HOWTO: use gnome-dictionary offline (& faster)

[jjf]

As a teacher, I find that gnome-dictionary and its applet are useful tools. But at first it was much too slow and required Internet access. Here are steps to install a database of definitions on your system so that gnome-dictionary works much faster and without Internet access.

1. Install the packages dictd, dict-gcide, and dict-wn.
-- dictd is the dictionary database "server" of sorts
-- dict-gcide is a comprehensive free English dictionary
-- dict-wn is another dictionary with more up-to-date definitions, but it is not comprehensive

2. Install other dictionary packages you might want
-- Look in Synaptic at the many packages under dict- and read their descriptions. If you want to download all the dictionaries, you can just get the metapackage dict-freedict. I avoided this option because I did not want to clutter my definition screen or to wait while the program searched all these extra dictionaries I'd rarely (if ever) use.
-- dict-moby-thesaurus is available if you want a thesaurus, too.

3. Change the preferences in gnome-dictionary.
-- Applications > Dictionary opens gnome-dictionary
-- Edit > Preferences
-- change server to localhost
-- change the Database to "search all databases"

4. work in progress: Change the order in which definitions appear
-- The file /etc/dictd/dictd.order apparently controls the order in which definitions are searched, the order in which they appear, or maybe both. I want the up-to-date definition (from wn) to be listed first when they are available, so I changed my order to "wn gcide web1913..." It does not appear to have made any difference -- the old-fashioned definition still appears first.

[Thindi]

Hi there!

May I ask what I have to do to change the Database to "search all databases"? I couldn't find anything about it and I haven't been using Linux for long, so I don't know much about it.
Thanks a lot!

[izak]

Excellent! Just as I what looking for: an off line thesaurus well integrated int gnome.

Maybe the interface is slightly different under Dapper, but to clarify,
launch the dictionary from Applications>Accessories>Dictionary. It can also be added to the panel by right clicking and select "add to panel".

Also, my preferences seem to behave/look slightly different. Once you open Edit>preferences, under the source tab, click Add. Double click Transport in the "Add Dictionary Source" window that pops up. This opens two additional text entry fields: "hostname" and "port". Change hostname from dict.org to localhost and your set to go. Leave port as it is.

[larytet]

confirmed in Ubuntu 7.04 - the Feisty Fawn

[andrek]

Thanks!

[myharshdesigner]

nice very nice

[SteelCore]

Thank you. Just yesterday I added an entry to the ideapool requesting this offline dictionary feature. I asked about it on the forums previously but got no answer.

[prince_niceguy]

Thanks mate!!! works like a charm on my laptop, I do not like lookup from internet it is slow...

[Dr-KDE]

Many thanks for this very good tutorial, which saves time and bandwith

The same also applies to Kdict (KDE dict). The only difference in the steps is in step 3.

Server configuration in Kdict is under
settings->configure Dictionary->Server

Other tips which apply to Kdict (not sure about gnome) is that you can highlight any word in any application and start Kdict through a keyboard shortcurt.

Simply do the following

1) in Kdict under settings->configure Dictionary->Miscellaneous. Check "define selected text on start"

2) Assign a shortcut, using KDE menu editor create a keyboard shortcut to start kdict. For example you can use CTRL+ALT+W as WordWeb if you are already used to this shortcut.

[King_Louie]

Thanks jjf! It works like a charm. I'll actually be using this now...