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Esperanto translation using Apple Dictionary on OS X

First, get the English to Esperanto stardict dictionary here and the Esperanto to English dictionary here.

Then, download DictUnifier here.

Lastly, run DictUnifier and point it at each of the dictionaries you downloaded (or any other stardict format file) and they will be transformed into a dictionary in Apple's Dictionary app. 

If you want to remove a dictionary, simply delete it from ~/Library/Dictionaries

The extra side benefit to this is that the standard ^⌘D dictionary keyboard shortcut will bring up a dialog that can be used for translation:
Filed under: esperanto
9 comments
Dec 19, 2008
Hoss said...
Thanks for this tip, Matt. For a long time I've been wondering if it would be possible to get the Reta Vortaro <http: /> into Apple's dictionary format. It's already available in dictd format, however, and stardict has a tool to convert between dictd and the stardict format. With DictUnifier, it should be possible to convert the stardict format into an Apple-friendly format. Woohoo!
Dec 19, 2008
Matt Kaufman said...
Glad it was helpful. Since the link didn't come through in your message, here's the Reta Vortaro site for anyone else who is interested: http://www.reta-vortaro.de/. And the dictionary can be downloaded in dictd format here: http://reta-vortaro.de/tgz/index.html
Dec 19, 2008
Matt Kaufman said...
I can't seem to locate the stardict converter (dictd to stardict). Happen to have that link?
Dec 19, 2008
Hoss said...
Yes; it's hidden in the stardict-tools package, which can be downloaded from:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/stardict/stardict-tools-3.0.1.tar.bz2

The utility is named dictd2dic. Getting the first conversion to work involves changing the names of the dictd files for dictd2dic (I think I had to change the .inx extension to .index, and make sure the base names for both files were the same) and then you'll need to create a custom .ifo file for the conversion from stardict format to Apple's dictionary format. Messy.

In case it saves anyone time, I've put the final product here:

http://esperanto.lodestone.org/ktp/revo.tgz

This file just needs to be uncompressed and the resulting directory moved to ~/Library/Dictionaries. It seems to work nicely!

Dec 19, 2008
Matt Kaufman said...
Excellent information. Thanks!
Dec 21, 2008
Matt Kaufman said...
Hoss -- you don't happen to have the valid stardict files for Reta Vortaro still, do you? If so, I'd love to get a copy. I've been having trouble converting the dictd files (currently DictUnifier is giving errors on the .ifo even though it seems correct to me).

I downloaded WeDict Pro for the iPhone today and since it reads stardict files, I thought it'd be nice to add this dictionary.

Dec 21, 2008
Matt Kaufman said...
Scratch that. I just figured out how to get it working. For anyone using WeDict on the iPhone, use dictd2dic from the stardict-tools package (linked in a comment above). Then, rename the .dict.dz file to .dict.gz and gunzip it. You then just need to transfer the .dict and .idx files to your iPhone. No .ifo is necessary.
Dec 22, 2008
Matt Kaufman said...
A cautionary note to DictUnifier users -- make sure that your files are in a .tar.bz2 file all contained within a subfolder of the dictionary name. I neglected to put the files in a folder at first, and DictUnifier complained that there was no .ifo file.
Jul 08, 2010
elzr said...
Hoss, thank you so much for making available a ready version of ReVo for the Mac Dictionary app. I was pulling my hair out with DictUnifier and its 'format not supported' error. Now everything works beautifully (well, perhaps someday I'll make a script to make it look pretty, with formatting and flexible width...)

PS: I don't know about WeDict (is it good?) but I'm super happy with ReVo in Dictionary Unifer (See: http://www.kniivila.net/2010/revo-en-mia-posho/comment-page-1/#comment-7906 )

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