Pocket Dictionary is a Japanese dictionary application for Windows Mobile based devices that uses the free EDICT Japanese dictionary files.
Use Pocket Dictionary together with Japanese Input so you can search for Japanese language (kanji and kana) words.
Click for VGA versions.
If you have an older version of Pocket Dictionary on your device. Please make sure it is not running prior to installing a new version, either by using Settings, System, Memory, Running programs, or by soft resetting your device before installation. You do not need to uninstall the old version before installing the new version.
If necessary, install a Japanese font on your device. It's recommended to install the font first so Pocket Dictionary can automatically configure for the correct font when it's first started.
If it isn't installed already, install the .Net Compact Framework 3.5 on your device. This is necessary for all versions of Windows Mobile.
Download the CAB file below, and copy it to your device. On your device, use File Explorer to open the CAB file, and follow the instructions on screen.
In order to download dictionaries, it is strongly recommended to have an Internet connection available on your device (via ActiveSync, wireless, or other means) when running Pocket Dictionary for the first time.
When running Pocket Dictionary 1.2 for the first time, the configuration wizard will be shown. During the configuration wizard, you can select which dictionaries you wish to configure. After the configuration wizard is complete, the selected dictionaries will be downloaded (please make sure you have an active Internet connection on the device before completing the wizard if you selected new dictionaries). The configuration wizard supports configuration of Edict (the main dictionary file), Kanjidic (specific single kanji information) and Enamdict (Japanese proper names). Especially Enamdict is very big and requires a considerable amount of storage and memory to use, so consider carefully whether you wish to configure it. Configuring at least Edict is recommended.
You will be able to select the location where the newly selected dictionaries will be stored in the wizard. This location may be in the device's main storage, or on a storage card if you wish.
If you are upgrading from Pocket Dictionary 1.0 or 1.1 and already have dictionaries set up, the configuration wizard will recognize these (provided you did not change the file names of the dictionary files).
You can always run the configuration wizard again at a later time if you wish to configure additional dictionaries. The wizard is accessible from within Pocket Dictionary by selecting Menu, Options, Configuration Wizard.
To check for updates for the currently configured dictionaries, go to Menu, Dictionaries, Check for updates. Please make sure you have an active Internet connection on the device before selecting this option. Only dictionaries with a configured update url will be checked. Dictionaries that are not currently available (e.g. because their files are on a storage card that is not currently inserted) will not be checked. Note that the Edict, Kanjidic and Enamdict files on the Monash server are rebuilt daily, so an update will be available for them daily even if they did not actually change.
If you wish to configure dictionaries manually, you can download dictionary files from the Monash FTP site. Extract the zip file for the dictionary (unless you have extraction software on your device, you will need to do this on your regular PC), and copy the dictionary file (and if applicable, the index file, see below) to your device. You may place these files anywhere you like, even on a storage card.
In Pocket Dictionary, use the Menu, Dictionaries, Configure menu item to open the dictionary settings. Tap "New" to create a new dictionary. Tap the "browse" button (the button with three dots on it) for the dictionary file, and select the dictionary file from the list of files. After you do this, Pocket Dictionary will automatically adjust the name of the dictionary (assuming you hadn't changed it already) to the file name of the dictionary. If an index file with .jdx extension and the same name as the dictionary file is in the same folder as the dictionary file, that will automatically be used. You can also choose the index file manually if necessary.
Some dictionaries, such as Edict and Enamdict come with both a dictionary and an index file (in the case of Edict, these files are called "edict" and "edict.jdx" respectively). Although Pocket Dictionary can search without the help of an index file, index searches are much faster so if a dictionary has an index, I strongly recommend you use it. The configuration wizard will automatically set up the dictionaries to use the index files if they have one.
Important: always make sure you select a valid Edict format dictionary file and that the index file matches the dictionary file. If this is not the case it may lead to unexpected results. Other format dictionaries such as JMdict are not supported.
To improve the display of search results, you can select one of the display formats, Edict, Kanjidic or Kanjidic (filtered). Please make sure the format selected matches the format of the dictionary, otherwise the results will not be displayed correctly. The Kanjidic (filtered) format will remove most of the Kanjidic's information fields which most people would not normally be interested in. The configuration wizard will set up Edict and Enamdict to use Edict formatting, and Kanjidic to use Kanjidic (filtered) formatting. If you select None as the formatting mode for a dictionary, the raw dictionary entries will be shown in the result.