# Dictionaries

As you begin to translate programs you soon find that a lot of the texts used in software are identical (labels like OK, Cancel, Apply, File, Edit etc are used in just about every program in the world). To avoid having to translate these items manually time after time, the program has support for dictionaries. A dictionary is simply a file containing a list of original strings and one or more translations for each original string for a specific language combination. For example, one file might contain english and polish, another file might contain german and french etc.

The following functionality is available for dictionaries:

- To add an item in the list to the currently loaded dictionary, select the Add to Dictionary (Ctrl+Alt+A) command. This will add both the original text and the translation text, unless the original is empty. If the original text is already in the dictionary but the translation is not, the translation is added as an alternate translation. If the translation is empty, only the original is added.
- To edit the items in the currently loaded dictionary manually, select Edit Dictionary (Ctrl+Alt+E). A dialog is displayed that allows you to add, edit and remove both original strings and translations. You can also filter items in this dialog according to the number of translations they have: none, exactly one, more than one, any. With items that have more than one translation, you can set one of them as the default (press Ctrl+Space or double-click the translation).
- To use a specific dictionary, select Load Dictionary (Ctrl+Alt+O) from the menu and select a dictionary file in the dialog. The name of the currently loaded dictionary is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the program. After loading a dictionary, you can use it to translate items in the list by selecting Translate using Dictionary (Ctrl+Alt+T) from the menu. A dialog is displayed that guides you through the translation process.
- To create a new or update an existing dictionary, select the New Dictionary (Ctrl+Alt+N) command from the menu. You will be asked whether you want to create a new,empty dictionary or add the new items to the currently loaded dictionary.
- To invert a dictionary, select the Invert Dictionary (Ctrl+Alt+I) command from the menu. This swaps the currently loaded items in the dictionary so you can use the dictionary to translate "the other way" as well. If the dictionary contains items with multiple translations, each translation becomes a new original with the old original as their only translation.
  Note that the inversion stays in effect if you save the dictionary and also when you load another dictionary, i.e. if Invert Dictionary is enabled, the newly loaded dictionary will be inverted as well.

If you have made changes to the dictionary, you will be prompted to save it when you close the program or select another dictionary.

Note:

Even if you change the in-memory dictionary, the dictionary on disk will not be altered until you select Save Dictionary from the menu. To view the disk file content of the currently selected dictionary, select View Dictionary in Notepad from the Tools menu (this tool item is only available if you installed the default tool items when you ran the setup program).