Dictionary Legends

Legend Files

For some dictionaries, lists of used abbreviations are provided, or you may want to create your own abbreviation lists. Babbletower offers a simple way for quick access to such lists. All you need to do is to put a legend file with a list of abbreviations and their explanation into the directory in which the corresponding dictionary resides, e.g. put a file named edict.legend in the same directory as the dictionary edict.

The legend file needs to be UTF8 encoded, one explanation per line, in the format:

abbreviation{tab}explanation

Here is an example legend file for the edict dictionary.

You can also reference a legend. For example, most of the Monash Japanese-English dictionaries use the same abbreviations. To make the legend available for all of these dictionaries, you could duplicate and appropriately rename it for all of them, which is of course inefficient. Instead, you can set up the legend file for one dictionary, and then specify for all other dictionaries to use the legend of the first dictionary. This reference can be specified in the .dictionary setup file. E.g. to use edict's legend for the dictionary ediclsd4, add the line

legend = edict

to ediclsd4.dictionary

Using Legends

You can access the legend of a dictionary from within the dictionary screen. Highlight the abbreviation to look up, and hold down the stylus or mouse button. A popup menu will appear (see screenshot). The last menu item reads legend if the highlit abbreviation could not be found in the dictionary's legend, otherwise the first few words of the explanation will be shown. Selecting this item opens the complete legend, and if the abbreviation exists, it is positioned there. If the legend menu item is disabled, no legend file for the current dictionary exists.

Holding the mouse button/stylus down for a moment will restore the dictionary screen.

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