English Heritage Bundle for Pocket PC

First of all, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Brad and I am a Spanish Student. I have recently found this bundle at Beiks' web site and found it very helpful, so decided to write a review for it here.

This unique English Heritage Bundle, contains three main peaces:

• English Dictionary
• English Thesaurus
• English Verbs Conjugator

The English Dictionary has two editions - Gold and Pro. The Pro edition, is the most comprehensive English Dictionary, I have ever tried on my Pocket PC. The full version of the dictionary, according to Beiks' site has over 77, 000 words. I am not sure if that is a big amount of words, because found some other companies declare much more words in their dictionaries. However, I could not find a word, not available in the full version of the dictionary so far.

The Gold edition is for people who do not have enough free memory on their devices to install the Pro edition (the full version file size of the Pro edition is almost 6MB big!). The difference between the English Pro and English Gold editions, is only in the file size and the amount of words. The gold edition has a limited number of carefully selected words, and I think contains the all frequently used English words. So if you do not have enough memory on the device for the Pro, the Gold is the one you need.

With it the English Thesaurus Dictionary, you can get a quick access to rich source of reference for over 55,000 basic English words.

All these dictionaries, are powered by BDicty Dictionary Reader. This means that they are available in one application and you can easily switch them if you need. To lookup a word, using any of the dictionaries, just enter it in the field at the top, using the virtual keyboard. The dictionary will scroll down the list of words (in the right pane). In case the word is available in the dictionary, the description is displayed in the left pane within a second or two.

If I enter just the first few letters of a word, in case I am not sure how to write the whole word, the dictionary will scroll the list to the first word starting with these few letters, so I can easily find the word I want to lookup.

BDicty Dictionary Reader, supports two different view modes - horizontal and vertical. This can be set in the preferences screen of the dictionary. I usually use the vertical view, because I find it very convenient. However, in some cases, the horizontal view is also needed.

There also is a "Smart View" option in the BDicty Preferences Screen, which cares to expand the translation pane for if/when the dictionary find the word I am looking for. Also, this can be done manually with the "magnifier" button at bottom of the screen.

The "Cross Lookup" feature is also a very useful tool. If I found a word in the description field, which I do not understand, I should simply highlight it and tap on the "Crosslookup" button. The word is copied in the field where a word should be entered and the dictionary look it up automatically

The new version of the dictionary, which Beiks released this year, has a new option, which I think is a must have for a Pocket PC dictionary - to add new words and modify the existing ones. I have not used it so far, because as I said, still cannot find a word not available in the English Pro dictionary, but I think you should know about this feature. To add a new word, you should just tap on the red circle button at bottom of the screen.

The last thing, I would like to point out is the "Resident Lookup" feature. If it is activated, you can easily invoke BDicty, while reading a document, an eBook, etc.

Well, I think this is everything I could say about the English Pro, Gold and Thesaurus Dictionaries.

Now, on the English Verbs Conjugator. This is a simple and very helpful program, in case you are not sure how to conjugate an English Verb. Just enter the infinitive form of the verb in the field "Verb:" and you will get it conjugated in 15 tenses, resulting in six output verbs. It is important to say here that program uses rules and exceptions specific to the English language when perform a conjugation! It does not contain a database with the all English Verbs and their Conjugations, but only an algorithm how to conjugate English verbs. This may cause a conjugation of a verb, which in fact is not an English Verb. The irregular verbs are included as exceptions and are supported correctly.

Pro's & Con's

• BDicty Dictionary Reader - Pro's: Easy to use, ability to add new words, two view modes - horizontal and vertical; Con's: there could be done more on the UI.
• English Pro - Pro's: Comprehensive dictionary; Con's: Takes much memory
• English Gold - Pro's: Compact and carefully selected dictionary; Con's: There are some English Words missing.
• English Thesaurus - Pro's: Excellent reference dictionary; Con's: could not think of
• English Verbs Conjugator - Pro's: Conjugate any English Verb, and even non English ;-); Con's: If you write a non English Verb, it will conjugate it as an English Verb

Basic Facts

• Application name: English Heritage Bundle
• Tested version: 5.0
• Author: Beiks, LLC
• Download: ARM, MIPS, SH3
• Demo version: The dictionaries are limited to only words starting with the first few letters of the alphabet; The Conjugator is limited to only half of the tenses.
• Registration: US$ 24.00

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