Pocketbook Basic 3- problem with dictionaries.

[sakitoki]

Hello. I'm new here. I've just bought Pocketbook Basic 3 but I found it's quite hard to insert dictionaries in it. The offer of the official store is rather poor. I got know that I need dictionaries in custom format .pbi but I have no idea how to convert dictionaries to this format. Older tutorials connected with pocketbooks show how to convert to .dict format but I checked it and it doesn;t work on my device. What shoud I do? Is there any solution? Thank you for your help!

[rkomar]

The .pbi files are package files containing dictionaries or text-to-speech files for installing on the devices. They are not dictionary files themselves.

You need to get PocketBook's program for converting dictionaries to their proprietary format. It's a Windows-based program that reads dictionaries in common formats (like .dict) and creates the .dic file that works on the devices. They don't seem to be offering it anymore for recent devices, but you can still see the link on the Support page for old devices (e.g. PocketBook 902). Look for the DictionaryConverter link there, or search this forum for some versions that were uploaded here years ago.

How much you have to do after that depends on what language the dictionary is for. The converter requires that three data files be provided: collates.txt (providing conversions between characters and character order for sorting), keyboard.txt (providing the layout of keyboard to be used for that language), and morphems.txt (providing rules for converting words into the root form for more successful lookups). If your dictionary is in English or Russian, you can use the three files provided with the converter. Otherwise, you will have to look around this site to see if anyone uploaded them previously, or create them yourself. The collates.txt file isn't hard to create, and the keyboard.txt file can usually be found on the device itself in some form. The morphems.txt file is the difficult one to get right. You can leave it empty at first, and then add to it afterwards when you know everything else is correct.

Once your dictionary is ready, you just copy it to the /system/dictionaries/ folder via USB and the applications should see it (you may also have to select it in the system configuration menu for dictionaries).

All this is to create dictionaries that will work with the device's native reading applications. Some third-party applications will work with common dictionary formats (I believe koreader does this), so if you can get that working, you may not have to convert the dictionary at all.

[sakitoki]

Thank you ver much for your huge reply! I try do it as you said, but I have another problem. When I connect my device to the computer with USB cable I don't see any sytem folder just file folders. What I have to do to get to the system folder. Is there any kind of root for ebook readers like for smartphones?

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by sakitoki

Thank you ver much for your huge reply! I try do it as you said, but I have another problem. When I connect my device to the computer with USB cable I don't see any sytem folder just file folders. What I have to do to get to the system folder. Is there any kind of root for ebook readers like for smartphones?

No, the problem is with Windows, it automatically hides any folders called "system". You have to change the options on your file browser to unhide them. If you search this forum, you will find posts with more information; I don't use Windows so I can never remember the details.

[Manodragon]

I Cannot Find the System Folder
If the device is connected to the PC and you cannot find the system folder, it is hidden.

To get the access to the system folder you should follow the steps below:

1 ) Open the root folder of internal memory of the device with the help of the File Manager and select the Service Tab in the upper part of the File Manager (if it is not visible by default , press ALT to call the Service Menu) – choose Folder Specifications.

2) In the appearing window select the View Tab;

3) Find the "Hide protected system files and folders" option and deactivate it;

4) Find the “Show hidden files and folders" option and activate it. Confirm your choice with YES and APPLY.

If everything is done correctly, you will see the hidden folders in the internal memory of the device (including the system folder).

From PocketBook's FAQ