## GDict Manual

2000
John Fleck

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found here.

Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps or initial caps.

This is version 1.0 of GDictmanual.

## Introduction

GDict provides dictionary definitions of words, using any server that supports the dict protocol, an Internet standard for client/server dictionary applications.

To run GDict, select GDict from the Utilities submenu of the Main Menu, or type `gdict -a` on the command line.

GDict can also be started via a panel applet. To add this applet to a Panel, right-click on the panel and choose Applets Utility GDict , or type `gdict` on the command line.

GDict is included in the `gnome-utils` package, which is part of the GNOME desktop environment. This document describes version &version; of GDict.

## Using GDict

GDict can be used to obtain dictionary definitions of words from local or remote dictionary servers. It can check spelling and look up words based on imprecise spelling using various pattern matching techniques. This section describes basic usage of GDict.

### Basic usage

Starting GDict opens the Main window, shown in .

#### GDict Main Window

GDict Main Window

GDict automatically connects to its default server, giving you an error message if it is unable to connect.

To get a definition of a word, type the word in the text bar immediately below the toolbar, and click on the Look up button on the toolbar or the Enter or Return key.

GDict connects to the server and, if a definition is found, returns it in the main text window.

If no word is found, GDict will automatically open its spell check window and run a spell check on it. More information on spell-checking is available in

If you type in a search string using regular expressions, GDict opens the spell-checking window and begins a search for words matching the pattern typed. For example, typing `^h[ie]ll` returns "hell," "hill," and all words beginning in "hill" or "hell". Regular expressions are a powerful pattern-matching technique that are beyond the scope of this document. Details can be found in the manual for grep.

By default, GDict uses the server at dict.org and searches all of its databases for a word that is a perfect match for the word you typed in. You can change the server in use, the databases it searches and the search strategy (allowing it to search for wound-alike words, for example, or use wildcards) in the preferences dialog, shown in .

### Spelling

If you type in a word and click on the toolbar button labeled spell, GDict opens the spell checker window, shown in .

#### GDict Spell Checker Window

GDict Spell Checker Window

This window returns a list of possible spellings, based on a search strategy for similar words. The search is executed on the server, not by GDict, and the types of search strategies available vary. A pull-down menu showing the various strategies available on the server is labelled Search Strategy. This menu allows you to change search strategies and conduct a new search by clicking on Find Words.

In the spell checker window, you can also look up a word once you've found a correct spelling. To do so, click on the word, then click on Look up Word. The definition will appear in the program's main window.

### Menus

The menu bar, located at the top of the Main Window, contains the following menus:

File

  This menu contains: Look up which looks up a word, Spell which launches a spelling help window, and Exit which is self-explanatory.

Edit

  This menu contains nothing.

Settings

  This menu contains Preferences, which opens the Preferences Dialog.

Help

  This menu contains:

  - Manual — shows this manual.

  - About — shows basic information about GDict, such as the author's name and the application version number.

## Customization

To change the application settings, select Preferences from the Settings menu. This opens the Preferences dialog, shown in .

### Preferences Dialog

Preferences dialog

### TIP

When opening the Preferences dialog, GDict conducts a brief conversation with the server selected, then customizes the listing in the dialog according to the server's capabilities. The dialog shown above uses the default server, www.dict.org.

The properties in the Server tab are:

- Server — The name of the server used by GDict. www.dict.org is the default. You may use any other server that supports the Internet "dict" protocol.

- Port — The port number GDict uses to connect. 2628 is the standard.

- Database: — In its initial conversation with the selected server, GDict downloads a list of dictionary databases available for searching. This pull-down menu allows you to select one or all of the databases for your searches.

- Default strategy: — In its initial conversation with the selected server, GDict downloads a list of search strategies available on the server. This pull-down menu selects the default strategy to be used for spell-checking, or when you type in a string that does not exactly match a word in the dictionary database being searched.

The properties in the Fonts tab are:

- Headword, Pronunciation, Etymology, Example, Main Body, Sub-number, Part of Speech and Cross-reference — When GDict returns a definition, it uses different fonts and colors to distinguish the various parts of the definition returned. This tab allows you to customize those fonts and colors.

  Clicking on the "ABC" icon next to each item opens a standard GNOME font selection window. Clicking on the colored box next to each item opens a standards GNOME color selection window.

After you have made all the changes you want, click on OK to apply the changes and close the Properties dialog. To cancel the changes and return to previous values, click the Cancel button.

## Authors

GDict was written by Spiros Papadimitriou (spapadim+@cs.cmu.edu, Mike Hughes (mfh@psilord.com) and Bradford Hovinen (hovinen@helixcode.com). To find more information about GDict, please visit the GDict Web page. Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. You can also use Bug Report Tool (`bug-buddy`), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports.

This manual was written by John Fleck(jfleck@inkstain.net). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to docs@gnome.org. You can also add your comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.

## License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

     Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA