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Japanese Word Processor / JWPce - The dictionary


melo4496

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blog-0235582001430706327.pngIn this post I'll attempt to introduce JWPce (for those who don't know what it is)

(* = refer to JWPce User Manual)

JWPce

JWPce (Japanese Word Processor for Windows) by Glenn Rosenthal is a program designed for English speakers who are studying Japanese.

EgXPGor.png

Now, JWPce has BUNCH of functions (13 others) but I'm only going to talk about the DICTIONARY FUNCTION.

Upon searching a word, the dictionary will give you the word in Kanji, the word in Hiragana and the meaning of the word.

Hwtrv7j.png

The dictionary is not limited to Japanese to English.

Press Ctrl A to search from English to Japanese. (To return to Japanese to English, Ctrl K)

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How to use the Dictionary for Learning Japanese through Visual Novels

Rains told me about this program. lol

This is what I'm using to read Raw VNs. (I'm not an expert yet)

After opening the program, press F6.

ZzG7LnN.png

On the left side, you'll see buttons such as Search, Sort... Click Options.

ooZiLhP.png

A window will appear. Look on the left side and check Track Clipboard. Then OK.

Say you have a hooked Japanese sentence on the ITH.

uQxDKsG.png

Upon highlighting a word (in the ITH) that you do not know, the dictionary will automatically search that word.

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This is the result of the procedure I described above.

If you look at the upper right side of the dictionary, you'll see four stuff you can check or uncheck.

IqgCZDh.png

These things are used to limit the search. A matter of one's preference.

Personally, I check them all so that only the needed meanings are shown and the search is fast (but there are disadvantages too).

Basically, you will be reading the text on the ITH which means that parsing (identifying words, particles, etc.) is done by you.

In case no matches are found, a warning is triggered and the default warning sound is annoying. Sound can be made tolerable by changing your Windows theme.

JWPce uses EDICT, ENAMDICT, and other dictionaries (you can add others) at the same time.*

It also has a USER DICTIONARY - a personalized dictionary you can make.*

Note:

☆ JWPce is free under the terms of GNU General Public License Link to download

☆ No romaji in this program. Go learn Kana first.

☆ Radical Look-up (F5) is useful for Kanjis you can't hook

☆ Again, to make the warning sound quite acceptable in the ears, I suggest changing your theme.

☆ There are times when the program crashes. This is because of certain words (it can't search). I suggest moving to the next line of the game and open the program again.

☆ To recognize the kanji more (make it bigger) or for more details about a certain kanji, point the mouse to the kanji (on the dictionary), right click then click Get info.

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☆ I suggest reading the User Manual (atleast the section about dictionary)

☆ Some things I said are based only on my observations. Stuff may vary.

☆ credit to rainsismyfav for introducing me to JWPce / ITH method

I will answer questions I can / am willing to answer.

Also please correct me for false information I might have stated.

See you around.

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How is this tool better for reading VNs than JParser or MeCab in Translation Aggregator, which look up a word simply by hovering your cursor over it?

 

The English -> Japanese function seems useful, but that doesn't help for reading VNs.

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*kohon*

 

Honestly, TA / Jparser is easy to use but it has the disadvantage of giving the wrong furigana at times. For a Kanji with several meanings, the wrong one is sometimes shown which leads to confusion (specially for someone with zero Kanji knowledge). Whereas in using only dictionary such as JWPce, several choices of the reading (and meaning) of the word are given, which you can choose based on the context of the sentence.

 

Also, if you are using the Furigana function, it is nearly impossible for guys who are using netbook because it will eat a lot of space on the screen which leads to little space left for the VN. (You may have noticed though, that I'm using netbook.) http://i.imgur.com/HTqLKCB.png

 

By the way, what do you mean by "hovering"? Is it different from "highlighting the word"? Because I'm pretty sure I said above Upon highlighting a word (in the ITH) that you do not know, the dictionary will automatically search that word  って。But if it is just pointing to the word, that's one advantage of the method you are using.

 
I don't know about the dictionary you are using but JWPce can search Names of People, Places. Furthermore, this dictionary system allows you to add any number of supplemental dictionaries you want to add.
 

On a more important note, Not using Jparser (using only ITH and any dictionary) has the advantage of forcing you to parse the sentence on your own, which makes you familiar / get used, to the "original Japanese sentence" (not giving any hint on identification of the word / parsing) as soon as possible. Also, not relying on furiganas can let you integrate as early as possible the word in it's original form to its' Vocabulary (meaning) at the same time since you are focusing only on the original word in Kanji.

 

In the end, it's a matter of choice. I just gave people "one more choice" in reading VNs.

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By the way, what do you mean by "hovering"? Is it different from "highlighting the word"? Because I'm pretty sure I said above Upon highlighting a word (in the ITH) that you do not know, the dictionary will automatically search that word  って。But if it is just pointing to the word, that's one advantage of the method you are using.

Yes, simply pointing your mouse cursor at the word does an automatic lookup.  Furthermore, it's almost instant, so you can read an entire sentence with one sweep of the mouse even if you don't know a single word in it.

 

http://forums.jastusa.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5220&p=96509#p96509

 

(I posted a screenshot where my mouse is hovering over a word, though the screenshot doesn't show the mouse cursor)

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Jparser sometimes gives quite weird definitions (feedback from Nosebleed).

It also makes people lazy to learn the words themselves since parsing is done automatically and others tend to breeze through the English. (feedback from a user named fun2novel).

Forcing you to parse, at least for me, forced me to also try to learn/remember the words. It's an incentive for me so I can lessen the times I manually highlight.

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The issue I have is that my hands and wrists often bother me (I spent most of my waking hours at a PC).  The drag-and-click motion is particularly hard on the hands.  I wouldn't be able to play much if I had to do that all the time.

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I apologize for the fuss. I accidentally saved this post as a draft. (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ 

 

Now that I got a functioning windows (tablet) to play my VNs on, I'm finally going to try this program out.  Thanks Melo & Rains ^^

You are welcome ( ̄▽ ̄)ノ

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