Aura HD How do you get the Japanese dictionary to work?

cmertb · 12-25-2017, 01:35 PM

I enabled the Japanese dictionary and try to do lookups inside a Japanese epub I have (created from a text file). The way it has worked in English is that you hold your finger on a word, it underlines it, then pops up its dictionary entry or something saying it's not found. In the Japanese book, I hold my finger down, the screen sort of flashes, and nothing else happens (except the main menu sometimes pops up).

Could this be an encoding issue? I think my file is in UTF8, but does it expect ShiftJIS or something, or vice versa?

Has anyone ever faced a problem like this?

cmertb · 12-25-2017, 09:18 PM

A bit of an update to the question. I converted the book ShiftJIS, and yes, it started highlighting words now. However, it opens up the dictionary (I have the default 日本語 that came with the reader) only when the word is all kana. If there is even a single kanji highlighted, the dictionary window doesn't pop up. Is that normal, or is something messed up?

cmertb · 12-28-2017, 11:56 PM

I guess I'll have to answer my own question. Apparently, all it takes is for the book to be in KEPUB rather than EPUB format. Calibre does that conversion with some plugins installed. The encoding doesn't matter, I got both UTF-8 and Shift_JIS encoded kepubs to open the dictionary.

The only problem is that it selects only a single kanji on a long press, and it's a total PITA to move the markers to select the whole word that you need.

Cootey · 01-02-2018, 12:48 AM

Thanks for the updates! I was hoping to enable this one day.

Question Mark · 01-02-2018, 09:41 AM

Yes, it only seems to work with kepubs.

For a Japanese-English dictionary, you may also want to check out this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=197828

I find the two dictionaries surprisingly good.

Personally, I don't find moving the toggles around to select text to lookup to be that much of an issue. Took a while to get used to at first, but now it works quite well for me, especially on my KA1. I find that the larger screen size enables the use of larger font which makes the highlighting process a bit easier.

12-25-2017, 01:35 PM	#1
cmertb Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2017 Device: Kobo Aura HD	How do you get the Japanese dictionary to work? I enabled the Japanese dictionary and try to do lookups inside a Japanese epub I have (created from a text file). The way it has worked in English is that you hold your finger on a word, it underlines it, then pops up its dictionary entry or something saying it's not found. In the Japanese book, I hold my finger down, the screen sort of flashes, and nothing else happens (except the main menu sometimes pops up). Could this be an encoding issue? I think my file is in UTF8, but does it expect ShiftJIS or something, or vice versa? Has anyone ever faced a problem like this?

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12-25-2017, 09:18 PM	#2
cmertb Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2017 Device: Kobo Aura HD	A bit of an update to the question. I converted the book ShiftJIS, and yes, it started highlighting words now. However, it opens up the dictionary (I have the default 日本語 that came with the reader) only when the word is all kana. If there is even a single kanji highlighted, the dictionary window doesn't pop up. Is that normal, or is something messed up?

12-28-2017, 11:56 PM	#3
cmertb Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2017 Device: Kobo Aura HD	I guess I'll have to answer my own question. Apparently, all it takes is for the book to be in KEPUB rather than EPUB format. Calibre does that conversion with some plugins installed. The encoding doesn't matter, I got both UTF-8 and Shift_JIS encoded kepubs to open the dictionary. The only problem is that it selects only a single kanji on a long press, and it's a total PITA to move the markers to select the whole word that you need.

01-02-2018, 12:48 AM	#4
Cootey Absentminded Reader Posts: 1,109 Karma: 6463851 Join Date: Apr 2017 Device: Kobo Mini, Clara HD, Elipsa; Kindle Paperwhite 3 & 4; iOS eReader apps	Thanks for the updates! I was hoping to enable this one day.

01-02-2018, 09:41 AM	#5
Question Mark Wizard Posts: 1,414 Karma: 6513838 Join Date: Mar 2016 Device: More than I need, but not as many as I would like.	Yes, it only seems to work with kepubs. For a Japanese-English dictionary, you may also want to check out this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=197828 I find the two dictionaries surprisingly good. Personally, I don't find moving the toggles around to select text to lookup to be that much of an issue. Took a while to get used to at first, but now it works quite well for me, especially on my KA1. I find that the larger screen size enables the use of larger font which makes the highlighting process a bit easier.