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StarDict Manual V2.2.1

Author

Hu Zheng
Affiliation: GNOME Documentation Project
Email: <huzheng_001@163.com>

Cleaning up English

Will Robinson
Affiliation: Stanford University
Email: <wsr23@stanford.edu>

Publisher

GNOME Documentation Project

Legal Notice

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), 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. You can find a copy of the GFDL at this link or in the file COPYING-DOCS distributed with this manual.

This manual is part of a collection of GNOME manuals distributed under the GFDL. If you want to distribute this manual separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the license to the manual, as described in section 6 of the license.

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 the members of the GNOME Documentation Project are made aware of those trademarks, then the names are in capital letters or initial capital letters.

DOCUMENT AND MODIFIED VERSIONS OF THE DOCUMENT ARE PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THE GNU FREE DOCUMENTATION LICENSE WITH THE FURTHER UNDERSTANDING THAT:

  1. DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES THAT THE DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT IS FREE OF DEFECTS MERCHANTABLE, FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGING. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY, ACCURACY, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT IS WITH YOU. SHOULD ANY DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION PROVE DEFECTIVE IN ANY RESPECT, YOU (NOT THE INITIAL WRITER, AUTHOR OR ANY CONTRIBUTOR) ASSUME THE COST OF ANY NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. THIS DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY CONSTITUTES AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THIS LICENSE. NO USE OF ANY DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT IS AUTHORIZED HEREUNDER EXCEPT UNDER THIS DISCLAIMER; AND

  2. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, WHETHER IN TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), CONTRACT, OR OTHERWISE, SHALL THE AUTHOR, INITIAL WRITER, ANY CONTRIBUTOR, OR ANY DISTRIBUTOR OF THE DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT, OR ANY SUPPLIER OF ANY OF SUCH PARTIES, BE LIABLE TO ANY PERSON FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, OR ANY AND ALL OTHER DAMAGES OR LOSSES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO USE OF THE DOCUMENT AND MODIFIED VERSIONS OF THE DOCUMENT, EVEN IF SUCH PARTY SHALL HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Feedback

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

History

TitleDateAuthorPublisher

StarDict Manual V2.2.1

Jun 2003

Hu Zheng

GNOME Documentation Project

This manual describes version 2.2.1 of StarDict.


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Contents
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StarDict Manual V2.2.1

About This Document

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Getting Started
2.1. Starting StarDict
2.2. When You Start StarDict
2.3. Notification area icon
2.4. Scan selection
3. Usage
3.1. Looking Up a Word
3.2. Clearing the Display Area
3.3. To Copy Text to Another Application
3.4. To Find Text in the Display Area
4. Preferences
4.1. Dictionary
4.2. Main Window
4.3. Notification area icon
4.4. Floating Window
5. Dictionary Management
6. Related Projects
6.1. StarDict 1.31
6.2. StarDict 1.33+
6.3. The DICT Project
6.4. *Quick
6.5. The Blowfish Project
6.6. XDICT
6.7. cdict5
6.8. CEDICT
6.9. CFFD
7. Developers

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About This Document
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Introduction
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1. 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.


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Contents
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Getting Started
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2. Getting Started

Table of Contents

2.1. Starting StarDict
2.2. When You Start StarDict
2.3. Notification area icon
2.4. Scan selection

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Introduction
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Starting StarDict
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2.1. Starting StarDict

You can start StarDict 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


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Getting Started
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When You Start StarDict
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2.2. When You Start StarDict

When you start StarDict, the following window is displayed.

Figure 1. StarDict Main Window

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

The StarDict 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

StarDict 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 StarDict 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.


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Starting StarDict
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Notification area icon
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2.3. Notification area icon

StarDict 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.

Figure 2. StarDict's notification area icon

StarDict's notification area icon.

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When You Start StarDict
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Scan selection
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2.4. Scan selection

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

Figure 3. StarDict Floating Window

Shows StarDict 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 StarDict 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.


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Notification area icon
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Usage
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3. Usage

Table of Contents

3.1. Looking Up a Word
3.2. Clearing the Display Area
3.3. To Copy Text to Another Application
3.4. To Find Text in the Display Area

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Scan selection
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Looking Up a Word
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3.1. 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. StarDict 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.


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Usage
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Clearing the Display Area
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3.2. 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.


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Looking Up a Word
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To Copy Text to Another Application
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3.3. To Copy Text to Another Application

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


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Clearing the Display Area
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To Find Text in the Display Area
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3.4. 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.


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To Copy Text to Another Application
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Preferences
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4. Preferences

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

Table of Contents

4.1. Dictionary
4.2. Main Window
4.3. Notification area icon
4.4. Floating Window

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To Find Text in the Display Area
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Dictionary
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4.1. Dictionary

4.1.1. 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 StarDict. You may still get to the main window by clicking on this icon.

Default: FALSE.

4.1.2. 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.

4.1.3. Font

Use custom font.

Allows you to override the system's default font when running StarDict. 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 StarDict.

4.1.4. Sound

Enable sound event.

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

Default: TRUE.


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Preferences
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Main Window
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4.2. Main Window

4.2.1. 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.


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Dictionary
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Notification area icon
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4.3. Notification area icon

4.3.1. 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.


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Main Window
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Floating Window
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4.4. Floating Window

4.4.1. 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.


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Notification area icon
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Dictionary Management
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5. 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.

StarDict 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"


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Floating Window
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Related Projects
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6. Related Projects

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

Table of Contents

6.1. StarDict 1.31
6.2. StarDict 1.33+
6.3. The DICT Project
6.4. *Quick
6.5. The Blowfish Project
6.6. XDICT
6.7. cdict5
6.8. CEDICT
6.9. CFFD

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Dictionary Management
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StarDict 1.31
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6.1. StarDict 1.31

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


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Related Projects
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StarDict 1.33+
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6.2. 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 StarDict 2 project. The author also helped me to port the StarDict 1.3 dictionary data files to StarDict 2.


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StarDict 1.31
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The DICT Project
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6.3. The DICT Project

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

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


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StarDict 1.33+
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*Quick
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6.4. *Quick

Many wquick dictionaries have been ported to StarDict.

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


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The DICT Project
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The Blowfish Project
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6.5. The Blowfish Project

The Blowfish Project provided the Oxford English-Chinese dictionary.

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


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*Quick
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XDICT
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6.6. XDICT

XDICT's dictionary has been ported to StarDict.


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The Blowfish Project
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cdict5
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6.7. cdict5

cdict5's dictionary has been ported to StarDict.

6.7.1. xcdict-tcltk

Author

Leon Liang
Email: <Liang.Lu@CERN.CH>

xcdict-tcltk Web site

6.7.2. cdict5 v1.3

Author

Borg LU
Email: <dystopia@iname.com>

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


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XDICT
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CEDICT
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6.8. CEDICT

CEDICT's dictionary has been ported to StarDict.

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


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cdict5
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CFFD
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6.9. CFFD

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

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


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CEDICT
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Developers
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7. Developers

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

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


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CFFD
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