Project 17A: Installing the StarDict Dictionary (Optional)

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One of the handiest programs available for language learners, or anyone else who needs to function in a multilingual world, is the GNOME dictionary program called StarDict (see Figure 17-11). It is a straightforward dictionary that can provide definitions in a wide variety of languages all at once.

Figure 17-11: Looking up words in StarDict

Once the program is up and running, it will display definitions from all the language dictionaries that you installed when you installed StarDict. This works in any direction, so definitions will appear for any word you type, regardless of the language. For example, I have the Eng-Swe, Swe-Eng, Ger-Swe, Swe-Jpn, Jpn-Eng, Eng-Jpn, Chi-Eng, and Eng-Chi dictionaries all installed. If I type an English word, I will get definitions in Swedish, Chinese, and Japanese. If I type a Swedish word, I will get definitions in English and Japanese, and so on.

StarDict is also a great utility for reading text in files or Web pages because as long as the StarDict program is running, it will display definitions for words you select with your mouse in other programs. Figure 17-12 shows this inline function in action in a Web page. This inline function is called Scan Selection, and it also works when you are typing text into a document, or even in dialog boxes within the system itself. If you select a word, StarDict will scan it and tell you what it means.

Figure 17-12: StarDict provides inline definitions for selected text

Getting the StarDict Files

To get the latest version of StarDict, go to http://stardict.sourceforge.net and download stardict-2.4.2-1.i386.rpm (or a newer version) to your Tarballs_and_RPMs folder. If you happen to notice a StarDict RPM file on your installation disks, do not use it. It is not the same.

In order to use the dictionary, you will also need to download some dictionary files, usually a pair of dictionaries for each language pair (for example, English-German and German-English). You can get these by clicking on the Dictionaries link near the top of the Web page. Once you get to the Dictionaries page, you will see some additional links: dictd-www.dict.org, dictdwww.freedict.de, dictd-www.mova.org, *Quick, zh_CN, zh_TW, and ja. The FreeDict link (dictd-www.freedict.de) should have most of what you want, though you can try them all to see what they have. When you do start downloading, download the RPM files, not the tarballs — to keep things simple, of course.

17A-1: Installing StarDict and Dictionaries

The StarDict program and all the dictionaries for it are in the form of RPM files (or at least they should be if you did what I told you to do), so you will have no problems installing them. Just start off with the StarDict RPM package and double-click it. The rest of the procedure is the same as you learned in Chapter 8, so you should have no headaches.

Once done with the main program, go on to the dictionaries, which you can install in the same manner. All very easy.

17A-2: Running StarDict

Running StarDict is easy. Just go to your Main menu and select Accessories > More Accessories > StarDict. StarDict will then start up and place a small applet in the GNOME Panel. When you click this applet, it allows you to hide and show the main dictionary window. If you right-click it, you can turn the Scan Selection function on and off. This is very handy, because as soon as StarDict is up and running, it will start popping up definitions any time you highlight any item of text anywhere, which could, it seems to me, bring on the early onset of some form of dementia.

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