Work around for foreign language dictionary problem

[Doitsu]

I have a Kindle 3.3 and I don't have any of these problems that you encountered. If I look up a word, the Kindle always chooses the dictionary based on the language of the ebook. The only thing I don't like about it is that it will only display the first match.

If dictionary lookup is very important to you, you might want to consider getting a used K3 Wifi until Amazon fixes the K4 Touch firmware problems.

Originally Posted by Stingo

The problem may be how the dictionaries are encoded. I have the Barrons German and MW Spanish dictionaries. Under Dictionary settings they both show up under English dictionaries.

Just to be on the safe side, you might want to make sure that the dictionaries are properly encoded. The easiest way to do this is opening them with Mobipocket Reader. To do this, simply copy your dictionaries and some ebooks into the Mobipocket Reader's My eBooks folder and then try to look up a word.
If the dictionaries work, you should get a dictionary popup window showing the name of the dictionary and two flags indicating the dictionary languages.
If you get two identical flags, the dictionaries are not properly encoded and the only way to fix this is to change the dictionary input and output languages in the source code and to re-compile the dictionary.

Originally Posted by Stingo

Unfortunately if you remove DRM from the dictionaries and re-encode to their respective language, the Kindle does not see them as dictionaries any longer.

Theoretically, you shouldn't have to change the language code of a commercial dictionary. BTW, how did you change the language code?

[Stingo]

Problem kinda solved. Called Amazon and had them give me a refund for the german and spanish dictionary. Repurchased them again and reinstalled. The Spanish dictionary now installed as a spanish dictionary. Unfortunately the German dictionary was apparently not updated and reinstalled as an English dictionary. I downloaded an inexpensive dictionary and that seemed to work.

[Alibaba32]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Just to be on the safe side, you might want to make sure that the dictionaries are properly encoded. The easiest way to do this is opening them with Mobipocket Reader. To do this, simply copy your dictionaries and some ebooks into the Mobipocket Reader's My eBooks folder and then try to look up a word.
If the dictionaries work, you should get a dictionary popup window showing the name of the dictionary and two flags indicating the dictionary languages.
If you get two identical flags, the dictionaries are not properly encoded and the only way to fix this is to change the dictionary input and output languages in the source code and to re-compile the dictionary.

Thanks for the info Doitsu, a great help. I tried your suggestion and my French to English dictionary works fine in mobireader for PC showing the correct flags, Makes translating a breeze. Kindle for PC is restricted in this area and does not recognise my dictionary as a dictionary at all, only as a standalone ebook.
I thought my dictionary wasn't coded correctly, therefore I was reading on the forum about checking/changing the input output languages, to get dictionary to work. you just saved me a lot of tinkering around with hex code.

Regards
Andrew

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Alibaba32

Kindle for PC is restricted in this area and does not recognise my dictionary as a dictionary at all, only as a standalone ebook.

The Kindle software versions for PCs and smartphones only support the default 7 monolingual dictionaries. (English US/UK, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese)
The only way to bypass this limitation is to change the ASIN number of the dictionary that you want to use instead.
(The ASIN number for the default French dictionary is B005F12G6U.)
If you want to use your French-English dictionary with K4PC, create a copy of your dictionary, add or change the ASIN to B005F12G6U and replace the default French dictionary in the My Kindle Content folder with your patched version.
IMHO, the easiest way to change the ASIN is to use the Mobiperl command line tools with the Mobi2Mobi GUI. (The ASIN is eth type #113.)

[Alibaba32]

Doitsu Hi, Once again you come up with the goods. did some knitting with perl, et voila! worked at treat on K4PC.
I don't own an ereader yet but have been following the Ktouch and Kfire. I read that on the Kfire you can't choose the default primary dictionary or use your own standalone dictionary as lookup. This is pushing me to the Ktouch although I like the idea of colour and web access on the Kfire. Do you think the method you suggested I used on K4PC might work on the Kfire? this would allow for my translation needs and I would get the extras the fire offers.
Also, with your experience do you think I should look at another ereader/tablet?

