Hi there, first post.

I am taking a college English class and have been scouring the internet for a dictionary that I can use on my Sony PRS-505 to no avail. So I turn to you guys. Can anyone point me in the direction of a Dictionary so I don't get scoliosis from hauling an analog dictionary to class every day? :)

Hi there, first post.

I am taking a college English class and have been scouring the internet for a dictionary that I can use on my Sony PRS-505 to no avail. So I turn to you guys. Can anyone point me in the direction of a Dictionary so I don't get scoliosis from hauling an analog dictionary to class every day? :)

Um, "Sony PRS-505" + "Dictionary" = Oxymoron.

There's no way to look anything up in a dictionary with the Sony Reader because there is no keyboard on the device to look up words. Certainly, you can install reference books on the device, but the only practical way to access the information in reference materials is on your computer with a keyboard via the Reader software.

Um, "Sony PRS-505" + "Dictionary" = Oxymoron.

There's no way to look anything up in a dictionary with the Sony Reader because there is no keyboard on the device to look up words. Certainly, you can install reference books on the device, but the only practical way to access the information in reference materials is on your computer with a keyboard via the Reader software.

There's no keyboard on a CyBook Gen3 either, but that doesn't prevent dictionaries from working very well on it. Sony's lack of dictionary support is, unfortunately, an area in which they are rather lagging behind the "competition" these days.

yes, unfortunately sony's reader doesn't support dictionaries.
I wonder if we can build a book full with definitions and search through it by using the set of buttons on the right of the reader.
I have an ebookwise 1150 and I created myself a pretty useful french->spanish dictionary (out of freelang glossaries). On the footer of the book I put two lines: one with hyperlinks to the first letter of a word and another to the second letter of the word I'm searching for. ( I know that EB1150 has true word lookup feature, but they won't release its dictionary file format)
Do you think such a thing could be created for the Sony reader?

Hi there, first post.

I am taking a college English class and have been scouring the internet for a dictionary that I can use on my Sony PRS-505 to no avail. So I turn to you guys. Can anyone point me in the direction of a Dictionary so I don't get scoliosis from hauling an analog dictionary to class every day? :)

I carry a small electroinc dictionary with me. The dictionary and reader are still not as heavy or big as one book by itself.

Maybe consider a Palm device? There are many dictionaries for those.

Maybe consider a Palm device? There are many dictionaries for those.

For example the Palm TX is very good with this & easily fits in a shirt pocket. Also has many other functions + some great games.

It's nowhere near ideal, but if you've installed the Direct Page Control hack, you could guess your way to dictionary entries fairly rapidly.

If anyone knows of a decent free ebook dictionary, I'd even be willing to play around with it and try to hack something up a little more elegant.

the PRS is the wrong tool if you want a dictionary. You don't really need this much screen estate in a portable dictionary - those franklin ones with a QWERTY keypad work wonders. Myself, I have a Handspring Visor from a decade ago put to good use as a dictionary with the free Noah Pro program. Slapped a couple AAA primary lithium cells in the PDA and I'm good to go for years. (Too bad today's electronics don't run on trip-A's anymore...)

If dictionary support is important to you, a MobiPocket device such as the Gen3 is a better choice than the Sony. You can buy over 200 different dictionaries in Mobi format.

It's nowhere near ideal, but if you've installed the Direct Page Control hack, you could guess your way to dictionary entries fairly rapidly.

If anyone knows of a decent free ebook dictionary, I'd even be willing to play around with it and try to hack something up a little more elegant.

It' some time I'm thinking about it too - I'm working on the Webster1913 as a proof of concept, we'll see if it comes out something useful.

Follow these links:
DICT http://www.dict.org/links.html
Dicts http://www.dicts.info/dictionaries.php
StarDict http://stardict.sourceforge.net/Dictionaries_dictd-www.dict.org.php

Alessandro

I wrote a snippet of code that processes the dict file, and puts it in HTML, with anchors to word triplets, pointing to a table of triplet links at the file beginning.

But, damn, the Webster1913 in HTML is 34MB and 91MB in RTF!
I fear my poor reader will choke under its weight...


Alessandro

Dictionaries are BIG.

I've got the Chamber's Unabridged 10th Edition dictionary on my Gen3 which, even as a compressed file (ZIP won't shrink it at all) weighs in at 25MB. It's the kind of thing you really need to keep on a memory card rather than in main memory.

Yeah, the PG one is 42Mb, but that's because it's unabridged.

For my purposes, I'd be happy with a fairly abridged, simplified dictionary. Something akin to a "pocket" dictionary would be perfect. If I could get one down to about 10Mb, I'd be pretty happy.

It's nowhere near ideal, but if you've installed the Direct Page Control hack, you could guess your way to dictionary entries fairly rapidly.

If anyone knows of a decent free ebook dictionary, I'd even be willing to play around with it and try to hack something up a little more elegant.

I didn't know there was a hack for changing the behaviour of buttons. Unfortunately I'm about to receive a 505 which was not yet hacked :(

Do you know if it's easy to toggle between ebooks? (Something like the "change book" button from ebookwise). I'm trying to use that no for regular dictionaries but for translation dictionaries (which can be much smaller).

yes, unfortunately sony's reader doesn't support dictionaries.
I wonder if we can build a book full with definitions and search through it by using the set of buttons on the right of the reader.
I have an ebookwise 1150 and I created myself a pretty useful french->spanish dictionary (out of freelang glossaries). On the footer of the book I put two lines: one with hyperlinks to the first letter of a word and another to the second letter of the word I'm searching for. ( I know that EB1150 has true word lookup feature, but they won't release its dictionary file format)
Do you think such a thing could be created for the Sony reader?

The eb1150 has released a glossary format that would be better than what you did.

Dale

Thanks Dale for the info. Could you please give the link to that information? or better yet, a link to some creation software! ;)

Thanks Dale for the info. Could you please give the link to that information? or better yet, a link to some creation software! ;)

Look in your manual for the eBook Publisher. I have uploaded a eb1150 version in the uploads section of MobileRead (page 80) but you can also look at it in the eBook Publisher help manual. The section title is: Adding a glossary file in the table of contents. If is also talked about as Use Glossary File earlier in the doucment.

I will try that, thanks. but I'm afraid that glossary feature is a per-book thing. Can you use it as the default dictionary for all your ebooks? I don't want to add my 1.4MB glossary to each ebook I'd like to read.
I'll build one and check if it's possible. Thanks again

I think the lack of a dictionary is something that we as users should start bugging Sony about. I can't imagine adding this support to the current products would be a monumental task. Put that D-Pad to use.

I think the lack of a dictionary is something that we as users should start bugging Sony about. I can't imagine adding this support to the current products would be a monumental task. Put that D-Pad to use.

Sony could use exactly the same user interface for a dictionary that the Gen3 uses - it has a "lookup mode" which gives you a "word highlight" cursor that you can move up, down, left, right on the screen with the navigation pad. When the word you want to look up is highlighted, you press the "Select" button and you're taken to the word's definition in the dictionary. Works beautifully.

Sony could use exactly the same user interface for a dictionary that the Gen3 uses - it has a "lookup mode" which gives you a "word highlight" cursor that you can move up, down, left, right on the screen with the navigation pad. When the word you want to look up is highlighted, you press the "Select" button and you're taken to the word's definition in the dictionary. Works beautifully.

Hi!
I looked into different solutions for dictionaries as I desperately wanted one for reading Italian books.

I found out:
On Gen3 you have to move cursor 1-10 times up/down plus 1-6 times left/right.
So on average that's (5+3=) 8 moves. (I could not find out whether/how many page changes will happen, yet.)
But: lookup will only find EXACT inflections - the dictionary has to be VERY large - or won't find anything at all...

In contrast Sony PRS500 can only use PDF-hyperlink-jumping (which Gen3 does NOT).
I made an Italian>English (also an Inglese>Italiano) dictionary that works as follows:
(http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16929)

1. You put the Italian word into your personal cerebral store (=note in mind).
2. Go two levels ("Menu") up from your book (=2 page changes).
3. Type number for the dictionary, then type "2" (=2 page changes).
4. Move cursor to first letter of word (in my simple case 5 moves on average; can be optimized...)
5. On the letter page move cursor 3 moves on average to get to dictionary page.
6. Go to appropriate page in dictionary - maximum of two.
7. Return: repeat step 2. and 3. - but: Italian book, then "1" (=4 page changes).

So added up this means: 8 page changes plus 8 cursor moves (on average!). Both values can be minimized. The size of the dictionary can me minimal as NO inflections are needed!

I don't mean to promote my dictionary, but since last december this PDF was downloaded over 200 times - AND:
the (various) versions of "English>Italian" over 450 times! (...seems there are fewer offers for Italian natives...)

I admit that those "8 page changes" are crucial and a nuisance. Therefore I use my dictionary mostly for "important" or "repeated" or extremely "cryptic" Italian words.

But: lookup will only find EXACT inflections - the dictionary has to be VERY large - or won't find anything at all...


That works fine for English, though, which uses relatively few inflections. I don't think I've found any word yet that's not in the Chambers dictionary I've got on my Gen3.

But: lookup will only find EXACT inflections - the dictionary has to be VERY large - or won't find anything at all...


This must depend on the dictionary. The English dictionary I use find other form of the word and it is not the case that all forms are there as separate entries.