EBPocket

Installation--Add a Dictionary/Edit Dictionary Group

General Use: Screen, Lookup, Jump, Navigation, Menus & Buttons

Installation

      If you bought a complete system from JLT, everything's already installed, tested, and running. You can skip down to the General Use section. If you've lost EB Pocket in a crash or reset, you shouldn't reinstall it manually; instead, use the Data Backup program (Axim) or the iPAQ Backup program (iPAQ) to restore the system, either from the last backup you made or from the one I included with your system. The backup file is already right there on your PDA (in safe internal flash or on the memory card), so all you have to do is tap a few buttons and you'll be back in business. The backup file will restore the LICENSED PROFESSIONAL version of EB Pocket--if you install EB Pocket from scratch you'll lose those professional features once the free trial period ends.

      If you're putting a system together yourself, download EBPocket , unzip it to yield a folder called EBPCC...., delete all files and folders from the "cabs" folder except EBPocket.PPC2003En_ARM.cab, and copy the EBPCC.... folder to your memory card. (A reminder: if using a card reader to transfer the files, remember to follow your computer's procedure for safely removing a memory card--otherwise the memory card could be permanently damaged).

      Next, with the card back in the PDA or SmartPhone, use File Explorer (ファイル・エクスプローラ) to browse to the EBPPC folder on the card, open the folder marked "cabs" and click on the file in there. In WM6, you'll be asked where you want to install it; choose "Device." WM2003SE will put do the same thing without asking you. This will install EBPocket to the Program Files directory in your main memory.

	When you first look in the "cabs" folder, there will be MANY installers to choose from. As you can see, only the first part of the name shows on the PDA, which is why I suggested deleting all the others (most of which are for very archaic devices). EBPocket.PPC2003En_ARM.cab is the best choice for all versions of Windows Mobile, from WM2003 forward all the way to the latest WM6.X. Yes, there's a special WM5/6 installer, but it's harder to use, it doesn't add any features or work any better, and its design wastes screen space and hides the menus, meaning you need a couple of extra taps to do anything.

      You're finished.

Adding Dictionaries/Editing Dictionary Groups

      Important note: this section is for people adding their own dictionaries. If you've bought a complete system from JLT, all this has been done for you already--you don't need to do it.  Unless you wish to change the dictionaries on your JLT system, skip to the next section, General Use.

      First, an EPWING dictionary consists of an entire folder. After downloading and unzipping that folder, or copying it from a CD or DVD, DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO THAT FOLDER OR ITS CONTENTS. Do not try to open any of the files in the folder; do not move, rename, or do anything at all to any file or subfolder inside that main folder. Simply copy the entire folder to the memory card (it can go anywhere on the card). The one exception is for an EPWING dictionary you got from a source other than JLT--in that case, you should use the EBShrink program as described here (same page also has more info about obtaining and converting dictionaries from other sources). Dictionaries from JLT, and the extra dictionaries on your JLT backup DVD, have already been EBShrunk, so you don't need to do that.

     If you're setting up EBPocket for the first time, the easiest thing is to put all your dictionaries on the memory card BEFORE starting EBPocket for the first time. When you start EBPocket for the first time, it automatically finds all dictionaries on your device and adds them to its dictionary list. If you got an SD card from anywhere but JLT, you should first reformat it with a program called CNetX FlashFormat (a digital camera may also work, but DO NOT reformat it from a Mac or Windows computer). SD cards usually come slightly misformatted--they work fine in a camera or computer, but in Windows Mobile, Palm, and other portable devices files start disappearing after a while. Cards from JLT come properly formatted to begin with.

      If you add another dictionary to your card later, the easiest approach is to use the "Edit Group" function from the Tool menu (obviously Add Dict will also work, but Edit Group is easier and gives you more control). Even if the program automatically added all your dictionaries when it first started up, you can also use this function to change the order in which the dictionaries appear in the menus.

• Tap "Tool" to bring up the Tool Menu
• Tap "Edit Group"

See the image for the next steps

• Upper window will show all dictionaries on the PDA or memory card, the lower will show only those EBPocket is configured to use. Upper window is empty at first--tap "Find" to search for all the EPWING dictionary files on your device and memory cards.
• Tap a dictionary in the upper window to select it, then tap "Add" to add it to EBPocket's list in the bottom window.
• Tap a dictionary in the botton window, then tap "up" or "down" to move it up or down in the list in you'll see in the Dict menu.
• Tap a dictionary in the botton window, then tap "Delete" to remove it from the EB Pocket menus (the actual dictionary folder and files won't be deleted from the device or memory card).
• Tap OK when done.      

When you add a new dictionary (or start EBPocket for the first time), all the dictionaries will be in the default "EBPocket" group. Most people will probably be happy to leave them there--if that's you, then skip down to General Use. If you find your dictionary list getting too long for your taste, you can create different dictionary groups--e.g., put history, biography, Buddhism, and Bible references in a Reference group and keep all the Japanese dictionaries in the EBPocket group (you can't get rid of or change the name of the EBPocket group). Tap "Edit Group..." from the Tool menu. Use the down arrow in the "Group" box to choose from the current groups, New to create a new group, and delete to delete a group. Now you can add and subtract dictionaries from your different groups.

General Use

Main Screen at full VGA size--on a VGA PDA like the Axim X50V, the image has the same 480x640 pixels you see below, but in a smaller screen, so it actually looks a bit sharper than this (same number of pixels in fewer inches = more pixels per inch = higher resolution)
Current dictionary
									Find button & search type
Search box
List of results
									Drag the dividing line up or down to change the relative sizes of the two parts of the screen.
Full search results
					Hop highlight next instance of search term		Split Toggle split screen/full screen
			Back & Forward arrows

Looking up words.

