Decent encylopedia

JimBob1971 · 03-05-2008, 05:40 AM

Hi,

I've had my Iliad for a few weeks now, and have to say I love it. I've installed a dictionary and thesaurus and find them to be incredibly handly when reading mobipocket books (I wish I could use them on PDFs though...)

Anyway, can anyone suggest a decent encyclopedia to use in a similar way? I had a look on Mobipocket and saw the Concise Brittanica, and "The world's biggest encyclopedia". I'm not sure if either are searchable directly from other books.... Any recommendations? Thanks!

JimBob1971 · 03-05-2008, 06:33 AM

Ok, I took the plunge and bought this:-

http://www.franklin.com/estore/dicti...EBR500820DLDA/

EDIT: My installation problems were to do with me being a complete moron, and trying to put the reader on my Iliad, instead of the PRC which I completely missed on my desktop.... D'oh

thetechnobear · 03-11-2008, 05:14 PM

is this searchable?

i downloaded this, and then found that the search button is not active

... which makes it completely useless

i thought this would act as a dictionary, perhaps ive done something wrong,

i took the .prc file, and place it in the books/mobipocket directory, then opened it... and expected the dictionary search to be active
but its not, any ideas?

thxs

JimBob1971 · 03-11-2008, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetechnobear

is this searchable?

i downloaded this, and then found that the search button is not active

... which makes it completely useless

i thought this would act as a dictionary, perhaps ive done something wrong,

i took the .prc file, and place it in the books/mobipocket directory, then opened it... and expected the dictionary search to be active
but its not, any ideas?

thxs

Do you mean the Wiki one or the Britannica? If you mean WIKI, I can't get it to work the way that the Encyclopedia Brittanica does (I highlight a word in a book in Mobireader, and do a search). I have to manually open the Wiki encyclopedia and do the search that way. Really annoying (I assume you are reading Mobi books and not PDFs etc, toerwise no search will work)

Anyone know if it is possible to get the WIKI biggest enclyclopedia to be added in the dictionary search?

thetechnobear · 03-12-2008, 04:32 AM

Britannica

it just doesnt seem to recognize it as a dictionary...

how did you install it?
since im using a mac, i didnt use the mobipocket desktop at all, is this necessary?

i simply copied the prc file to /mnt/free/books/Mobipocket, where the sample one is (dracula)

then i tried opening britannic, it opens file
but the only icons available are for scaling fonts, the dictionary search button etc are greyed out.

similarly if i open dracula the dictionary search button is also greyed out...

as i said this is first time ive tried to use a 'dictionary' with mobipocket, so perhaps im missing something

HarryT · 03-12-2008, 04:47 AM

The iLiad doesn't support dictionary searches. You will be able to search in the Mobi Reader on the PC, but not on the iLiad. All you can do on the iLiad is look words up in the book that you're reading.

montsnmags · 03-12-2008, 05:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

The iLiad doesn't support dictionary searches. You will be able to search in the Mobi Reader on the PC, but not on the iLiad. All you can do on the iLiad is look words up in the book that you're reading.

Harry, when you say "doesn't support dictionary searches", do you basically mean text searches on any book? The reason I ask is that, whether by opening my dictionary directly, or doing a word lookup from another text, once I've got the dictionary on-screen, I can then bring up the on-screen keyboard and index-search for any word.

The Iliad certainly doesn't do an ordinary text search on all mobipocket books, like I believe the Kindle does on its formats.

Cheers,
Marc

HarryT · 03-12-2008, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by montsnmags

Harry, when you say "doesn't support dictionary searches", do you basically mean text searches on any book? The reason I ask is that, whether by opening my dictionary directly, or doing a word lookup from another text, once I've got the dictionary on-screen, I can then bring up the on-screen keyboard and index-search for any word.

The Iliad certainly doesn't do an ordinary text search on all mobipocket books, like I believe the Kindle does on its formats.

