# &app; Manual V&manrevision;

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

     huzheng_001@163.com

&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 have powerful features such as "Glob-style pattern matching", "Scan selection word", "Fuzzy query", etc. English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary data from several sources are currently provided.

## Getting Started

### To Start &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; have already been running, it will make the running StarDict's main window present and do the query.

### When You Start &app;

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

#### &app; Main Window

Shows &app; main window. Contains Word input combo, Tool buttons, Word list box, Word text box and Setting buttons.

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

Word input combo

  Use this field to enter the word that you want to look up. You can also choose the historical words by the combo's popdown list.

Tool buttons

  You can click these buttons to do fuzzy quering, look up the previous queried word, look up the previous word, look up the next word , popup the main menu.

Word list box

  Here list the words that found.

Word text box

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

Setting buttons

  In the left filed is the Scan selection check button, the Info button and the Quit button. In the right field is the Internet search button, the StarDict project website button, the Dictionary manage button and the Preferences button.

### Notification area icon

&app; will also add an icon to the notification aera, 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, you can choose to toggle Scan selection, or to Quit.

#### StarDict's notification area icon

&app;'s notification area icon.

### Scan selection

&app; can scan selection. This means when you selected some words in some other software, &app; will get the text that you selected and query it, then popup a float window to show the query result.

#### &app; Float Window

Shows &app; float window. Contains Tool buttons and Word text area.

You can drag the window to move it. The float window will be hiden when your mouse pointer leaves the float window for some distance.

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

Tool buttons

  The buttons will be hiden automatically to save display space. When your mouse pointer enter the float window, it will be shown immediately, and hide again as the mouse pointer leaves.

  You can click these buttons to query word in the main window : Copy the query result to clipboard, Pronounce the word, Stop selection scaning, etc. At the right most is the Lock float window button, if the float window is locked, it will always be shown there.

Word text area

  The query result is displayed in this area.

## Usage

### To Look Up the Definition of 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 Word 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 box to view the relative words.

### To Clear the Display Area

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

### To Copy Text to Another Application

To copy the text in the display area to another application, perform one of the following tasks:

- To copy all of the text, click the Copy button by the top of the Word text box.

- To copy some of the text, select the lines 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 Word text box.

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.

### Main Window

#### Startup

Hide main window when startup.

  Whether hide main window when startup, if hide, you will only see a icon in the notification area after &app; is run.

  Default: FALSE.

### Float Window

#### Show

Show Chinese Pinyin.

  Whether show the Chinese Pinyin in the float window when quering.

  Default: FALSE.

#### Size

Max window width.

  Set float window's max width.

  Default: 320.

Max window height.

  Set float window's max height.

  Default: 240.

## Dictionaries manage

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

In the dictionary manage dialog, you can disable some dictionaries that you don't need, and you can set the dictonaries' quering order.

## Involved Projects

&app; can not be out without many other projects' contributes. Here is a short list that helped &app;.

### StarDict 1.31

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

Ma
Su'an

    msa@wri.com.cn

### StarDict 1.33+

StarDict1.33+ is a big enhencement of StarDict1.31. It added many dicionaries so it make me think that the dictionary is not a limit to a new GTK2 based dictionary software now, if there is no StarDict1.33+, i should not had start the &app;2 project. The author also helped me to port the stardict1.3 dictionary data files to &app;2.

Opera
Wang

    Opera.Wang@motorola.com

### Blowfish Project

Blowfish Project provided the Oxford English-Chinese dictionary.

Terrence
Miao

    terence_miao@email.com

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

### XDICT

XDICT's dictionary have ported to &app;.

Fu
Jianjun

    fujianjun@163.net

### cdict5

cdict5's dictionary have 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 cdict5 Project, please visit the cdict5 on freshports.

### CEDICT

CEDICT's dictionary have ported to &app;.

Paul
Denisowski

    cedict@chinesetools.com

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

### CFFD

&app;'s icon is come from this software, it also provided some useful information to me.

Kong
Hui

    konghui@xinhuanet.com

To find more information about 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).