Collins Cobuild English Dictionary by Palmtop

ã Copyright Palmtop BV 1999

ã HarperCollins Publishers 1996-1999

All rights reserved. This manual and the programs referred to herein are copyrighted works of Palmtop BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Palmtop logo is a trademark of Palmtop BV. Reproduction in whole or in part, including utilisation in machines capable of reproduction or retrieval, without the express written permission of the copyright holders is prohibited. Reverse engineering is also prohibited. The information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Dieses Handbuch und die darin erwähnten Programme sind Copyright-geschützte Werke von Palmtop BV, Amsterdam, Niederlande. Sie dürfen ohne ausdrückliche schriftliche Genehmigung durch die Copyright-Eigentümer weder ganz noch teilweise reproduziert werden, wozu auch die Verwendung in reproduzier- und retrievalfähigen Maschinen gehört. Reverse Engineering ist ebenfalls untersagt. Bei den in diesem Dokument enthaltenen Informationen sind Änderungen ohne vorherige Ankündigung vorbehalten.

Tous droits réservés. Les droits d'auteur de ce manuel et des programmes auxquels il fait référence sont la propriété de Palmtop BV, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas. Il est interdit de reproduire tout ou partie de ce manuel, y compris sur machine capable de reproduire ou d'extraire, sans le consentement préalable par écrit de Palmtop BV. Tout désossage est également interdit. Les renseignements fournis dans ce manuel sont susceptibles d'être modifiés sans préavis.

Made in the European Union.

All trademarks and copyrights are acknowledged.

EPOC and all EPOC-based trademarks and logos are trademarks of Symbian Limited.

Version 1.0 October 1999
English,
Part no. 70509.380

Table of Contents

Introduction

Collins Cobuild English Dictionary

Installing the dictionary

Using the dictionary

Getting around

Making selections

Tips

Leisure

How to contact us

Introduction

Collins Cobuild English Dictionary

Welcome to Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for EPOC™ palmtop computers.

Collins Dictionaries are widely acclaimed for their excellence, for their continuing innovation and for their tireless reflection of today’s language.

Today the innovation continues with the arrival of a truly pocketable version of the most easy-to-use and up-to-date dictionary for your palmtop computer.

The Collins Cobuild English Dictionary contains more than 75000 references and over 100000 real examples. The result of 15 years' thorough analysis of written and spoken language, this dictionary provides a clear and detailed picture of modern English.

The text of the dictionary provides users with specific help in the following areas:

- spelling
- pronunciation
- grammar
- meaning
- word frequency
- style and usage
- examples
- phrases and idioms
- phrasal verbs
- pragmatic uses
- synonyms and antonyms
- British and American variants

The Collins Dictionary by Palmtop is in fact a hypertext system. Should the explanation contain a word you do not understand just click on it to find the meaning of that word.

To find out more how the dictionary was created, point your internet browser at

http://www.cobuild.collins.co.uk/catalogue/cob2flash.html

Installing the dictionary

Connect your EPOC palmtop computer to your PC using the supplied docking cable or cradle, and set link to "Cable". For more instructions refer to the manual that came with your palmtop computer.

Note: If you experience problems running the installation program, consult the MANUAL.TXT on the CD-ROM for manual installation.

WINDOWS 95 & WINDOWS NT

Insert the CD-ROM into your PC’s CD ROM drive and it will automatically start the installation for you; the Installation Wizard will take you through the installation and set-up.

Note: If the installation does not start automatically, you can run setup.exe from the CD-ROM drive.

WINDOWS 3.x

- Start Microsoft Windows.
- Insert CD-ROM in your PC’s CD-ROM drive.
- From Program Manager, select File menu and choose Run.
- Type <CD-ROM >:\setup (for example D:\SETUP) and press ENTER.

OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS & MANUAL INSTALLATION

Consult the file MANUAL.TXT on the CD-ROM for installation through other operating systems, or if you experience problems running the installation wizard.

Using the dictionary

Getting around

Figure 1 Example

The Title Bar

The title bar shows information about the rest of the screen. In figure 1, for example, it shows the current key word ("X-ray"). In general, you can use your pen on any of these items. For instance, clicking on the name of the dictionary will show you information about the dictionary and the application, whilst clicking on the current key word will activate the ‘Find’ option.

The Toolbar

The Collins Dictionary offers a toolbar containing some frequently-used menu options that you can activate with your pen or finger. If you are left-handed, you may prefer to move it to the left (using the "Left-handed toolbar" menu option in the View menu). It can also be hidden (using the "Show toolbar" menu option), so that you have more room available for the dictionary text.