Cheers,
Marc

Perhaps that's changed in the latest firmware upgrade, then. When I had my iLiad, the "Search" button for the dictionary was always disabled.

thetechnobear · 03-12-2008, 06:59 AM

im never having the search button enabled, either in the britannica or in another mobi book...

which kind of makes me think it doesnt realise its a dictionary,

how does the iliad know you have a dictionary installed?
from previous posts i thought it was just something in the .prc file, and once it opened it, it registered it. but this just doesnt seem to happen for me.

JimBob1971 · 03-12-2008, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetechnobear

im never having the search button enabled, either in the britannica or in another mobi book...

which kind of makes me think it doesnt realise its a dictionary,

how does the iliad know you have a dictionary installed?
from previous posts i thought it was just something in the .prc file, and once it opened it, it registered it. but this just doesnt seem to happen for me.

I *think* I manually installed it - IE just put whatever files (prc and possibly one other) that came down from Mobipocket in the Mobipocket directory of internal memory (I've since moved them to CF) and everything worked fine.

I've just opened the Britannica up, and you can indeed do a dictionary search on it (by that I mean hit the button next to the magnifying glass, type in a word and search). Can you use it to lookup works in other mobi books out of interest? Don't sound like you can which is obviously very wrong indeed!

One thing - I don't think I copied it into mnt/free/mobipocket isn't the folder something like mnt/books/mobipocket ?? Another thing to check - Is the PID correct for this book and your reader? I'd assume that it simply wouldn't open in this case, but you can never be sure....

thetechnobear · 03-12-2008, 10:24 AM

thxs, sounds like im doing the same thing...

i did only copy the PRC file (and as you say into books/mobipocket), nothing else, though i did notice when you open it in mobipocket it seems to create 2 files.

hmm, sounds like a bit more experimenting is in order...now i know what it is suppose to do

wallcraft · 03-12-2008, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetechnobear

how does the iliad know you have a dictionary installed?
from previous posts i thought it was just something in the .prc file, and once it opened it, it registered it. but this just doesnt seem to happen for me.

The dictionary needs to be in the books/Mobipocket directory. See Dictionary on iliad? how to configure?. I agree that it probably has to be opened once as well.

thetechnobear · 03-12-2008, 02:47 PM

ok, got it working... i was doing right but there are a couple of gotchas ive found:

a) I download from mobipocket, and they supply a large image version (26mb) and small images (13mb)... i of course tried the 26mb one, and that does not work as a dictionary!
the 13mb (which seems to be same as franklin) works fine!!

b) with the 13mb version, direct searching works fine and....
if you install on internal memory it will lookup across books,
if you install on CF , it will not!

i suspect this is something to do with, on the internal card, when you open any mobibook it doesnt create a subdir - but on CF it does.

btw, i had set the books to CF or Internal as appropriate

oh well, works

daudi · 03-12-2008, 04:33 PM

Perhaps naming it "Mobipocket" helps? See Adam's post on the irex forum in this thread

thetechnobear · 03-13-2008, 06:29 AM

it was named Mobipocket

actually ive updated the thread over at irex

ive narrowed this down to it will work on the CF either:
a) from another book
OR
b) directly from the encyclopedia

issues is opening directly, moves prc into a sub folder (which it doesnt on internal)
this then stops the searching from other books working

only solution ive found are:
a) keep on internal
b) have 2 copies, one of which you dont open

btw, i copied the Mobipocket directory from the internal one, so the config/manifests are same.
this is 2.12

03-05-2008, 05:40 AM	#1
JimBob1971 Enthusiast Posts: 30 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Iliad v2	Decent encylopedia Hi, I've had my Iliad for a few weeks now, and have to say I love it. I've installed a dictionary and thesaurus and find them to be incredibly handly when reading mobipocket books (I wish I could use them on PDFs though...) Anyway, can anyone suggest a decent encyclopedia to use in a similar way? I had a look on Mobipocket and saw the Concise Brittanica, and "The world's biggest encyclopedia". I'm not sure if either are searchable directly from other books.... Any recommendations? Thanks!

