# &app; Manual V&manrevision;

2003
Hu Zheng
GNOME Documentation Project
&legal; Hu Zheng GNOME Documentation Project

     huzheng_001@163.com

Will Robinson Stanford University

     wsr23@stanford.edu

Cleaning up English

&app; Manual V&manrevision;
&date;

Hu Zheng

GNOME Documentation Project

This manual describes version &appversion; of &app;.

## Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the &app; application or this manual, follow the directions in the GNOME Feedback Page.

## Introduction

StarDict is an international dictionary written for the GNOME environment. It has powerful features such as "Glob-style pattern matching," "Scan selected word," "Fuzzy query," etc.

## Getting Started

### Starting &app;

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

  Choose Accessories StarDict.

Command line

  Type `stardict`, then press Return.

  You can specify a word to query too :

  `stardict word`

  or a Glob-style pattern matching string :

  `stardict wo?d*`

  or do a fuzzy query :

  `stardict /word`

If &app; is already running, it will perform the query in the existing StarDict window.

### When You Start &app;

When you start &app;, the following window is displayed.

#### &app; Main Window

Shows &app; main window. Contains Search input combo, Tool buttons, Word list, Definition area and Setting buttons.

The &app; main window consists of the following elements:

Search input combo

  Use this field to enter the word that you want to look up. You can also access recently-queried words through the dropdown box.

Tool buttons

  You can click these buttons to do fuzzy quering, look up the previously queried word, look up the next and previous words from the list on the left, and pop up the main menu.

Word list

  Shows the words that have been found in this search.

Definition area

  &app; displays the definition of a word in this area of the window.

Setting buttons

  The bottom-left of the window contains the Scan selection check button, the Info button and the Quit button. Checking the Scan selection check button will cause &app; to automatically look up words that you highlight in any application. The bottom-right of the window contains the Internet search button, the StarDict project website button, the Dictionary management button and the Preferences button.

### Notification area icon

&app; will also add an icon to the notification area. When you iconify the main window, the window will be hiden. After you click the icon, the window will be shown again. If you right click this icon, it will popup a menu where you can choose to toggle Scan selection, or to Quit. You can toggle Scan selection directly by ctrl-clicking the icon. Clicking the middle mouse button on the icon will query the selected word.

#### &app;'s notification area icon

&app;'s notification area icon.

### Scan selection

&app; can automatically scan selections. This means that when you select a word or phrase in &app; or in any other application, &app; will get the text that you selected and search for it, then display a floating window containing the result of the search.

#### &app; Floating Window

Shows &app; floating window. Contains Tool buttons and Definition area.

You can drag the window to move it. The floating window will disappear when you move your pointer some distance away.

The &app; floating window consists of the following elements:

Tool buttons

  The buttons will be hidden automatically to save display space. When your mouse pointer enters the floating window, the buttons will appear immediately, and disappear again as the mouse pointer leaves.

  You can click these buttons to query a word in the main window, copy the query result to clipboard, pronounce the word, stop selection scanning, etc. To the far right is the Lock floating window button. If the floating window is locked, it will always be shown there.

Definition area

  The query result is displayed in this area.

## Usage

### Looking Up a Word

To look up the definition of a word, perform the following steps:

1. Type the word that you want to look up in the Search combo box.

2. &app; will show the definition immediately. If not found, you can press Return to do a fuzzy query or just click the Fuzzy query button.

3. Use the scrollbar to scroll through the definition. Select the words in the word list to view the related words.

### Clearing the Display Area

To clear the text of the Search input combo, click the Clear button on the left, or just press Alt-C or ESC.

### To Copy Text to Another Application

There are two ways to copy the text in the display area to another application:

- To copy all of the text, click the Copy button by the top of the Defintion area.

- To copy some of the text, select the text that you want to copy, then click your mouse's right button and choose Copy.

### To Find Text in the Display Area

To find text in the display area, perform the following steps:

1. click the Find button by the top of the Definition area.

2. Type the string that you want to find in the Find text box, then press Return. You cannot use wildcards.

3. To find the next occurrence of the word, press Return again.

## Preferences

To configure &app;, click the Preferences button at the right-bottom corner of the main window or click the Main menu button and choose Preferences.

