• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

eBook reader WITH offline dictionary lookup

M

mb77

Lurker
Hi!

I'm a newbie here, and hope you'll be able to light my path to Android...

I've been a WM user for years, and I am tempted to change for an Android (HTC desire...:D), BUT... I can't find if Android will fulfil my specific needs.

I use my smartphone mainly as an ebook reader, and I read English literature, although my moher tongue is French, so I need to lookup words in the dictionary quite frequently. Since I read i places where I don't have an Internet access, I need the dictionary to be offline.
All this works perfectly well with Windows Reader on WM, and a free EN / FR issued with the reader: you tap on an unknown word, it opens the menu and you just click on "Definition..." to obtain the it (no need to re-type the word, and the lookup analyses the "morphology of the word, so that whatever the grammatical form it can be recognised)

So, my question is: is it possible to have the same features on Android in general, and the HTC desire in particular? That is:
- an ebook reader app that won't bother me with DRMs and let me read my DRM-free "home made" ebook files
- that comprises or can be used in connection with an OFFLINE EN / FR dictionary (or a simple English dictionary, it would do perfectly well, as long as it defines the word)
- and where you don't need to re-type the word you want to look up, just tap on it then launch the dictionary in 1 click
- the dictionary should be able to do some morphological analysis, i.e. if you ask for the definition of, say, "seen", it should recognise it as a form of "to see".

I have done some research, and found that there's an ebook app on Android that seems quite successful, Aldiko, and it claims that it has a dictionary lookup function, BUT from what I have seen on the web, it seems that you have although you can call the dictionary easily from the app,you have to re-type the word, so it doesn't fit my bill (besides, it's not clear whether the dictionary is offline or not).

Any help would be much appreciated. I have no Android users among my friends, and even the tech guy at my local phone shop gave me a weird look and no satisfactory answer when I explained my problem to him :(

Best, Marjory
 
You can search Advanced English & Thesaurus in market, it's a offline dictionary of you download to your SDcard.
 
'Advanced English dictionary and Thesaurus' gives host unresolved error whenever i type any letter to search for a particular word. I am not able to navigate to the entered letter.

Error displayed is
"Host is unresolved:
mobisystems.com:80"

Please find the details you may require
Mobile : HTC Tattoo
Platform : Android 1.6

Please let me how to resolve the issue. Thanks in advance
 
The only eBook reader I know which can read your own eBooks (.epub on SD card) AND which can lookup a word/sentence directly in a dictionary is the stock eBook reader of the HTC Desire HD.
This reader is a Kobo reader. So mayby the Kobo app in market can do it too.

But sorry, the dictionary has to be online :(

EDIT: For me the best offline dictionary is PONS.
I would love to use it directly with my eBook reader.

Harry
 
Apparently, there is a dictionary in the works for the Moon+ Reader, but I don't think it's available yet. Maybe keep a lookout for it when it comes.
 
Harry,Thanks for Reply

I am bit confused now, is it disability of the app to read data stored on SD card? or i have to be online to use dictionary appropriately?

You are saying that dictionary is online, but many mention it as offline dictionary in forums.

I can see that the dictionary related data is stored in my SD card and I am not able to understand why it has to connect when the data is already present in SD card.

Anyways, can you please suggest me an English-English offline free dictionary?
 
h.vinay said:
Harry,Thanks for Reply

I am bit confused now, is it disability of the app to read data stored on SD card? or i have to be online to use dictionary appropriately?

You are saying that dictionary is online, but many mention it as offline dictionary in forums.

I can see that the dictionary related data is stored in my SD card and I am not able to understand why it has to connect when the data is already present in SD card.

Anyways, can you please suggest me an English-English offline free dictionary?
Click to expand...

1- With the DHD stock eBook reader to import an eBook on your SD card you have to create a folder 'Digital Editions' on the root of your SD card.
In this folder put your epub (sometimes people have to use USB-PC connection, I did it with my file manager).
The book appears in the bookshelf of the reader :)

2- For lookup in a dictionary I mark the word/sentence in the eBook and then I can choose Google dictionary, Wikipedia, Google etc.
I found no way to choose my own PONS dictionary app.
Did I miss something?

3- I have bought my PONS dictionary so I searched no further, sorry.

Harry
 
SlowRain said:
Apparently, there is a dictionary in the works for the Moon+ Reader, but I don't think it's available yet. Maybe keep a lookout for it when it comes.
Click to expand...

The new update has it :)

But an own dictionary can't choosen.
You have to use an online dictionary (Google).

EDIT: ... but you can use a 'Copy', so you can paste in your own dictionary :) a really good feature.

Harry
 
Harry2 said:
The new update has it :)

But an own dictionary can't choosen.
You have to use an online dictionary (Google).

