VisDic is an application for viewing and editing dictionaries structured in XML format. Following paragraphs gives you a description of this tool.
The main window consists of several dictionary panels. Every panel has a search combobox (an edit box with its own look-up history), a list of found entries and a notebook (a graphical item containing several bookmarks representing the specified view - see Chapter 3 and the picture below). A dictionary name is displayed at the top of the panel.
There is a status bar at the bottom of the screen. It can contain some common information, especially number of found entries. Look there sometimes when you are not certain if the application does not hang. The message like "Searching..." means that the application is still alive.
If you wish to see an dicitonary entry, just type the desired one or more words in the combobox and wait for results which will be placed in the list. Click on the entry you wish to see. The information about this entry will be shown in the notebook. Clicking on the notebook pages provides a different view of entry.
There are six types of view. Every type is presented by a graphical "bookmark" in the notebook (as you can see on the picture below).
This type of view allows to edit the actual entry. A simple XML tag can be edited in a single line text box or in the multi line text box. A link XML tag must contain a valid entry link, so the value must be chosen from a list of them. For these purposes a combobox serves. Just like with searching entries, type your query. The corresponding entries will be shown in the combobox. Choose one from them. If you do not do that, no entry will be recorded. On the right side of these edit boxes, there are three buttons signed "+", "-" and ">>". The first one inserts an entry after the actual, the second one removes the actual entry. The third is shown only if the edited tag is a link. You can follow this link by clicking on this button.
At the end, there are some other buttons. Clicking on "New", you can create a new entry with unique key, but it is just sort of clearing entry in the application. It does nothing to the dictionary files. Clicking on "Add" or "Update" you can add actual entry to the dictionary or update the actual entry. These operations change the dictionary files The final change is done only after the correct closing the application, so do not kill it, because then the dictionary will not be consistent.
This type of view shows a list of words. They are all words stored in specify entry of a dictionary (for example all WordNet literals). You can select a word and transfer it to upper combo box by clicking on it with the right mouse button. It searches the corresponding entries automatically.
This type of view shows a list of entries restricted by some query, e.g. all Base Concepts of some WordNet can be displayed in such a view. When you click on some entry, it will become active.
There are some other useful function in the application for (as I hope) a comfortable work.
If you right-click somewhere in the notebook of some dictionary with a valid entry, hold the mouse and move its cursor to the other dictionary notebook, a correspond entry in this dictionary will be shown (according to the key tag). This is the description of drag-and-drop technique.
Note: If you are in the Tree view, the pop-up menu will be shown after click the right mouse button. Select the "Show in ..." item to view a translation of actual entry.
If you are in the Tree view, you can make a full expansion of the specified tree node. Click on the node you wish to expand by the left mouse button to select it. Then click the right mouse button. A pop-up menu will be shown. Select the "Full expansion" item to expand the tree. This operation can be time consuming. After expansion, the status bar displays the number of expanded entries.
If you are in the Tree view, you can find the topmost entries. These entries are the ones having no parents. Click the right mouse button. A pop-up menu will be shown. Select the "Find Topmost Entries". This operation can be time consuming.
If you are in the Tree view, you can export specified node and its subtree to the XML file. Click on the node you wish to save by the left mouse button to select it. Then click the right mouse button. A pop-up menu will be shown. Select the "Export Tree" item. Select the file the subtree will be saved to.
If you are in the Tree view, you can move specified node and its subtree to another dictionary because of quick creating of the new entries. Click on the node you wish to move by the left mouse button to select it. Then click the right mouse button. A pop-up menu will be shown. Select the "Move to ..." item. A dialog box will be invoked. It will contain a three column list of entries existing in target dictionary. The first column displays entry in source directory, the second column displays corresponding entry in target directory and the third column contains following information:
If the list of existing entries is large, think twice before confirmation, because non-existing entries can be related to the existing ones (for example by hypero-hyponymical relation) and the target tree can split.
Note: This dialog box will not be modal, which means you can work with the application without closing it and everytime you can see the existing entries.
Visdic provides some user customization. The application behaviour can be modified in XML structured configuration files. The main configuration file is named visdic.cfg. It contains color and font definition and dictionaries' files. Moreover, there are configuration files for every dictionary. They contain a name of the dictionary, character encoding, user graphical design of the dictionary entry, definition of notebook pages, etc.