Finding words

To find a word in your dictionary: simply start typing it! A few letters usually suffice to find the word you are looking for.

Note : | A timing mechanism is constantly making intelligent guesses about the characters you type. If you wait more than about 1 second before typing a character, the application will assume you wish to find another word, and forget the previous characters you typed. If for some reason you are not able to type characters fast enough, use the "Find" option from the menu or the toolbar.

As you type, the letters will appear in the title bar at the top and if a match is found, the matched word will be displayed.

You do not have to bother about capitals or accents, nor about spaces, hyphens and quotes. To find "X-Ray" for example, simply type "xray".

You can also PASTE a word directly into the dictionary screen - it will start searching for a match immediately.

Browsing

Of course, you can use the arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down, Home and End and the scroll bar to browse through the dictionary text.

The hypertext system means that you can press ENTER (or click) on a highlighted word and immediately go to its dictionary entry, without first having to type the letters.

Back & Forward

The application keeps track of the key words you have recently "visited". You can use the "back" and "forward" options (from the menu or the toolbar) to go back and forth in the history of your use.

Display

You can switch between the full text and just the word list, by either

- Clicking on the "Display" button in the toolbar
- Using the "Display" menu option
- Pressing the SPACEBAR

Figure 2 A screen showing only the key words.

The dictionary text: size, colour and font

As usual, you can use the "zoom in" and "zoom out" options to change the size of the text (either via the menu, by using the hotkeys, or by clicking on the zoom buttons). You can also use the "Preferences" option on the "View" menu to change the font, and to change the way explanations are displayed.

Making selections

The "Crossword" option

The "Crossword" option is useful for finding crossword solutions. To find a five-letter word starting with "a", ending with "r", and of which you know the third letter should be a "b", type "a?b?r".

It may also come in handy if you don't know the exact spelling, just that it probably starts with "a" and ends with "eu", type "a*eu".

Note : | You can only use "*" once in a search.

Figure 3 Example in which the "Crossword" option is used to find all words starting with "yacht".

Figure 4 All the words selected as a result of the operation described in Fig. 3.

The "Anagrams" option

The anagrams option is best explained with an example. If, for instance, you type your name, it will scan the dictionary for all the words that can be made out of the letters of your name.

But remember, only key words that are in the dictionary will be found, no conjugations, past tenses etc.

Tagging words in the dictionaries

You can use the TAG and UNTAG OPTIONS to create your own selection of words.

You can also use the TAG ALL and UNTAG ALL options, which may be useful if you have made a selection first.

Example : | find all words ending in "man" (using *man in crossword), tag all that are found, then find all words ending in "boy", tag these as well, then use the "select all tagged words". You now have all words ending with either "man" or "boy".

Selecting the tagged words

This option will switch between the normal dictionary text and the selection of tagged entries.

Aborting a selection

Most options and actions will abort a selection and return to the full dictionary. You can also press ESCAPE or click on the "selection" text in the title bar.

Tips

Tip of the day

The dictionary can display tips on how to use the dictionary on your palmtop computer most effectively. A tip can be displayed at startup of the dictionary and every time the dictionary comes to the foreground of your palmtop computer's screen.

Select "Tip of the day…" from the "View" menu to review a tip. Choose "Options" from the tip dialog to set your preferences.

Word of the day

The Word of the day option will randomly select a word from the dictionary and display this. You can jump straight to the explanation. Just like Tip of the day you may decide to get a Word of the day at program startup and/or program activation. Choose "Word of the day…" from the "View" menu to review today’s Word fo the day and change the options for display.

Help

You will find various help items under the "File" menu. Select these for explanation of grammar and pronunciation, as well as general help on using the dictionary.

Leisure

To help you study, learn and improve on your use of the language, the dictionary comes with two games. From the "Leisure" menu, choose "Squish man" or "Word search". Each game has extensive help on the aims and the rules of the game, under the "File" menu item.

Figure 5 Word search game

How to contact us

Web site

Visit our web site at

http://www.palmtopsoftware.com for news about our products, free software and upgrades.

You can register Collins Cobuild English Dictionary electronically at our website so we can keep you informed.

Getting support

If you have a question about Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, please check first whether:

- You have the latest version (see "Free Upgrades" on our website);
- The answer isn't in your manual or in the on-line help;
- The answer isn't on our product support pages "Questions & Answers"

If not, please contact the shop, mail order company or distributor you bought the product from. They provide first-line support, locally, in your own language.

Should you wish to contact us directly, please visit the support area at

http://www.palmtopsoftware.com for contact details.