EDIT: ... but you can use a 'Copy', so you can paste in your own dictionary :) a really good feature.

Harry
Click to expand...
Yeah, I noticed that. The copy feature is handy, but the online one doesn't help me. Send him an email requesting an offline dictionary. He seems to be very responsive to feedback.

And, while you're at it, ask him for the option to remove all progress indicators (ie. progress bar in the menu, percentage read attached to bookmarks, scroll indicator when paging). Keep in mind, this is just an option. Those who like these features can still use them, I'd just like to disable them for my own preference (http://androidforums.com/literature/232956-turning-off-progress-bar.html#post2024437).
 
Moon+ Reader now has support for offline dictionaries. You can use either ColorDict or Fora. I've used ColorDict before, but I'm going to give Fora a try later today.

Since he's so responsive to requests for features, how about a few more people emailing him about the progress bar issue I mentioned in the previous post. That would really help me out a lot. ;)
 
mb77 said:
Hi!

I'm a newbie here, and hope you'll be able to light my path to Android...

I've been a WM user for years, and I am tempted to change for an Android (HTC desire...:D), BUT... I can't find if Android will fulfil my specific needs.

I use my smartphone mainly as an ebook reader, and I read English literature, although my moher tongue is French, so I need to lookup words in the dictionary quite frequently. Since I read i places where I don't have an Internet access, I need the dictionary to be offline.
All this works perfectly well with Windows Reader on WM, and a free EN / FR issued with the reader: you tap on an unknown word, it opens the menu and you just click on "Definition..." to obtain the it (no need to re-type the word, and the lookup analyses the "morphology of the word, so that whatever the grammatical form it can be recognised)

So, my question is: is it possible to have the same features on Android in general, and the HTC desire in particular? That is:
- an ebook reader app that won't bother me with DRMs and let me read my DRM-free "home made" ebook files
- that comprises or can be used in connection with an OFFLINE EN / FR dictionary (or a simple English dictionary, it would do perfectly well, as long as it defines the word)
- and where you don't need to re-type the word you want to look up, just tap on it then launch the dictionary in 1 click
- the dictionary should be able to do some morphological analysis, i.e. if you ask for the definition of, say, "seen", it should recognise it as a form of "to see".

I have done some research, and found that there's an ebook app on Android that seems quite successful, Aldiko, and it claims that it has a dictionary lookup function, BUT from what I have seen on the web, it seems that you have although you can call the dictionary easily from the app,you have to re-type the word, so it doesn't fit my bill (besides, it's not clear whether the dictionary is offline or not).

Any help would be much appreciated. I have no Android users among my friends, and even the tech guy at my local phone shop gave me a weird look and no satisfactory answer when I explained my problem to him :(

Best, Marjory
Click to expand...

You can
 
I'm using Cool Reader, which you can download at Android Market. It has an integrated Dictionary, which you download and install separately, you can then set it to look up words when double clicking on the word. There are different dictionaries for download, and it works really well. Used to use Mobipocket which was fantastic; but Cool Reader is right up there and works really well for me.
 
SlowRain said:
Apparently, there is a dictionary in the works for the Moon+ Reader, but I don't think it's available yet. Maybe keep a lookout for it when it comes.
Click to expand...

I just downloaded Moon++ om my Asus Transformer with Android 3.1 - and I don't see any option for dictionary, offline of online.

zalek
 
perb said:
I'm using Cool Reader, which you can download at Android Market. It has an integrated Dictionary, which you download and install separately, you can then set it to look up words when double clicking on the word. There are different dictionaries for download, and it works really well. Used to use Mobipocket which was fantastic; but Cool Reader is right up there and works really well for me.
Click to expand...

I am also fan of Mobipocket and have many books from them.
I downloaded Cool Reader but I don't see any option to use any dictionary. I am learning Spanish and while reading a Spanish book, I want the Spanish English dictionary to open on the the word I marked. I don't see any option how to do it.

I am using Cool Reader 3.0.51-18 on Asus Transformer with Android 3.1

Zalek
 
mb77 said:
- an ebook reader app that won't bother me with DRMs and let me read my DRM-free "home made" ebook files
- that comprises or can be used in connection with an OFFLINE EN / FR dictionary (or a simple English dictionary, it would do perfectly well, as long as it defines the word)
- and where you don't need to re-type the word you want to look up, just tap on it then launch the dictionary in 1 click
- the dictionary should be able to do some morphological analysis, i.e. if you ask for the definition of, say, "seen", it should recognise it as a form of "to see".
Click to expand...
I'm using Touch Translator (from goolge play) with adobe reader for pdfs. TT is very useful for foreign texts for me. As I know it is compatible with dozen of different other readers for example fbreader for epub, txt and fb2, cool reader, moon reader... Check it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom