Using a lexicon / encyclopedia on the Cybook

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by jbenny

Thanks, Derek. Very much appreciated. I would be surprised if it worked in PDF, although it would be nice. It sounds like the Bookeen folks did a nice job developing their integrated, multi-format software.

I'm not sure whether or how the thesaurus would work, but the dictionary works okay for the formats I tested. I didn't bother testing PDF because, AFAICT PDFs are treated as graphic images of the pages.

Derek

[andym]

jbenny

Mobipocket format dictionaries work fine for html files.

[ashalan]

Originally Posted by lindemaximilian

How can you do a text search without an input device? On the old Cybook this was possible with the stylus.

As I mentioned in my first post:

Originally Posted by ashalan

entering text could easily be done using what I call 'Nintendo' keyboard ... you know, the way you added yourself to the high-score list in computer games of yore

I guess some illustration might help here :

http://www.etoengineering.com/Pictur...omkeyboard.jpg

You simply have a cursor shaped like a frame that you can move around the alphabet with the navigation keys, to 'write' a letter hit whatever key you use to enter things.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by ashalan

As I mentioned in my first post:



I guess some illustration might help here :

http://www.etoengineering.com/Pictur...omkeyboard.jpg

You simply have a cursor shaped like a frame that you can move around the alphabet with the navigation keys, to 'write' a letter hit whatever key you use to enter things.

That's exactly the method used by the Cybook to enter the numbers for the Go To Page function. And it works quite well. I wouldn't want to use the alpha version to key in long strings of text, but for a word/phrase search function, it would probably work quite nicely.

Derek

[tompe]

Concerning the form of the words I did some tests. "humanity's" is not found. "published" gives a menu with "publish" and "publisher" to choose from. If you choose one of them and then press back you return to the menu so you can easily check the other alternatives. "writers" gave me the alternatives "writ[1]", "writ[2], "write", "writing" and "writer".

To get to lookup mode you have to press MENU, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, ENTER and you have to do it every time you want to look up a word.

I tested to do a file where you can enter words with four letters. It became a 7M mobipocket file (27M html) and it kind of worked but you had to linerarly choose each letter and it was not so fun to press a button 16 times to choose a "p" for example.

[lindemaximilian]

Originally Posted by tompe

Concerning the form of the words I did some tests. "humanity's" is not found. "published" gives a menu with "publish" and "publisher" to choose from. If you choose one of them and then press back you return to the menu so you can easily check the other alternatives. "writers" gave me the alternatives "writ[1]", "writ[2], "write", "writing" and "writer".

Thank you for this information. I am still worried about the use of language dictionaries. Example: you are looking for a translation of the Italian word "nell'attesa" (in the wait); the mobidictionary gives you a list of words which all start with nel which of course is nonsense because the word which you are looking for is "attesa". With a stylus or pointer you take off the nell' knowing that this means "in the" and you are given the translation for attesa. Similar or worse situations arise with the endings of conjugated verbs and the attachment of pronomina at the end of Italian verbs.

Is there any way in the Gen3 to cut off a word either in the beginning or at the end by selecting only a part of it with the check box? If this were possible my problem would be solved.

[Robert1325]

I'm interested in buying a mobipocket dictionary, but not sure wich one would be the best for me. I'm dutch, doing my 1st year english teaching course ( just for secondary grade at the moment) After playing around with the different demo's I think I like the longman dict.contemporary english. It shows the phonetic transcription and I like the definitions. This will be used for reading novels and english,american newspaper articles.

Any opinion?

[lindemaximilian]

Having just received my Gen3 I tested the lexicon / dictionary capabilities with the following results:

One knew of course from the specs that there is no possibility to enter words directly. However, the big deception for me was that one cannot browse through a dictionary by using chunks of words because there is no index (i.e. the alphabetical order of words without explanation or translation). In fact, one receives the message: indexes of words are not supported in this version.
The implication of this lack of indexes is quite devastating both for (a) using a dictionary as a stand-alone device and (b) for the lookup function of the Gen3.

Concerning (a):
With an index, it would have been possible to stroll through the words of a particular letter by using the page turn and make a bookmark when a new letter starts. After that you would be able to start your search at a particular bookmark i.e. letter. Each page turn would advance you by some 25 words, that is the number you normally have for the indexes of mobipocket dictionaries. By reducing the font size it would be possible to increase this number, maybe quite significantly, I have not tried it. By contrast, in the current version of the Gen3, there are only 1 to 3 words per page and tabbing your way page by page through the whole volume or just one letter is virtually impossible.

