KINDLE TOUCH cannot use dictionary with mobi format

[EbokJunkie]

Guys, use Calibre command line to set any language in e-book metadata (example is English):

ebook-meta book.mobi -l en

[Stingo]

Ok. Let me explain what I learned after a week of struggle.

First of all, the way that the touch does spell checking for PDF and AZW is different. For AZW the language setting of the book must match the language setting of the dictionary. If your Spanish dictionary is encoded as English a book encoded as Spanish will not see it. No simple way to override. Most old dictionaries on Amazon were encoded as English. Many have been updated to their correct language.

Based on this new encoding scheme you should have a default dictionary for each language. Your dictionary screen should look like this.

If the dictionary is encoded as English it will appear within your English selection and look like this(Note English dictionaries title at top):

Your choice is to re-encode books as English in which case the Touch will first check the default dictionary and then the other dictionaries until it finds the word. Problem with this is that it will find English SOY and use that instead of Spanish SOY. The other choice is to get your hands on properly encoded dictionaries.
Amazon gave me a refund on my old dictionaries and I re-bought them. Once the MW Spanish had been updated and the Barrons German had not. Good luck.

[DiapDealer]

I think we have two different conversations going on here: 1) Misconfigured MOBI documents and 2) misconfigured MOBI dictionaries.

The first can be easily fixed by using calibre to set the proper language (and then converting, saving, or sending with calibre).

The second can be slightly more complicated—as a MOBI dictionary is a completely different beast than your average mobi book. MOBI dictionaries have TWO language settings; an IN language and an OUT language (found in the opf file if you are lucky enough to have been able to successfully unpack a mobi dictionary). This is how translation dictionaries know to convert "from"..."to."

Calibre doesn't provide a way to set both of these language properties. In fact, using calibre to convert or otherwise modify a MOBI dictionary will probably result in it not functioning as a dictionary anymore. Dictionaries are not something the calibre team has a real big interest in reverse engineering—can't say as I blame them.

[rocknel]

DiapDealer, thank you for your comments.

My initial question and struggle was with .mobi book looking up in Kindle's default Oxford English dictionary.

I am not sure about dictionaries in .mobi format.

[Stingo]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Calibre doesn't provide a way to set both of these language properties. In fact, using calibre to convert or otherwise modify a MOBI dictionary will probably result in it not functioning as a dictionary anymore. Dictionaries are not something the calibre team has a real big interest in reverse engineering—can't say as I blame them.

Early in this thread when I mentioned that I had a mobi dictionary not work this is exactly what happened to me. I converted the dictionary in Calibre to set the language and it ceased to work.

[lloydsmith]

Originally Posted by Stingo

You must have missed the thread on the foreign dictionary problem. It doesn't bear repeating at length. Suffice it to say that some dictionaries are coded as english and will not be recognized for the foreign language. If your spanish dictionary is coded as English your touch will not recognize that you have a dictionary for books encoded in Spanish. If you download a dictionary that is properly encoded for the foreign language it will work. I know, I have two german dictionaries and two spanish on my touch and one is encoded correctly for its language and the other is not.

Stingo, can you give me the name of a good Spanish monolingual dictionary that is properly encoded?

Thanks

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by lloydsmith

Stingo, can you give me the name of a good Spanish monolingual dictionary that is properly encoded?

I'm obviously not Stingo, but since s/he hasn't replied yet, here's my answer. The Kindle app for PCs and smartphones comes with the following free dictionary, which is downloaded on demand if you try to look up a word in a Spanish ebook:

Diccionario de la lengua española (vigésimo segunda edición) 2001/2006 REA

This is the de-facto standard monolingual Spanish dictionary. I assume that this dictionary is also downloaded to hardware Kindles if you have an Amazon account.

[RsH]

Today's newest version of Calibre claims it is now fully compatible with the newest version of mobi as used in the Touch.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by RsH

Today's newest version of Calibre claims it is now fully compatible with the newest version of mobi as used in the Touch.

That has nothing to do with dictionaries, though; it's related to the new "KF8" format.

[westevenssr]

I have been using my Kindles for over a year now. I have 3, and like the old one with the keys on the bottom best. However somehow my dictionary stopped working, and my Kindle indicates I need to reset the settings in the home page. I can't find it, and haven't been able to find it on the Internet yet. If some ones has an answer please email me at westevenssr at comcast dot net. Thanks you.

[askak]

Originally Posted by rocknel

Unfortunately, I tested it and it seemed true. It was a comment by Amazon Customer Service.

I had documents in PDF, converted into .mobi using Calibre.

The dictionary popup says, "Dictionary not found for this book's language. To download a dictionary, go to Archived items."

Now, if I have Amazon convert the same PDF into AZW, it works.

I need to know if there is a workaround, since I have quite a few docments to cover. If it was only several, yes I would use their service and be done with it.

You can search/select a word in your computer with your pdf reader? You can also do it with calibre itself. Open the book you created with the calibre e-reader and try to highlight just a word.

My guess is that those pdfs are made with scanned images and probably amazon ocr them for you.

[mdmorrissey]

I am considering buying a KT so that I can read Italian novels and look words up simply by touching the screen. Sounds too good to be true... The built-in dictionary is supposed to be able to do this for several languages, including Italian, but I wonder if I will be satisfied with it. Will the touch function work with a larger dictionary bought separately, for example, the Collins Italian-English?

[HarryT]

Yes, it will.

[mdmorrissey]

Thanks, Harry. Can I take that as a yes to both questions? Have you actually used the KT with a supplemental dict.?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mdmorrissey

Thanks, Harry. Can I take that as a yes to both questions? Have you actually used the KT with a supplemental dict.?

I haven't personally used a bought dictionary on the Kindle, no, but I have on older Mobipocket devices, such as the CyBook Gen3.

On the Kindle, you can select which dictionary you want to use as the primary dictionary for a given language in the "Settings" menu. It shows you all the dictionaries that are available for a given language, and you choose which one will be used. In that respect, a bought dictionary would be no different to the dictionaries which are supplied as a default. Certainly, though, the English dictionaries on the Kindle are excellent, so I'd see if the default Italian dictionary meets your needs before spending money on a different one.