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From:  Valerie Sutton
Date:  Tue Jan 11, 2000  3:21 pm
Subject:  Printing & Creating SW Dictionaries, Part 2


January 11,2000

CONVERTING DICTIONARY FILES

Dear SignWriting List:

As you know, I started a series of messages on how to create
dictionaries in SignWriting. In a previous message I explained that
SignWriter 4.3 has a little program called "the Dictionary Manager",
and that program can print out dictionaries in four formats.

But there is another way to prepare and print dictionary files, which
is really quite useful. You can CONVERT a dictionary file, into a
Sign document. In other words, dictionaries in SignWriter 4.3,
require these files:

..DIC (dictionary signs)
..DIN (dictionary words)

And as you know, a SignWriter document ends with:

..SGN

Well....the Convert Command in the Dictionary Manager converts .DIC &
..DIN to become .SGN!

After you convert the file to .SGN, the entire dictionary opens as a
real document in SignWriter.

Why would you want to convert a dictionary?

There are many creative reasons. It solves the printing problems for
people who do not have a laser printer, plus the converted file can
be exported. With a converted dictionary file, you can use
SignWriter's Find command to search for signs by SignWriting symbols.
Or you can grab pieces of a dictionary file, shorten it, or change it
in ways that you cannot do normally.

NOTE - If you have an ink jet printer or a dot-matrix printer, you
MUST convert a dictionary file to print it. The Dictionary Manager
can only print from laser printers. But when you convert a dictionary
file, you can open the file in SignWriter and switch the printing
format to Print Format 7. Then you can print the dictionary with an
ink -jet or dot-matrix printer.

Here are instructions on how to convert:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SignWriter Reference Manual
page 66-67
Converting Dictionaries

1. To convert a dictionary, you need to start the Dictionary
Manager. Type the following command at the MS-DOS prompt:

DICT

and press Return.

The startup message should appear on the screen after a moment.
Below this appears the following command line:

Print Merge Convert Repair Info

2. To choose the Convert command, press 'C'. The following message
appears below the command line:

Convert what dictionary?

3. Type the name of the dictionary to be converted, and press
Return. When the Convert command finishes, the following message
appears:

Dictionary converted.

The converted file has the same name as the dictionary, but its file
name ends with .SGN. It will appear in the file box the next time
you start SignWriter.

4. To print a converted dictionary, start the SignWriter program.
You will see that the converted dictionary file is now listed in the
file box. Use SignWriter's Print command to print the dictionary
file.

If you do not have a laser printer, use Print Format 7. But if you do
have a laser printer, use any of the 7 Print Formats.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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