Concerning (b):
When using the lookup function and the word you have selected is not in its standard form i.e. the infinitive for verbs and the singular masculine nominative for nouns or adjectives the Gen3 is not able to show you any result. If there were an index at least you would be offered a page with some 25 words (or more, see above) which start with the same letters and in 80 per cent of cases (depending on the language and your knowledge of the grammar) you would find the word you are looking for.
This said, depending on the quality of the dictionary, there are some non-standard forms for some words supported. However, this is very rare, although this may change in the future; for a discussion of these issues look here .

For me the big question thus is, why the indexes of the mobidictionaries are not supported in the Gen3, it would make a difference like night and day.

[sergio]

I am following this thread because I have some problem using a Mobipocket dictionary on the Iliad, while I am able to open and to use in the look up function a small dictionary (pons basis Worterbuch english deutsch) a bigger Duden Deutsches Universal worterbucH (29 MB) does not work, I am wondering if it is a matter of size or what, both technical assistances Mobipocket and Iliad I find hopeless

[DaleDe]

I suspect the answer as to why the index isn't supported is in the version number. 1.0. I suggest you forward your request to Bookeen so it can be on the rather long list of stuff they still need to do.

Dale

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by lindemaximilian

One knew of course from the specs that there is no possibility to enter words directly. However, the big deception for me was that one cannot browse through a dictionary by using chunks of words because there is no index (i.e. the alphabetical order of words without explanation or translation). In fact, one receives the message: indexes of words are not supported in this version.
The implication of this lack of indexes is quite devastating both for (a) using a dictionary as a stand-alone device and (b) for the lookup function of the Gen3.

I think you're being a little pessimistic in describing it as "devastating", at least for dictionaries in English. English is a language with relatively little inflection, hence a simple lookup works pretty well. Eg, with the sample dictionary supplied with the Gen3 (which only contains the letter "L"), a lookup of "living" and "lived" both found "live" as the correct dictionary entry.

I would imagine it would work a lot less well for a more heavily inflected language such as German.

[lindemaximilian]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I think you're being a little pessimistic in describing it as "devastating", at least for dictionaries in Ey nglish. English is a language with relatively little inflection, hence a simple lookup works pretty well. Eg, with the sample dictionary supplied with the Gen3 (which only contains the letter "L"), a lookup of "living" and "lived" both found "live" as the correct dictionary entry.

This is why I made the proviso that depending on the quality of the dictionary some non-standard words are supported. Nevertheless, even in the dictionary your refer to I didn't find an entry for the lookup of "limbs" and "laboriously". However there was an entry for "lurched" and "lower".

Maybe the word "devastating" is too strong in the abstract; but it holds for me. I like to read books in Italian which I have learned rather late in life; thus my vocabulary is pretty shaky and I have to use the dictionary constantly. The Italian language has at least as many inflections as the German. In addition it allows under certain circumstances to add pronouns at the end of a verb. For instance, you may come across a word like "daglielo", which means "give it to him". To arrive at this translation through a look-up is quite a job.
Therefore, willy-nilly, I have to go back to my old Cybook where I can fiddle around with the stylus.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by lindemaximilian

Concerning (a):
With an index, it would have been possible to stroll through the words of a particular letter by using the page turn and make a bookmark when a new letter starts. After that you would be able to start your search at a particular bookmark i.e. letter. Each page turn would advance you by some 25 words, that is the number you normally have for the indexes of mobipocket dictionaries. By reducing the font size it would be possible to increase this number, maybe quite significantly, I have not tried it. By contrast, in the current version of the Gen3, there are only 1 to 3 words per page and tabbing your way page by page through the whole volume or just one letter is virtually impossible.

Is it not possible to make an html page with all the letters on with space between them and use this to lookup the start in the dictionary for a specific letter?

I tried to use this principle to enter word up to four letters and it worked but you selected a letter by selecting a link so you had to press a button 26 times to select a letter in the worst case.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by tompe

Is it not possible to make an html page with all the letters on with space between them and use this to lookup the start in the dictionary for a specific letter?

I tried to use this principle to enter word up to four letters and it worked but you selected a letter by selecting a link so you had to press a button 26 times to select a letter in the worst case.

As I read the manual it seems to allow you to move in 4 directions so arranging your letters properly can cut way down on the traversal.

Dale

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

As I read the manual it seems to allow you to move in 4 directions so arranging your letters properly can cut way down on the traversal.

Dale

Most assuredly. I'd suggest a 5x6 grid. That would give space for the 26 alpha characters and four others for backing up, cancelling the search or indicating the search letters have been entered and to proceed. Similar as to the grid used to select numbers for the Go To Page function. Would work quite well.

Derek