screenshot.png

Basic ideas

Saved work

Data fields

The easiest way to understand what a given data field does is to type something in it and see what appears in the preview pane. Note that what appears in the preview pane may be a little different to what you type. This is because the tool will do for you anything that always has to be done, partly to save you effort, and partly to ensure consistency. In the example, the headword entered is 'Time', but in the preview pane, a full stop is added after it automatically. Similarly, the source of the first quote is typed as 'Locke', but in the preview pane, it is italicised automatically.

Here is a description of each of the data fields in the upper part of the left-hand pane and their purpose:

Definition types

Definitions in Johnson's dictionary take one of three forms: a single definition supported by quotes (this covers most of the shorter entries); numbered definitions supported by a common set of quotes (the rarest form); and numbered definitions, each supported by their own quotes (as in the example shown above).

Radio buttons are provided to select the form of the definition; the lower part of the pane changes to reflect the form chosen. For single definition + quotes, the quotes are presented as a list. However, for numbered definitions, each with quotes, the definitions and quotes are presented as a tree. Note that the definition nodes in the tree can be collapsed and expanded, which is often useful for large entries.

The data fields, however, are common between the forms:

The toolbar

The buttons on the toolbar fall into three groups:
  1. Modifying selected text. The only button in this category is 'I’, which italicises the selected text by adding the required HTML markup
  2. Inserting a special character as HTML markup. Most of the buttons are of this type. The character to be inserted is shown on the button. The possibilities are: Æ, æ, Œ, œ, №, §, sp (an em space) and —.
  3. Miscellaneous. The ‘}’ button toggles between formatting modes for entries with alternative headwords. The A^ and A˅ buttons increase and decrease the font size used for the entered text and the preview.
Most of the toolbar functions are duplicated on the right click context menu for the data field text boxes. These text boxes also support the standard hotkeys, such as Ctrl+Z for undo.

An additional function that appears only on the right click context menu is 'Remove line breaks'. This is designed to help clean up text pasted in from an external source, e.g. the results of an OCR scan of a corresponding entry in a later edition of the dictionary (not so classic or canonical, indeed sometimes butchered, but amenable to OCR because it uses the modern 's'). It actually does a little more than just remove line breaks: it also standardises the spacing around semicolon and colon characters.