Kingsoft Powerword 2007 - Traditional Character List

[ABCinChina]

Edit: I've made an even better dictionary for Powerword 2007 found here. This new list has pinyin and definitions for both Traditional/Simplified Chinese.

Back since the beginning of this year, I thought that Kingsoft Powerword would be so much better if it could also translate traditional Chinese characters on-screen without the hassle of having to look them up in the dictionary. At work, I constantly translate traditional Chinese to English and quickly found out that Powerword was much more suited for translating simplified Chinese to English.

So I decided to start manually inputing around 4000 of the most used traditional characters with pinyin and definitions along with many other words that I came across into the Powerword user dictionary. Then I formated a slightly older traditional character version of the ADSO database and combined both lists. After countless hours of inputing, formatting, and editing, I finally finished the list and would like to offer it to anyone who uses this software to read Traditional Chinese. Here's the instructions...

1. Download the file here. (version 2)

2. Exit Powerword, find the "C:Documents and Settings(your log-on name)Application DataKingsoftPowerWordUserDict" folder and erase it, unzip the file you just downloaded, place the unzipped "UserDict" folder in the "PowerWord" directory where you just erased the "UserDict" folder, then start Powerword.

3. Now you've got all the words imported, so make sure you go into "Main Menu - Configuration - Cursor-Dictionaries", then click the "up" button and make the "User defined dictionary" on top. This way, the pinyin will always appear first before the definitions.

4. Disable the "User defined Dictionary" in the "Main Menu - Configuration - Lookup-Dictionaries" section. This will greatly reduce the lag time when looking up a word. Done!

(TIP) You'll notice that the custom user dictionary is now very big which will make trying to find a certain character or word very time consuming when you want to edit a certain character and its definitions. So to edit the list, first you'll have to write or type the changes you want to make. Second, you'll have to export your whole custom list into txt format and make the changes there. Third, exit Powerword and go into C:Documents and Settings(your log-on name)Application DataKingsoftPowerWord and erase the whole UserDict folder. Finally, open Powerword and import the edited txt file. (If you synchronize your list between two computers and try to to import the same list between computers without erasing the UserDict folder, then you'll see why you have to use this method)

Edited August 25, 2008 at 01:55 PM by ABCinChina
Made an even better dictionary.

[dl123]

I wanted to thank you for your efforts. Unfortunatelly I cannot import your wordlist. When trying to import it I receive the error message: "This entry exists already in user dictionary. Duplicate entries are not allowed." However, I have never added a single character and my install is plain and new (Power word 2007).

Any idea how to sort this problem out? Thanks in adcance!

[dl123]

I found the source of the problem:

I figured out that the problem is grounded on the input language of my system, so I extended the support for East Asian languages to other applications. However when converting the your file into ANSI code, the Chinese characters get lost on the way and I can not use the file. It would be very kind if you could upload a converted version of your word list that can be imported directly and does not require any further editing.

Thanks a lot!

[ABCinChina]

I'm not quite sure why it doesn't convert correctly when going to ANSI from UTF-8. (I've attached an ANSI version but didn't do this before because the formatting always gets messed up for me when transferred to different computers) The UTF-8 to ANSI conversion works fine on my English Windows XP system but sometimes has a few characters that don't get properly converted in this process on my Chinese Windows 2000 system. In regards to when it has the "this entry already exists" message, that happens when the formatting conversion did not go correctly. You can try to hold the enter button down and see what happens though you will not get all the words in correctly.

Can you see all the words correctly when opening the txt file which is in UTF-8 format? If so, maybe you can cut and paste the whole thing into Microsoft Word, save it, then cut it into a txt file which is automatically ANSI format.

BTW, I've managed to combine this list with the ADSO database and now can read about 90% of the Traditional Chinese I come across with on-screen with pinyin and definitions. But the drawback is that the program lags a bit now due to the huge added dictionary. Also, I have trouble getting this list to flow between computers without the formatting getting messed up.

[ABCinChina]

Edit: I've updated the list with the ADSO dictionary. But if anybody needs a UTF-8 version of the list, please let me know. The file is now too big to post as an attachment. Please check the first post for instructions.

[dl123]

Hm I am also using an English Version of Windows XP. However when saving the file as an ANSI file, all Chinese characters become question marks. Is there no way to create and exchange an ANSI file directly? Or a way that avoids this file format?

[dl123]

Hm it still doesn't work. When saving the file as an ANSI file all Chinese characters get lost (Questionmarks). I am operating Windows XP (English), is there any way one can avoid the ANSI format or any other program to save the .doc in ANSI format?

[ABCinChina]

Try to manually enter some Chinese characters with definitions into your Kingsoft "User dictionary", then click the "Export" button. The file Kingsoft puts out will be a text file so click on it and see what format it is in. This will be the format that Kingsoft will accept when importing. If it is indeed ANSI, then it might be a formating issue on your computer. Let me know what you find out.

[dl123]

Hm still not working. powerword appears to be a really weird program. I installed all East Asian language packs, set Chinese as input language (tried both "chinese simpliefied, Microsoft Pin Yin IME 3.0" and "chinese traditional US keyboard") but, although I can type chinese charactets in the user dictionary I can neither save nor add them (if I click in another field the character "follows", so that the input or the explanation field is blank. I also cannot copy and paste characters in the user dictionary (they always appear as questionmarks).

[ABCinChina]

Please check the first post in this thread which I updated. I believe I found a way to get around the formatting problem. Let me know if it works.

[linsook]

the appear as question marks because you have not set Chinese for Language for non-Unicode programs. that is in control panel>regional and language options>advanced tab.

thanks ABCinChina for the list.

[ABCinChina]

No problem, linsook.

Edit: I've made an improved dictionary with pinyin/definitions for both Traditional and Simplified Chinese which can be used with Powerword 2007 found here.

Edited August 23, 2008 at 11:02 PM by ABCinChina