How to correctly change language metadata of a dictionary?

[daxp]

I've downloaded a German-English dictionary from here, but I cannot get it to show up as anything other than an English dictionary. I've installed Mobi2Mobi, it says it's German. Calibre says it's German. The only thing I've found that disagrees is my Kindle. I'm probably missing something rather simple, especially since it's late...but I just can't see what.


And on a completely different and considerably less important note, is there a reason the kindle seems to only display Amazon Local ads on the home screen or screensaver? It did that at first, then the first and only local ad expired and they all changed. Now a new local ad has downloaded and they don't change again. o.O

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by daxp

I've downloaded a German-English dictionary from here, but I cannot get it to show up as anything other than an English dictionary. I've installed Mobi2Mobi, it says it's German. Calibre says it's German. The only thing I've found that disagrees is my Kindle. I'm probably missing something rather simple, especially since it's late...but I just can't see what.

Unfortunately the dictionary creator didn't use the correct language codes for the source and target languages.
In the German-English.opf file, he defined both input and output languages as English:

<DictionaryInLanguage>en-us</DictionaryInLanguage>
<DictionaryOutLanguage>en-us</DictionaryOutLanguage>

This means that this dictionary will never work as a lookup dictionary on a Kindle.
However, since his dictionaries were GPL 2 licensed, you can fix his mistake:

1. Unpack the .mobi file and change the languages in the German-English.opf file as follows:

<DictionaryInLanguage>de</DictionaryInLanguage>
<DictionaryOutLanguage>en</DictionaryOutLanguage>

2. Re-compile the mobi file with Mobipocket Creator.

(You can edit the .opf file directly or simply double-click the .opf file and change the languages in the Book Settings dialog box.)

[daxp]

That worked perfectly! Thanks a lot!

[welshy0204]

HI, i downloaded a dictionary and unpacked it using 7zip, corrected the .OPF file so that the dictionary is set to polish, not english, but I can't find how to re-compile file as an MOBI. I cant see any option in Mobipocketcreator, just to create a new one (but i can't add original OPF file - it creates a new one)

is there an easy way to recompile the 2 files back to a MOBI file?

Thanks in advance

[Doitsu]

Select Book settings from the View menu, enable the This eBook is a dictionary option and select the correct dictionary input and output languages.
If you don't see these options you'll need to download the Publisher Edition of Mobipocket Creator.

[welshy0204]

just in case you know, will the Kindle 4 automatically recognise the file automaticall as a dictionary when I'm reading polish resources (news meagaines for example)

and

is there any way of making a .mobi instead of a .prc?

thanks

sorry for the (probably) elementary quesions

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by welshy0204

and

is there any way of making a .mobi instead of a .prc?

Yes.
Rename the .prc to .mobi.

[welshy0204]

7zip wont open that (even if i rename it to a .mobi) so does that mean they're not the same?

[DiapDealer]

7zip won't open a mobi binary anyway (only the source portion of a mobi generated by kindlegen can be "unzipped"). A mobi (.mobi, .prc, .azw) is a binary file that must be decompiled/unpacked... not unzipped.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by welshy0204

will the Kindle 4 automatically recognise the file automaticall as a dictionary when I'm reading polish resources (news meagaines for example)

If both the language code of the Polish files and the dictionary input language is set to Polish, the Kindle should automatically select the Polish dictionary. However, some Kindle 4 users reported dictionary selection problems that might require you to set the Polish dictionary as the default dictionary.

[welshy0204]

there soesnt seem to be the same "set default dictionary" like there was on the kindle 3 - i used this on my mums, but on my kindle 4 the option just isnt there have they changed the menu for changing the dictionary for the kindle 4 or something?

[markvdvelde]

Hello,
I set German-English to Primary Dictionary, but the Oxford version still pops up.

I tried to change the input language to German, but I don't know how to do this. I installed the Mobiunpack plug in for Calibre, but that doesn't help me much. Is it possible for someone to upload the modified German-English dictionary with the correct input language? I downloaded the dictionary today and the same bug exists that people were complaining about a year ago.

Thanks!

P.S. I have a Kindle keyboard

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by markvdvelde

I set German-English to Primary Dictionary, but the Oxford version still pops up.

If the English dictionary pops up, most likely the document language of your book is set to English.
(You can check and modify the language codes of ebooks and dictionaries with the Java Mobipocket Metadata Editor.)

Originally Posted by markvdvelde

Is it possible for someone to upload the modified German-English dictionary with the correct input language

If you're referring to the input language code problem with the German-English dictionary by Michael Sheldon, it was fixed a long time ago.

[markvdvelde]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

If the English dictionary pops up, most likely the document language of your book is set to English.

That was it! Thank you very much.

[miquele]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

2. Re-compile the mobi file with Mobipocket Creator.

Hi Doitsu,
apologies for my noob-question: how do I recompile this? Do I select the HTML option in mobi-creator and then the html file? Will creator recognize the opf file then?
Any light on this would be cool, thanks!

Update: never mind my Q please, I did realize the double-click bit too late. Thanks!