Dictionaries for your Nokia N73

A dictionary is always handy. You will find it useful in various occasions. Here I am reviewing 3 of them. Two free dictionaries and a commercial one.

1. Dictionary 2.0

This is based on the Webster’s dictionary. Download size is over 2.4 MB and need 6 MB space for installation. So it is recommended to install it in your memory card.

Advantages:

• Fast
• Includes parts of speech as examples
• Free
• Easy to install

Limitations:

• The interface is not designed well. For eg: to search for a word, you need to enter the text then click Option button, and should select Lookup. Also, for searching another word, you need to press the Option key and then should select the Back menu. This could have been avoided by a direct key for searching and to start a new search.
• No support for multiple dictionaries
• No auto lookup. That is you need to type the word fully. It can’t suggest a word for you. So if you misspelled the word, you will not find it. For eg; if you give ‘parrit’ instead of ‘parrot’ it will not show any results.

How to Install?

Installation is very easy. Download the file from http://www.simonjudge.com/series603rddictionary.html. . The file size is over 2.4 MB. It will take 6MB of space on your phone. So, better to install it on the memory card.

2. S60 Dict

It is an open source application based on DICT databases. Initially it was not available for S60 3rd edition devices. Thanks to Yohanes Nugroho for porting it to S60 3rd edition devices like Nokia N73. You can read more about this.

Update: You can also download the source code from S60Dict Sources

Advantages

• Open source
• Support for multiple languages
• Bilingual support.
• Support for adjacent words. That is even if I misspelled a word, it can show matching results. It is a very handy feature.
• More easier to use than Dictionary 2.0. It can search a word by pressing the [right option] key. and can use the left [option key] for starting a new search. Only fewer keys to press.

Disadvantages:

• Not easy to install. No dictionary is included with the application. You should download them separately.
• No Automatic lookups. That is it can’t suggest a word, while you’re typing.

How to Install?

As I have mentioned, installation is not very easy. Here is a step by step method. Follow it and you can install the most powerful free ware dictionary in your Nokia N73. 🙂

1. Download the main application.
2. Install it using Nokia PC Suite or by transferring it via bluetooth. Better to install in the memory card as the sizes of dictionaries are huge.
3. Now you need to download dictionaries. One good English dictionary recommended by the S60 Dict author is Wordnet. You can download it to your computer from here . If you want to use other dictionaries, goto http://www.freedict.org/en/flags-dict-tgz.html. You can find many dictionaries there. For bilingual support you should download both dictionaries. For eg: say, you need English to Arabic and Arabic to English dictionary, you should download both of them.
4. Now you need to extract the archive. You will get two file types. One is .dict.dz and the other is .index. Now you need to ASCII sort the index file. Use the batch file given by the author for sorting. Follow the simple steps.
   1. First copy the batch file to the same directory where we have extracted the files.
   2. Go to command prompt. (Start -> Run and type cmd for getting a command prompt in Windows XP. Change directory to the folder. For eg:

      C:>cd path_to_extracted_folder (Replace the path)
      C:/>sort_file.bat name.index
      (where name.index is the .index file)

      Now the file will be sorted. (It will create a copy with a .copy extension. While the sorted file name will be the same)

5. Now you need to transfer the two files to your phone. Create a folder “Others” in the folder “Data” (It it is not there) on the memory card. And copy the two files into the directory ‘Others‘ that we have just created. (Memory card is recommended as the dictionary size is over 10MB. But if you don’t have a memory card, you can also copy it to phone memory in the same way).
6. Now if you don’t have any other dictionaries it will be selected as default. Otherwise, open the application, press Option button, and select a dictionary using the ‘Select Dictionary‘ menu.

Another recommended dictionary to use with this is the Jargon which contains hacker’s terminology. You can install this in the same way.

3. MSDict Concise Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus

Do you have money to spend? Then this is the best dictionary. But at a heavy price tag of $39, this is surely not for everyone.

Features
Screenshots

You can read more and download a trial version from www.mobisystems.com

Advantages:

• Good features.
• Best dictionary
• You can try it for 30 days

Disadvantages

• Priced very high.

Verdict:

Well, if money is no problem, then go for the MSDict Concise Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus.
For starters, try with Dictionary 2.0. It is easy to install and use.

S60 Dict is the best considering the price ( 0 $ ) and features. It may be a little bit difficult to install for newbies. But it is very powerful. Thanks to Kostas Giannakakis for developing and Yohanes Nugroho for making it compatible with S60 3rd devices. 🙂