What features do PocketBook devices support for looking up into normal books?

[Hmcaun]

This question originates from here, particularly at the #11th post.

The main reason I'm asking this is that I'd like to make use of such a feature for looking up dictionary definitions from an EPUB file. That seems to me the only solution for having an Italian dictionary - albeit illegally obtained - on e-reading devices that offer none.

I should also point you out that it would be helpful, if not necessary, to be able to search even through the tapping of a word. If that of directly opening the dictionary book, which I would gladly reject, isn't the only alternative, please illustrate how one can generally do searches through normal books on PocketBook devices.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Hmcaun

The main reason I'm asking this is that I'd like to make use of such a feature for looking up dictionary definitions from an EPUB file. That seems to me the only solution for having an Italian dictionary - albeit illegally obtained - on e-reading devices that offer none.

The original legendary PocketBook 301 and 360 had a number of unique features.
One of them was the possibility to use an user-created dictionary. The manufacturer released a dictionary builder that enabled users to create custom dictionaries. Legal ones - the most famous created from an old, out-of-copyright English dictionary from 1913, lots of dictionaries created from free ones, such as star-dict and also Not-so-legal ones created from Encyclopedia Britannica.

Some dictionaries can be still found on the net.
The PocketBook company no longer strives to make their readers as configurable as possible and hasn't released an SDK or dictionary builder in quite a while, but the new firmware is still somehow backward compatible.

If I needed to have an e-ink reader with a dictionary, I would get one of Android e-ink readers and install one of many reading apps that support external dictionaries, free or paid.

[rkomar]

They still offer the dictionary builder on their website, although the latest version seems to be built using cygwin (with the necessary runtime libraries provided). Anyway, if the required dictionary is in some standard format (stardict, xdxf,...), then you can create a PocketBook-specific binary dictionary from it. It looks like you would have to create a morphems.txt file for it, though.

If the dictionary is a standard ebook file, then you can use the built-in search function in the reading applications. You tap in the middle of the screen to bring up the menu, then tap on the search icon, and then type in the search string. You can then navigate through the returned results. It's pretty easy, but building a PocketBook-format dictionary would be better.

P.S. The dictionary converter can be hard to find. There is a version on the Touch Lux support page, as well as an older version in the Archived Pro 902 support page. It looks like some support pages have the link for the software, and some don't.