A portable dictionary will be good for people who doesn't know great English. Like me 
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You'd be online most of the time when your key is in, so wouldn't dictionary.com or one of the many side-by-side dictionaries be a good option?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
http://www.dejudicibus.it/dizionario/
And not to mention if you had a lot of words the program is bound to be pretty large.
I perfer google's 'Define: term' instead of dictionary.com, mainly because google won't load of the adware and such. Unfortunitly, google doesn't always come up with stuff.
Wictionary is also good if you already have a sense of what the word means
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page
You have to be online for this to work as well.
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/dict.shtml
I'm not always online, but I still need a dictionary that fast and comprehensive. Well, the free version of "WordWeb" runs great on a USB drive, and I can't imagine living without it. You'll have to install it to a local hard drive, then copy (or move) it to the USB drive. The first time you run it, I believe that you'll have to point to where the word list is, but after that, it runs fine. I seem to recall that you have to run it via System Tray (wweb32.exe, not wwebnotray.exe). It took a little work, but I've got a decent dictionary on my USB drive that doesn't require an Internet connection.
I downloaded Wordweb and used my Installed Izarc to extract the files from the setup to a folder(right click on Wordwebsetup and choose extract to folder). Then I just ran wwebnotray and worked like a charm.
Thanks Kingsfield
I don't know what I'd be without WordWeb! Don't buy the "pro" version, since the free one includes more than enough to it already. Check the site now and then for updates, and apply them. I also use "X-Term Medical" dictionary for the rare times when I need to loo up something medical related. In any case, I'm glad that I helped! Just contributing something back to the world!
instead of using izarc to extract the files, I used only windows.
First stop, in a lock down computer, you would need to find where the tmp folder is. Next run wordweb installation, it will decompress the full app into that tmp folder. Then go into the folder, look for something called Rar... something...
Copy out the entire folder. And done, you have your own portable wordweb.
At this point you can abort the installation as wweb32.dll will never be found in the installation folders and for typical lock down computer, you have no access to C:\windows\system32 folders.
I still dont like wordweb caused, it doesnt include features used in "jazzy". As my spelling are typically broken, but the matches they provided are very far from what I want. Moreover I need to pay for developer license. That is a definitely No No for me.
Are you guys sure that you use WordWeb really portably, and you are not just running it from a USB on a computer where WW is already installed? I didn't manage to use it portably. There's no way to make the program point to its database without an installation. I emailed the author of WW about this some time ago and he said it can't be used portably.
Apart from that: most folks don't seem to know that the word list in WordWeb is exactly the same as the one in TheSage (words + all the examples)! And TheSage is truly portable, right from the start.
I prefer WW's interface over the TheSage's UI, but some folks will probably prefer the way TheSage presents results. It's interface is even more configurable than WW's. The only difference that I found in the word lists of the two programs was, that in WW the usual known minor differences in US and UK spelling are pointed out.
http://www.sequencepublishing.com/thesage.html
Is it the same? Mhmm, maybe I should write a version of the dict also.
http://www.uploading.com/files/S0JJL5XS/wordweb4.5a.zip.html
try this version, I received a prompting for ww3 file and just select the file in the folder.
Thanks for your input, zeroin! I got your zip file. It behaves exactly as the latest version that I got. I don't get that prompting that you mention, for the wweb.ww3 file. When I enter a word it gives an error message: Cannot open file "D:\WordWeb\wweb.ww3", pointing actually to the location of the previously installed WW (and that I just moved temporarily in the bin to test whether WW really runs from the USB stick).
Hmm... maybe I should uninstall first WW completely, instead of just putting it in the bin, so that the old path gets removed? Any clues welcome; I do prefer the WW interface over that of TheSage.
try the zip on another pc?
u should try uninstalling it cleanly. yup, but honestly I have no idea.
You're right: uninstalling WW worked and I got the prompt you mentioned. Thanks!
Am surprised that even an uninstalled WW can load words that are highlighted within applications. That interactivity with other applications is the reason, the author of WW had told me, why WW wont work without installation. Good, that geeks always find out more about programs than their authors! LOL
hehe, no worries, 3 computers died under my hand within 1 month, so I was sort of in desperate needs of fixing up my english for my assignment. Yup, come to think of it, I have never use that integrated interactivity before. As in I think I know what you meant, like Oxford Dictionary also have like double click and automatically appear. But I have never seen in action with wordweb installed before. Does it work with firefox portable too?
Sorry, zeroin23, only saw your post and question now (after Anthony Lewis, WW's author made his post). I've never used WW's hotkey feature while it was installed (got too many dictionaries with hotkeys, and can't remember them all). But what works with the uninstalled version is, when you highlight a word and then just click on WW's tray symbol, the word with definitions appears in WW.
BTW, even in the uninstalled "version" of WW the X-Ref button (top right) works.
It allows you to show up quickly, in other dictionaries, the word loaded presently in WW. (I got an i-Finger and a Longman dictionary listed below the X-Ref "Web search" feature). If you are unlucky, none of your dictionaries will show up there. Strangely, no Oxford lexikon shows up there. Would be nice, if the author allowed to add one's preferred dictionaries manually to the X-Ref button.
Do you want a dictionary with translations or definitions?
How about http://www.ego4u.com/en/lingopad ?