### Dictionary

#### Startup

Hide main window when starting StarDict.

  Controls whether the main window appears when you first start the program. If you select this option, you will only see an icon in the notification area after starting &app;. You may still get to the main window by clicking on this icon.

  Default: FALSE.

#### Scan Selection

Only do scanning while modifier key being pressed.

  Only do scanning while the modifier key being pressed. The modifier key is set by "Scan modifier key".

  Default: FALSE.

#### Font

Use custom font.

  Allows you to override the system's default font when running &app;. If this option is turned on, then the font named in the "Custom Font" option will be used instead of the system font.

  Default: FALSE.

  Font settings will take effect the next time you run &app;.

#### Sound

Enable sound event.

  Whether enable sound event. &app; will play sound event when button is active, released, and when pop up menu.

  Default: TRUE.

### Main Window

#### Search Website

Search website list area

  You can search the websites in this list when you right-click the Internet search button in the main window.

### Notification area icon

#### Options

Query in the floating window when middle mouse button clicked.

  Whether query in the floating window, or the main window. This happens when user clicks the middle mouse button on the notification area icon.

  Default: TRUE.

### Floating Window

#### Size

Max window width.

  Sets the floating window's max width.

  Default: 320.

Max window height.

  Sets the floating window's max height.

  Default: 240.

## Dictionary Management

To manage the dictionaries, click the Manage dictionaries button at the bottom-right corner of the main window, or click the Main menu button and choose Dict manage.

In the dictionary management dialog, you can disable dictionaries that you don't need, and you can set the order in which the dictonaries are queried.

&app; will search the dictionary files at "~/.stardict/dic" and "/usr/share/stardict/dic", and search tree dictionary files at "~/.stardict/treedict" and "/usr/share/stardict/treedict"

## Related Projects

&app; would not be possible without many other projects' contributions. Here is a short list of projects that helped &app;.

### StarDict 1.31

The original Motif/LessTif-based StarDict 1.31 written in 1999. &app; 2 got many good ideas from StarDict1.31 such as "Scan selection." Many of &app; 2's features, like "Fuzzy query," come from StarDict1.31.

Ma
Su'an

    msa@wri.com.cn

### StarDict 1.33+

StarDict1.33+ is a big enhancement of StarDict1.31. It added many dictionaries, and so it made me realize that dictionary data was not a barrier to a new, GTK2-based dictionary program. If there had been no StarDict1.33+, I would not have started the &app; 2 project. The author also helped me to port the StarDict 1.3 dictionary data files to &app; 2.

Opera
Wang

    Opera.Wang@motorola.com

### The DICT Project

Many dictd dictionaries have been ported to &app;. dictzip, which came from dictd, is also used by &app;.

To find more information about the DICT Project, please visit www.dict.org.

### *Quick

Many wquick dictionaries have been ported to &app;.

To find more information about *Quick, please visit *Quick.

### The Blowfish Project

The Blowfish Project provided the Oxford English-Chinese dictionary.

Terrence
Miao

    terence_miao@email.com

To find more information about the Blowfish Project, please visit the Blowfish Project Web site.

### XDICT

XDICT's dictionary has been ported to &app;.

Fu
Jianjun

    fujianjun@163.net

### cdict5

cdict5's dictionary has been ported to &app;.

#### xcdict-tcltk

Leon
Liang

    Liang.Lu@CERN.CH

xcdict-tcltk Web site

#### cdict5 v1.3

Borg
LU

    dystopia@iname.com

To find more information about the cdict5 Project, please visit the cdict5 on freshports.

### CEDICT

CEDICT's dictionary has been ported to &app;.

Paul
Denisowski

    cedict@chinesetools.com

To find more information about the CEDICT Project, please visit the CEDICT Project Web site.

### CFFD

&app;'s icon was created with this software. CFFD also provided some useful information to me.

Kong
Hui

    konghui@xinhuanet.com

To find more information about the CFFD Project, please visit the CFFD Project Web site.

## Developers

Hu
Zheng

    huzheng_001@163.com

To find more information about &app;, please visit the StarDict Web site.

Send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to Hu Zheng (huzheng_001@163.com).