      Enter a character, word, or phrase in the search box (see the IME page for how to enter text) and tap Find. This will look it up in the current dictionary. Alternatively, you can choose a different dictionary from the Dict... menu to look up a word in that (it looks it up as soon as you tap the other dictionary--you don't need to tap Find). That's all you need to know to look up words in EBPocket.

      I generally keep Search Type set to Begin (which is the default). Thus, if I enter "bully," the search will find all terms beginning with "bully." At times, searching Eijiro or Waeijiro--the biggest dictionaries--can take 2-3 seconds this way. If you change the search type to "Exact," the search is nearly instantaneous. I don't mind the wait, so I don't bother changing the setting. Also, Exact searches don't work in Edict (a feature, not a bug! designing it this way puts more information in the results index, convenient for quick reference). Especially when searching for Japanese words, sometimes you know the final kanji or two but not the beginning of the word; in this case, choose End as the search type and it'll find words ending in the search term. Finally, Full searches the full text of the dictionary. Thus, if you enter "horse," it'll find every entry in which the word "horse" appears. This can take forever, and if you enter a Full search for a common kanji or word in a huge dictionary like Eijiro, you might have to sit there watching your PPC's "I'm thinking" icon for quite a few minutes. It's useful when you need it, but be careful with the Full search option. In Eijiro and Waeijiro, you also have the option of doing  Cross search (much faster and better focused than Full, as it searches only the keywords)--see the Eijiro page for details on Cross.

Super Jump

      You can drag the stylus across any character, word, or phrase to select it, then press and hold the stylus on the highlighted text to bring up an action window, from which you can look it up in the current dictionary (Search Word) or any other dictionary (Specific Dictionary, then choose the dictionary). This is great for finding the meaning or pronunciation of a Japanese word in a definition--or in any other EPWING document on your PDA (the Bible, various encyclopedias, Buddhist texts, historical and biographical dictionaries)--or looking up a new kanji. (This feature is usually called "super jump" in electronic dictionaries. Animation is from an older version of Eijiro)

History/Back/Forward

      Pretty simple. Tap the down arrow in the Search box to bring up a list of previous searches (oddly, you usually have to do it twice--the first time, the list flashes up and disappears, the second time it stays). Tapping an item in the list puts in the Search box but neither initiates a search (you still have to tap Find) nor changes the dictionary. From the History option in the Edit menu, you can erase your current history, save it for future reference, or load a previously saved history.

      The blue Back Arrow at the bottom of the screen takes you back to the screen and dictionary you were in previously--and it remembers quite a few previous steps. After you've gone Back, then you use the Forward Arrow to go forward. These work just like the forward and back buttons on your web browser. Note--sometimes the buttons are grayed out but still work if you tap them.

Menus and Buttons

      From the Dict menu, you can change dictionaries and dictionary groups.

      Edit contains the usual suspects--cut, paste, copy, select all, find (I suspect this intended for reading eBooks rather than dictionaries--with dictionaries, it seems to duplicate the function of the search box)--plus a couple of more interesting options. History... lets you delete, save, and load histories, as described above. Cursor Mode--hmm, I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to do, but what it really does is make the cursor more responsive to stylus action. With Cursor Mode off, dragging over a word to select it can be imprecise--it's like picking up beans when you're wearing mittens. With Cursor Mode on, it's much easier. I don't understand why there's an option to turn it off.

      The Find menu gives you some fancy search options with certain dictionaries--seems like they'd be more useful with an encyclopedia, but I haven't tried them out, so I can't say much about them.

      The Tool menu has the aforementioned Add Dict..., Scan All Dictionaries..., and Edit Group... functions. Goto seems like it should duplicate the forward and back buttons, but doesn't seem to do anything on mine. Copyright brings up copyright information--but some dictionary makers (hint, hint) also include some help information here. Continuous will show you a continuous stream of results in the lower search results window, not just the result you've tapped in the results index window above, but that entry and the following and preceding ones--the one you tapped will be first, but you can scroll up and down through the dictionary. I recommend selecting Continuous--no reason not to. Options... brings up various options, including setting the fonts and font size in the results and results index windows--the rest is all pretty self-explanatory, though I just leave everything except the type sizes at the defaults. Status Bar causes a status bar to appear just above the bottom toolbar--tells you things like, "23 results in Eijiro." I don't think it's worth the screen space it takes up, but if you like it, enjoy.

      The Hop button highlights the first instance of the search term; press it again and the highlight jumps to the next instance--etc. The Split button toggles between the two states of the main window--(1) a split screen with a list of results on the top and the full text of the results on the bottom (as shown above) and (2) the full text of the results taking up the full window. The letter "A" in the screenshot above (at other times, you might see a hiragana "あ" or a graphic here) brings up the text input system, in whichever mode it was last used: あ, for whatever odd reason, is the symbol for the numerical and symbol input keyboard; A is the alphanumeric keyboard to enter English or Japanese (works just like the IME on your regular computer); the hand-and-brush graphic is for handwritten input (the kanji recognition is fantastic); and the hand-and-stylus graphic is for a shorthand entry system that seems a lot like Grafitti on the Palm (hint: as you write a character, a list of choices will appear--tap the one you want, or simply wait and the first option will automatically be chosen; if you don't want to wait, start writing the next character in the next of the three boxes).