table - press the Menu button on the decomposition screen.
From v.1.50, JISHOP supports outputing Japanese pronunciation of words as spoken voice.
To listen to a word, press on the 
icon
next to it.
Since v.1.60, JISHOP will take advantage of local Android text-to-speech facility, if a Japanese engine and voice is present on the device. To see how can you install one, refer to this guide. If a local Japanese-capable engine is not found, JISHOP will fall back to the free Internet-based service provided by Microsoft Translator. In that scenario, spoken pronunciation requires an active Internet connection.
Sometimes the Japanese spelling of the word does not uniquely identify its pronunciation because of the existence of homographs (English example: "read" as in "I read every day" vs. "read" as in "I have read"). In such cases, it's up to the text-to-speech engine which pronunciation to use.
JISHOP/Android supports retrieval and display of online animated Stroke Order Diagrams (SODs), like the Strokes plugin does for JISHOP/PC. To see the SOD, tap the "Stroke order". The SODs are normally taken from the Internet, so for this command you must have an active connection. As of release 1.10, offline storage of stroke-order diagrams is not supported.
The menu commands on the entry screen are:
- Back - Displays the previous kanji (like Back in a Web browser)
- Forward - Displays the next kanji (like Forward in a Web browser)
- Decompose - Displays the way the current kanji is composed of elements in a tree form
- Search for words - Activates the Compounds tab, places the current kanji into a search box
- Stroke Order - Brings up the animated SOD, with options for SOD source selection
- Information - Brings up a sheet of miscellaneous kanji information, such as its numbers in various dictionaries and codes in various codepages
The Compounds tab is used for searching in the compound words dictionary.
Two modes of search are supported: search by reading/meaning and search by kanji. You can switch between modes by tapping the respective commands in the menu.
You can specify the reading in rōmaji, hiragana, or katakana, just like on the main tab.
In the search by kanji mode, you can select up to four kanji to search for. The "Position" checkbox determines whether the kanji's position in the compound word will be taken into account during search. To place a kanji into a search cell, you have to locate it in the Results tab, and click either the large kanji image, or the "Search for words" command in the menu.
A free kanji cell can have one of the two values - "?" or "-". You can cycle between those by tapping on the cell. The question mark means that on this position, any character would fit. The dash means that this position must be blank in the compound word. In other words, if you search for AB--, the system will find all words with precisely two characters - A and B (in this order), maybe with some hiragana in the middle. If you search for AB??, then the words of 3 or more kanji will be found as well, as long as the first kanji are AB. The "-" sign is taken into account both in position-aware and in position-independent search mode.
The Search button starts the search. The words, once found, are displayed below. The output format is identical to that of JISHOP/PC. All kanji in the compound words are hyperlinks - you can bring up the kanji's dictionary entry by clicking on it.
The Groups tab is used for managing study groups of kanji.
Once you find a kanji in the dictionary, you have an option of adding it to a study group. On the Results tab, when facing a dictionary entry, click "Add to group" in the bottom menu. You can have many groups, but only one active one - that's the one where the adde kanji go. Each kanji in the group can be marked as "hard" or "easy". This mark finds its use in the kanji drill setup.
To change the active group, click on the group list in the top part of the screen. To create, rename, or delete groups, use the menu commands.
Tapping the kanji on the group tab brings up its dictionary entry. Long-tapping a line lets you mark the kanji as easy or hard, or remove it from the group. Easy characters are rendered in grey, hard ones - in red.
The menu commands are:
- Groups
- New... - lets you create a new group. The new group becomes active.
- Rename... - lets you rename a group. The name cannot be blank.
- Delete - deleted the group. You cannot delete the last group - at least one must remain.
The Drill is for memorizing kana and kanji characters.
The drill exists in four varieties: hiragana, katakana, preset kanji, and study groups. In each variety, you're presented with a series of Japanese characters and have to guess reading or meaning (for kanji) for each, from 4 choices. At the end of the drill, you are given a percentage mark and the correct answers.
The Back/Next buttons navigate in the list of drill characters. The "Done" button finishes the drill and brings up the marks screen. It only becomes available once you give an answer to each drill question. The "Hint" button gives you the right answer; go ahead and cheat on the test if you feel like it.
The amount and the nature of the kana drill characters are determined by JISHOP's settings.
The preset kanji are some groups that come with JISHOP and are arranged by the general area of meaning - animals, body parts, colors, etc. You have an option of running the drill within your own study groups.