360 PB360 for Christmas

[Justy]

Santa brought me a PocketBook 360 for Christmas! Hubby had me order my own Christmas gift and he managed to snag it from the deliveryman on Christmas eve without me knowing, what a nice surprise this morning.

Now I have to load it up with ebooks and an English dictionary. Is it worth looking at themes and firmware options or should I just use it with the defaults for a while? Are there any other customizations I should look into? I'm all excited, my BeBook Mini is more of a what you see is what you get kinda reader so options are fun to have.

[Logseman]

Do try the FBReader180 mod (which has a sticky here). That one is a must, as it enhances your reading experience. The themes are interesting too, particularly because they will let you see more last open files than the two which the standard theme provides, and if you have a large collection of books, some themes will let you see more books per list page. Last thing, get some logos or make some of your own (it's easy).

FBReader180 is the most interesting content for the device.

[Mickey330]

Ooooh, congrats, Justy. In my not-so-prejudiced viewpoint - you go the best reader out there! :-)

I say load the thing up with all the aftermarket goodies: FBreader180, themes, logos, the CSS extension, etc. Do 'em all! That way, if you do them all at once, before you get used to it, they'll become the default and you'll be able to focused on all your e-reading goodness!

Merry Christmas!

[MmavisO]

Congrats, and welcome to the Might Mouse (our pet name for the 360) fan club! Do add at the very least fbreader180, and try the themes. There are lots, each with different things to recommend it. Load 'em all on, and try 'em out until you find one you like. You can always change your mind, too! The same with logos and all the other goodies--nothing is forever, if you try something and you don't like it--get rid of it and try something else!

[Justy]

Thanks for your advice. I've loaded a few themes and fonts, so far I'm liking it. I'll see if I can get fbreader180 on with out an sd card, I think I can. While hubby was able to sneak the pb360 into the car while I got change for the customs charges, he wasn't able to risk getting our spare micro sd from the house.

Also, has anyone created an English/English dictionary for the pocketbook yet? All I have found so far us links to the converter and some othe language dictionaries. Any pointers would be helpful, I've missed the dictionary function that I had on my Cybook Gen3.

[MmavisO]

If you go here http://www.pocketbookreader.com/Downloads.html and scroll down a little ways, there's a link for Sample Dictionaries. It's a compressed file, and it contains an English dictionary. It's the 1913 Webster, but it's public domain so it's free to use. Uncompress the file, and copy the dictionary into the dictionary folder on the 360. You will then be able to select it when you want to look up words. While you're in the dictionary folder, you can remove any unwanted dictionaries and only have the English one. There's another English dictionary floating around here somewhere, but I can't find the link to it now. Look through the Pocketbook threads from (I think) last summer, and you might be able to find it. There's all kinds of good info in the stickies and threads, anyway, and you'll find all kinds of things you never thought about being able to do.

[Schnitzelbrain]

Originally Posted by Justy

Thanks for your advice. I've loaded a few themes and fonts, so far I'm liking it. I'll see if I can get fbreader180 on with out an sd card, I think I can. While hubby was able to sneak the pb360 into the car while I got change for the customs charges, he wasn't able to risk getting our spare micro sd from the house.

Also, has anyone created an English/English dictionary for the pocketbook yet? All I have found so far us links to the converter and some othe language dictionaries. Any pointers would be helpful, I've missed the dictionary function that I had on my Cybook Gen3.

Well lets start,
(I wrote that in another Thread once, i just copied it over. Hope it helps.

the dic Format of the PB is very unique. So what we basically have to do is we convert common Dictionarys into the dic format.

That means we need a, lets call it the source dictionary, in the XDXF, DSL or DICT format. The problem is if u have any overlenght lines or special characters or anything else in the source, the converter fails to run through.
Same is when u take the mentioned wikitionary or the XMLLibre. As they have some xml or html codes inside, the converter fails to....convert.
The only way is to get rid of all the problem is handclean the file, but do not ask me what all makes problems for conversion.

So a good source is http://xdxf.revdanica.com/down/ like crangirl already said. The XDXF Files there work good for conversion. But expect that one or the other fails.

So what do u need for conversion:
1. the source dictionary, lets say french.xdxf
2. Then u need the three language files for the source language. In our example the FR Folder (Postet in this thread together with spanish). In that folder are three files Morphems, Collates, keyboard. These three files are the rules for the converter exe to do his conversion work as well as the rules for the wordfind in the PB later. Do NOT change the files, exept u know how u do this in UTF-8 Format. Either the conversion fails or the dictionary doesnt find a word later on.
3. And, of course the converter.exe (get here)

Then u do the following:
1. Left click the french.xdxf file
2. STRG-Leftclick the FOLDER with the three Files, in our example the FR Folder
3. Drag the two selected files onto the converter exe and wait. The converter exe will make a new file called i.E french.dic.

if it fails u can not do much about it exept try another source file.
And again the three files are not for to copy on the PB. These are the rules for the source language no matter in what other languange the dictionary work. U need the FR Folder for FR-ENG as well as for FR-FR or FR-GER. So when u convert an english dictionary u need.....correct the ENG Folder. Then also for ENG-GER or ENG-ENG or ENG-SPA


Here is a source of Dicts in the DSL Format, they also can be used for conversion.

[Justy]

Originally Posted by Schnitzelbrain

Well lets start,
(I wrote that in another Thread once, i just copied it over. Hope it helps.

the dic Format of the PB is very unique. So what we basically have to do is we convert common Dictionarys into the dic format.

Thanks for the steps, I think I know where your other thread is so that I can get the 3 language files that go into the folder, i do like your second Source for dictionaries, it looks like I'll have lots of Files to try. Too bad the Websters 1913 dictionary hasn't been posted in dic format along with the other formats in the MR eBook section.

I'll have to wait till I get home to play with conversions though, the in-laws have been ok with me copying over books and themes but going into the other room to get Internet connection on my laptop (instead of iPhone) and run conversions might not go so well. I downloaded the themes while I was waiting for my son to fall asleep so I had a bit of extra time then.

Thanks again for the good instructions.

[MmavisO]

Originally Posted by Justy

Too bad the Websters 1913 dictionary hasn't been posted in dic format along with the other formats in the MR eBook section.

The 1913 Websters in dic format is included in the compressed file at the link I provided above. No conversion necessary!

[Justy]

Originally Posted by MmavisO

The 1913 Websters in dic format is included in the compressed file at the link I provided above. No conversion necessary!

Wow, somehow I missed your post, that's what I get for reading on the small screen! Thanks for thelink, it's exactly what was looking for.

[MmavisO]

It's easy enough to do!

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by MmavisO

The 1913 Websters in dic format is included in the compressed file at the link I provided above. No conversion necessary!

I installed it and it works perfectly, so thanks and karma to you for the instructions.

I tried a few words with it, and it's interesting to see how the meanings/dominant usage of many words have drifted in a hundred years. It makes me less confident that I can really understand the nuances of what was being written back then. But still, this could be the right dictionary for all those old public domain books!

[tselling]

I like the Merriam Webster one. It is more recent and converts fine.