Configuration:Dictionary

Configuration: Dictionary > Letters > Rules > Board > Design > Computer > Options



An essential part of the game is to proof the validity of placed words. This can be achieved if a dictionary was loaded with sufficient entries. Additionally, the computer will find a word by pieces only with access to a proper dictionary. At the left dialogue area, a pulldown menu can be used to choose the file. That pulldown menu is filled in course of auto updating process. Entries that haven't been downloaded yet are written in italic font and will be automatically downloaded on click. After choosing an entry, the dictionary is loaded; progress is shown in the statusbar. If loading was successful, information labels are updated and, if applicable, categories are initialized.

Categories
Each word can be assigned to a category. The kind of such a category is left completely to the user. For instance verbs and nouns can be identified, or a bi-lingual dictionary can be created where just one language is used at once, and, applied in the German dictionary, different reference books can be selected. However, categories should be taken carefully into consideration, since loading might be slowed down unnecessarily. The standard category "unknown" can be renamed to something else but cannot be disabled. Words of a category that has been disabled by user are still available in the dictionary, and shown appropriate in the word search dialogue, but will not be used by the computer and require acceptance if placed by user.

A dictionary can be loaded during a game and categories can be selected or deselected after game start as well. Information about loaded file and settings are not synchronized in network games, but after placing a word it is verified to be in all dictionaries. Scrabble3D stores information about last loaded dictionary and choosen categories in the ini file. But category settings are not related to a particular dictionary and need to be adujsted after loading a different file.

Creating own dictionaries
You can easily create a dictionary by yourself. If one has made a good collection or improved a dictionary, it would be great to provide it to the community. Just [mailto:heiko_tietze@web.de email the file to the program author]. Thank you!