Many thanks again for you help

Andrew

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Alibaba32

I read that on the Kfire you can't choose the default primary dictionary or use your own standalone dictionary as lookup.

Since I own a Kindle keyboard, I wouldn't know what the limitations of the Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch are. I'd be surprised if there were any at all, because on a hardware Kindle 3 Keyboard you could always install any number of (Latin alphabet based) dictionaries while the software versions were limited to one or more monolingual dictionaries.
It seems to me that the thread starter's dictionary problems were caused during the file transfer of the dictionaries that he bought.
Since there's a dedicated Kindle Fire subforum, it'd best if you asked some Kindle Fire users for feedback.
If the limitations indeed exist, the ASIN hack should work, since all Kindles use ASINs to identify Amazon books.

Originally Posted by Alibaba32

Also, with your experience do you think I should look at another ereader/tablet?

That's beyond my area of expertise, because I only owned a Kindle so far, but there are countless threads with buying recommendations like this one.

[yiming]

Originally Posted by shinew

Stingo, yes I tried that within a document, the Chinese dictionary works. Neutral(probably undefined) also works. But you're probably right that specifying to a different language won't work, didn't thoroughly test it though since I don't use the feature.

Alibaba, KT does not support copy & paste. I'm not sure about windows, but I dragged the Chinese dictionary onto my Mac's kindle app, it doesn't work. So it only works on the actual kindle device.

hi Shinew, could you tell me which Chinese dictionary you are using and where i can download it. i've tried one developed by Greg Hewgill http://hewgill.com/hanzidict/. but it didn't show up as a dictionary in the setting. thanks.

[Alibaba32]

Yiming Hi, I found this En/Ch Ch/En dictionary at "https://www.dropbox.com/s/b44t0swhzsdlaof/Concise%20English-Chinese%20Chinese-English%20Dictionary.mobi" Huge one! 37.7Mb. I got kindle for PC app to look-up this dictionary by changing the dictionary's ASIN number to "B005EOCESI" Amazon's Portuguese one, (if you already have the Potuguese one in your kindle content folder remove it). Use the Mobi to perl tools listed by Doitsu earlier in this thread to change the ASIN number. copy the patched dictionary into the kindle content folder. When you read an English book highlight a word and whatever dictionary pops-up, goto the gear wheel icon on the right and from the list choose the Potuguese one. this will continue to look-up the en/ch dictionary in english books until you change it back using the dictionary list again. Because this works on the Kindle PC app it should be the same on the Mac. If you have any porblem with the mobi tools let me know and I will see if I can help.

[yiming]

hi Alibaba32, thanks for the fast response. will try it and post the result.

[shinew]

Originally Posted by yiming

hi Shinew, could you tell me which Chinese dictionary you are using and where i can download it. i've tried one developed by Greg Hewgill http://hewgill.com/hanzidict/. but it didn't show up as a dictionary in the setting. thanks.

there're a lot here:
http://www.douban.com/note/133902340/

[jdettmann]

I can confirm that after putting a French-English dictionary in my Kindle Touch documents directory with the USB cable, the Kindle used this dictionary when looking up French words.

I got the dictionary from http://blog.mikeasoft.com/2011/01/05...or-the-kindle/

The book is Le Comte de Monte Cristo in mobi format from http://www.gutenberg.org/

Hope this helps as much as this thread helped me!

[Kumabjorn]

Welcome to Mobileread.
Glad you enjoyed it. We try to help out as much as we can.

[pportnawak]

if you use java mobidata editor :https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=165729 and change the language of the dictionary and the 2 fileds : to and from, it will work for a text in a language . I succeded with that in french and japanese.
I have trouble with both dictionaries (ie spelling words) but the kindle touch is looking into the right dictionary.