03-05-2008, 06:33 AM	#2
JimBob1971 Enthusiast Posts: 30 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Iliad v2	Ok, I took the plunge and bought this:- http://www.franklin.com/estore/dicti...EBR500820DLDA/ EDIT: My installation problems were to do with me being a complete moron, and trying to put the reader on my Iliad, instead of the PRC which I completely missed on my desktop.... D'oh Last edited by JimBob1971; 03-06-2008 at 07:01 AM.

03-12-2008, 02:47 PM	#13
thetechnobear Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 256 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Switzerland Device: Iliad, Kindle K3, iPad , iPhone, etc...	ok, got it working... i was doing right but there are a couple of gotchas ive found: a) I download from mobipocket, and they supply a large image version (26mb) and small images (13mb)... i of course tried the 26mb one, and that does not work as a dictionary! the 13mb (which seems to be same as franklin) works fine!! b) with the 13mb version, direct searching works fine and.... if you install on internal memory it will lookup across books, if you install on CF , it will not! i suspect this is something to do with, on the internal card, when you open any mobibook it doesnt create a subdir - but on CF it does. btw, i had set the books to CF or Internal as appropriate oh well, works Last edited by thetechnobear; 03-12-2008 at 03:42 PM.

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03-11-2008, 05:14 PM	#3
thetechnobear Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 256 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Switzerland Device: Iliad, Kindle K3, iPad , iPhone, etc...	is this searchable? i downloaded this, and then found that the search button is not active ... which makes it completely useless i thought this would act as a dictionary, perhaps ive done something wrong, i took the .prc file, and place it in the books/mobipocket directory, then opened it... and expected the dictionary search to be active but its not, any ideas? thxs

03-12-2008, 04:32 AM	#5
thetechnobear Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 256 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Switzerland Device: Iliad, Kindle K3, iPad , iPhone, etc...	Britannica it just doesnt seem to recognize it as a dictionary... how did you install it? since im using a mac, i didnt use the mobipocket desktop at all, is this necessary? i simply copied the prc file to /mnt/free/books/Mobipocket, where the sample one is (dracula) then i tried opening britannic, it opens file but the only icons available are for scaling fonts, the dictionary search button etc are greyed out. similarly if i open dracula the dictionary search button is also greyed out... as i said this is first time ive tried to use a 'dictionary' with mobipocket, so perhaps im missing something

03-12-2008, 04:47 AM	#6
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	The iLiad doesn't support dictionary searches. You will be able to search in the Mobi Reader on the PC, but not on the iLiad. All you can do on the iLiad is look words up in the book that you're reading.

03-12-2008, 06:59 AM	#9
thetechnobear Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 256 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Switzerland Device: Iliad, Kindle K3, iPad , iPhone, etc...	im never having the search button enabled, either in the britannica or in another mobi book... which kind of makes me think it doesnt realise its a dictionary, how does the iliad know you have a dictionary installed? from previous posts i thought it was just something in the .prc file, and once it opened it, it registered it. but this just doesnt seem to happen for me.

03-12-2008, 10:24 AM	#11
thetechnobear Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 256 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Switzerland Device: Iliad, Kindle K3, iPad , iPhone, etc...	thxs, sounds like im doing the same thing... i did only copy the PRC file (and as you say into books/mobipocket), nothing else, though i did notice when you open it in mobipocket it seems to create 2 files. hmm, sounds like a bit more experimenting is in order...now i know what it is suppose to do

03-12-2008, 04:33 PM	#14
daudi Addict Posts: 281 Karma: 904 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Kent, UK Device: iRex iLiad, Psion 5MX, nokia n800	Perhaps naming it "Mobipocket" helps? See Adam's post on the irex forum in this thread

03-13-2008, 06:29 AM	#15
thetechnobear Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 256 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Switzerland Device: Iliad, Kindle K3, iPad , iPhone, etc...	it was named Mobipocket actually ive updated the thread over at irex ive narrowed this down to it will work on the CF either: a) from another book OR b) directly from the encyclopedia issues is opening directly, moves prc into a sub folder (which it doesnt on internal) this then stops the searching from other books working only solution ive found are: a) keep on internal b) have 2 copies, one of which you dont open btw, i copied the Mobipocket directory from the internal one, so the config/manifests are same. this is 2.12