Dictionaries, thesauri, and encyclopedias are indispensable tools for any professional. And since you never know when you're going to need one, they are ideal references to bring along with you on your Pocket PC. The majority of the reference works discussed in this article are either eBooks that require a reader program to use, or data files that require a database engine to view. The easiest way to organize this discussion is to review a specific book reader or database viewer first, and then comment on the different reference works available to it. The few stand-alone reference applications are identified as such. (This article focuses primarily on English language dictionaries and thesauri, but includes a short sidebar on encyclopedias. I'll refer to these collectively as "reference works." The article does not cover other reference applications, including language translation dictionaries. If you are interested in the latter, check out some of the excellent titles from Ectaco, TrueTerm, TomTom, and MobiLearn listed in Pocket PC magazine's software database:
www.PocketPCmag.com/encyclopedia.asp.)
Reference works for the TomeRaider platform
TomeRaider, an eBook reader developed by Proporta, Ltd., offers a powerful tool for viewing documents rapidly on any Pocket PC or Windows desktop PC, and on a variety of other handheld platforms. It lets you access a huge collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, guides, religious works, novels, and other e-documents. A trial version of the program is available at the TomeRaider Web site (www.tomeraider.com) or from Handango (www.handango.com). The full version costs $25, but the data files are free. MemoWare (www.memoware.com) is the official distributor of TomeRaider documents--the place to download the free dictionaries and over 2000 other documents. A search in Memoware brings up over 50 different reference works in various languages.
Screen 1: TomeRaider is a powerful tool for viewing electronic documents rapidly on the Pocket PC and other platforms. A variety of reference works is available in TomeRaider
format.
TomeRaider is a fairly intuitive program. When you install it on your Pocket PC, its icon automatically appears in the Start menu. Tap on the icon and a splash screen appears. Tap OK and all the readable documents appear on the screen. Select the content you want and it opens on the screen. The magnifying glass icon brings up a search box and the keyboard. Type in the desired term and it will find it instantly. If you change to another document, the desired word remains in the search box, ready for you to do a search in the new document. Other icons allow you to add and remove bookmarks, as well as to select ClearType and font size.
This program is well conceived, easy to use, and fast, and has a wide variety of free data sources to use with it. TombRaider lacks a "load and stay resident" capability. This means that in order to look up a term from Pocket Word or other programs, you have to go through the awkward process of switching to TomeRaider and entering the word.
I downloaded the four TomeRaider documents I reviewed for this article from Memoware.com. WordNet Max Dictionary with Thesaurus and Roget's Thesaurus are discussed below. Probert's Encyclopedia and Webster's Encyclopedia are discussed in the sidebar on page 41.
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