Get it here:
http://www.yadabyte.com/Yadabyte_Portables.php
The Yadabyte dictionary is gr8 and it only takes about 6mb
. I use it a lot and it even has example sentences and other things.
MD
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Use the Search button to search for previously asked questions!
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MD
I use the sage: http://www.sequencepublishing.com/thesage.html when I'm offline
and www.tfd.com when online.
One I use, which is portable is a german english free alternative.
It can be found here:
http://www.quickdic.de/
Regards
Thorsten
how do you keep the location of the dictionary permanent? At the moment, it writes to the registry where the dictionary is kept, plus if you have the pro version, it also writes the key there too.
Any way of saving this location to an ini or something similar with a relative path?
I have an early test version of WordWeb that has an install option to run as a proper portable app. If anyone is interested in testing please try
http://wordweb.info/users/wordweb_test.exe
(it will expire in a couple of months). Any feedback welcome.
Antony
Hi, Antony, nice to see you here! Did you get my "request" in my last reply to zeroin23? Would it be feasible to make just ANY dictionary show up under the X-Ref button? Maybe it can be done manually, through a registry tweak? As I mentioned, none of the Oxford dictionaries I got show up, also a few others (about seven), don't show there. A setting would be nice where one could just point to any .exe of any dictionary (not just word dictionaries). Any chance for a feature like that in the future? And thanks for your great WordWeb. I'm sure, you've made many people happy with it!
List of auto-detected dictionaries at
http://www.crossword-compiler.com/users/dicts/
(which includes several Oxford). I do have an interface for adding dictionaries, but currently it is only part of Crossword Compiler.
Thanks, Antony! From that list I only got the Longman Dictionary of Contemptible (or was that Contemporary?) English, and one Oxford version (got a few older versions still, from older CD ROMs in libraries).
Strangely, i-Finger (that offers the interface for the PONS dictionaries) shows up under the X-Ref button, although it's not listed. Have to explain that mostly, whenever possible, I use the dics "uninstalled" (just copied from a previous installation) which might perhaps be a reason that some don't appear under the X-Ref button. But sure would be nice if, some time in the future, one could just point to ANY dictionary one prefers (especially for foreigners who got their own special brands of dictionaries).
I put it on a USB stick and it runs perfectly. Very nice new icons, have to say!!
Can't make out what the meaning of the new bold entries (in the lower pane) is. Once, I saw that the button just above the close button was named "Replace". I closed WW, restarted it, and now the button is named "Copy" again. Can't reproduce the "Replace" phenomenon.
It's a pity this version will expire!
Added a bit later: sorry, for being slow, just found out how the "Replace" feature works. It replaces a highlighted word in a text editor with one of the new found words. It's there even in the previous versions. But it's all new to me! LOL
The bold items are 'core' common English vocabulary - words to be used if you want to be widely understood. This will be optional in final version.
Used your test installer and it worked without a problem.
Tried it on several other machines with only two problems. The first is when you are running from the tray windows minimize button should act the same as the "Close" buttom and minimize wordweb to the tray.
Since I did not have it listed in PStart menu yet I started it from explorer. Without thinking about it I started wordweb using wweb32.exe and wwnotray.exe both. Had two instances runing at the same time. Maybe when starting, the program should check to see if its already running and default to the active one. Had already put some words in and they disappeared. The new instance was right on top of the old. My mistake (red face).
Every one needs to remember that if wordweb or any other program like firefox from the usbdrive is in the tray you will not be able to safely remove the usb drive until they are closed.
Wordweb is great. Let us know when this new version is available.
Thank you
jeb
jeb
hay actually for a dictionary like wordweb, I think it should cater for emergency removal of usb stick without corruptions. Caused in my view, wordweb should be just reading the dictionary, writing to USB should be really really rare and maybe some quick configuration data only. It shouldnt write frequently to USB stick.
more over USB stick have a limit of writing, and dieds after that.
Hay Antony, for the developer license, is there any for free software license, sort of open source stuff. I would like to use your developer interface, but me being a student, barely got enough money for 3 meals a day. yup
Any tips on how to safely handle USB removal welcome. It only writes the stick when the window is closing or changing an option. But the program file itself is on the stick, which may be much harder to handle on sudden drive removal.
mhmm bad news, I couldnt find much information about api for detecting event for removal of usb stuff. I was thinking if you could detect the source usb device that is run from, then if you listen for shutdown event, at least the program could prompt the user that changes will not be saved. (assumming the dictionary is already in memory)
for the sudden removal, I guessed there is no way to handle for it.
http://www.codecomments.com/archive290-2006-1-371117.html
http://portablefreeware.com/?c=18&sc=56
LingoPad looks pretty neat. Would be nice to link it both ways with WordWeb.
The other English dictionary look like they are all based on WordNet - like WordWeb. However WordWeb has a few thousand extra definitions and corrections, so may be more reliable (as well as being properly internationalized for non-US English).
Visit http://www.yadabyte.com/Yadabyte_Portables.php for Yadabyte Dictonary
Was posted above.
~Lurk~
~Lurk~
My recommendation is PortableStarDict. It checks words as you type and is extremely customizable.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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Good Idea
Apple Has a wiget of the dickionary Could that be of use (onley on the latest macs
----
Morgan Stagg
does it crap your registry like foxit?
WordWeb 5 is now available and has an option to install to a USB stick. See
http://wordweb.info/free/