Thesaurus

bayman · Post by **bayman** » Tue May 04, 2004 7:46 pm

A search here has produced nada. Yet I can't be the only person who'd like to have a thesaurus to plug into TextPad, can I? Anyone know of such? Many thanks!

s_reynisson · Post by **s_reynisson** » Tue May 04, 2004 10:48 pm

AFAIK TP only supports dictionaries, Configure->Preferences->Spelling. If you can use that functionality you can create new ones. There's been some talk here on IntelliComplete from http://www.flashpeak.com/ an auto-complete tool, popular in the professional law and medical field amongst others. If auto-complete is something you're interested in for TP there is a poll here http://www.textpad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4291 - feel free to vote. HTH

jjonesusg · Post by **jjonesusg** » Sat May 22, 2004 10:34 pm

bayman,

If you're still listening, I've managed to get both Merriam-Webster (with Helios' help) and WordWeb (free version) working via hotkey from TP. I use them on Win2000 and 98SE.

If interested, post a response.

bayman · Post by **bayman** » Sun May 23, 2004 3:10 am

Great! Yes, I surely am interested - I'm using Win XP Pro - any suggestions? Thanks!

jjonesusg · Post by **jjonesusg** » Sun May 23, 2004 3:06 pm

bayman,

Merriam-Webster (MW): Search Amazon for this, under Software, and you'll find a CD entitled "Merriam-Webster's 11th Edition Collegiate Dictionary & Thesaurus". (I have the 2001 deluxe audio version but it was the only one avail then.) It's under $20. Being online is NOT required for use with my version.

We found to make TP work with the 2001 version of MW (apparently they change it's launch signature from the original that Helios evaluated), the TP "TypeToApp.exe" program was also needed (I'm not sure of the magic involved here, but maybe a PAUSE before submitting the $SelWord to the APP?). After I installed "MW" I followed the instructions to setup a "Tool" in Configure/Preferences/Tools. I named it "Merriam-Webster". The tool setup controls are as follows on my Win2000 laptop:

Command: C:\Program Files\TextPad 4\Samples\TypeToApp.exe
Parameters: -pe Merriam-Webster "C:\Program Files\Merriam-Webster\Merriam-Webster.exe" $SelWord
Initial Folder: C:\Program Files\Merriam-Webster

Then I setup a hotkey for it in Configure/Preferences/Keyboard, Categories = Tools. I chose "Tool01". I think that's the whole of it! Now I put the cursor on the word and hotkey (Ctrl-1), TypeToApp does it's magic, and MW launches with my word dictionary'ed. The Thesaurus is one more click away.

WordWeb (WW): This is a free Dictionary/Thesaurus I just found at www.wordweb.co.uk/free/ with many interesting features. I do like it. The PRO version has a 230000+ word database but I'm still evaluating the freebie. Also, being online is not required for use. I installed it in an evaluation directory. The tool setup controls are as follows:

Command: C:\_WordWeb\WWNoTray.exe
Parameters: $SelWord
Initial Folder: C:\_WordWeb (not needed my machine)

Note that, in WW's case, you must highlight the desired word, then copy it to the clipboard before invoking the WW hotkey. For MW, merely having the cursor over the word is enough for the 2001 version. The "WWNoTray.exe" executable (see controls above) is something WW includes if you decide NOT to install into your system tray (I prefer this method).

Good luck!
PS - Unless it's determined that XP fouls this up, I don't see why it shouldn't work the same as under Win2000Pro!

bayman · Post by **bayman** » Sun May 23, 2004 5:06 pm

Terrific! I much appreciate the detailed info - I'm off to jump into words! (Well, I'm always off some...)

tm · Post by tm » Mon May 24, 2004 9:14 am

In the case of WordWeb there is no need to copy the highlighted word into clipboard. Just add the Parameter $Clip.

eg.

Command: C:\_WordWeb\WWNoTray.exe
Parameters: $Clip $SelWord
Initial Folder: C:\_WordWeb (not needed my machine)

It works fine (Textpad Version 4.7.2).

tm · Post by tm » Mon May 24, 2004 9:23 am

correction of the example

Command: C:\_WordWeb\WWNoTray.exe
Parameters: $SelWord $Clip
Initial Folder: C:\_WordWeb (not needed my machine)

so it's better

bayman · Post by **bayman** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:27 pm

Thanks some more!

jjonesusg · Post by **jjonesusg** » Mon May 24, 2004 2:45 pm

>> Parameters: $SelWord $Clip

Excellent! Thanks "tm" !!

Sargon · Post by **Sargon** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:31 pm

Disclaimer: By the time I realized that I replied in the wrong thread, there was a reply already and I couldn't delete the post. Sorry about that.

Since I'm looking for a simple autocomplete-feature in TextPad, I tried the product IntelliComplete that several people mentioned on this forum. While it's working sort of, it is way too feature-rich for my taste but doesn't really do what I want.

All I'm looking for is completion-support for words that already appear in the very same document. I don't need autocomplete for language-specific things and I surely don't need autocomplete for words that I typed in my mail-client, when I'm editing a C++ class.

I'm still on the trial period with IntelliComplete but will most likely not buy it. I hope that one day, TextPad5 arrives and has this feature included. (but not too complicated

)

Sargon

bayman · Post by **bayman** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 2:17 pm

I hope TP5 arrives with a thesaurus (yep - still on that). I use mostly NoteTabPro, these days, since I do so many things in HTML - but I'd still like to use TP for articles, essays, rambling -

Hope springs -