QUESTION:
>By the way, some dialects of Malaysian Sign Language are as much as
>76% cognate (same as or similar to) ASL. Will there be some way that
>I can import signs from the ASL Dictionary to the MSL Dictionary or
>will have to reconstruct them all?
>
> Happy Holidays,
> Hope Hurlbut
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANSWER:
You do not have to reconstruct them! There are several ways you can merge
dictionary files in SignWriter 4.3.
In the SignWriter Notebook, the fourth instruction book is the Reference
Manual. "How to merge dictionary files" is described on p. 64-66 in the
Reference Manual...there are detailed instructions there.
USING THE MERGE COMMAND
(page 64-66 in the SignWriter Reference Manual)
When following the instructions in the book, be careful not to merge the
wrong signs...I would suggest backing up your dictionary files and save
them on a floppy disk, before merging dictionary files...just in case you
will need the old files later.
Or you could duplicate the ASL dictionary files in MS-DOS, if you know how
to use MS-DOS, and then you can re-name the duplicate files to another
name. Then you can open the new dictionary file in SignWriter, and delete
old signs, and add new ones.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SWITCHING BETWEEN DICTIONARY FILES
(page 61-62 in the SignWriter Reference Manual)
1. To switch dictionaries, press the Setup command (Alt-'S') on the file
screen. The command line is replaced by the following message:
Setup | Printing Country Dictionary
2. Press the 'D' key (for 'Dictionary'). The following message appears on
the command line:
Setup | Current dictionary is 001. New dictionary:
3. Press Return to keep the current dictionary. Otherwise, type the name
of the dictionary you want to switch to, then press Return.
The contents of the new dictionary will appear when you next use the
Dictionary command.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CREATING NEW DICTIONARY FILES
(page 61-62 in the SignWriter Reference Manual)
When you use the Setup Dictionary command to switch to a new dictionary,
typing the name of a dictionary that does not exist causes the following
message to appear:
"(name you typed)" not found. Create new dictionary with this name? (Y/N)
Pressing the 'N' key (or Escape) cancels the command, keeping the current
dictionary. Pressing 'Y' creates a new empty dictionary with the name you
typed, and makes it the current dictionary.
NOTE - Dictionary names can be up to six characters long, and can consist
of either numbers or letters. The standard dictionary name is a
three-digit number representing the country code.
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