Information about the download version

Disclaimer

You may freely use, copy, and distribute this software, provided that no fee is charged for such use, copying or distribution, and it is distributed only in whole in its original unmodified state.

Taking data from QuickDic's database or using it in part or in whole for other purposes or with other programs than QuickDic requires a written agreement from the author.

QuickDic is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

The person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the software and to the correctness of the dictionary. The author will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect, or similar damages due to use of the software.

System requirements

Software:

• Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10 (requires WINE to run under Linux and Mac).
• To have German umlauts and phonetic transcriptions displayed correctly you need a Unicode-enabled font, which is Arial Unicode MS or Lucida Sans Unicode by default, but other fonts can also be used. (This should not be an issue anymore under Windows 10 nowadays.)

Hardware:

• 800 MHz processor
• 800 x 600 pixels, high color screen resolution
• 64 MB RAM
• 25 MB uncompressed hard drive space

Program setup

Once unpacked, QuickDic can immediately be run. Hence there is no typical installation program (yet). To unpack just follow the instructions below.

• The best way to install QuickDic is to start Windows Explorer and open the folder into which you have downloaded the .zip or .exe file.
• Double-click the compressed file and extract all files contained within this archive to an empty folder of your choice.
• QuickDic stores all settings in an .ini file in its folder. Therefore the program requires the respective rights.

The installation of QuickDic will be completed as soon as you run the program for the first time.

You can use the Configuration dialog later to create a shortcut for your desktop or Start menu.

Bug fixes in version 7.5

It's possible again to enter all umlauts including the ß in QuickQuiz.

Optimized the order of the words in QuickQuiz.

Features and bug fixes in version 7.4

Navigation through the history can be done by using the additional mouse buttons.

The Word Boundary restriction did not work correctly in some cases.

The Personal Dictionary editor now supports Ctrl-Y in addition to Ctrl-Shift-Z for 'redo' which might be more common nowadays. The shortcut to sort the entries is no longer F4 but F2 so that F4 can always be used to open the history list of the search expressions.

Highlighting the matching part with Swiss mode turned on sometimes did not work correctly.

Creating the database on the first run sometimes failed with an access violation.

Bug fixes in version 7.3

Doing random lessons in QuickQuiz, it was not possible to enter expressions which contain remarks like (AE) or (BE).

Fixed the position of the main window on start-up and all pop-up menu positions for multi-monitor configuration.

When TopDesk was running simultaneously, there was an access violation on exiting.

The "right mouse button" function of the keyboard opened a pop-up menu in the editor even if the caret was outside the visible area.

Entering unicode characters resulted in unspecific search results.

Under Windows Vista, some letters could be truncated by a pixel in the result list.

When searching the personal dictionary the option "match whole expression" was ignored.

Larger images of 48x48 and 256x256 were added to the application icon, which are especially used by Windows Vista.

Features and bug fixes in version 7.2

Program window can be minimized with Alt-M

Minur fixes, especially GUI related for Windows Vista

Bug fixes in version 7.1

The settings of a lesson will all be used in QuickQuiz now

GUI problems resolved which appeared when trying to launch the program when there was already an instance running

Removing invalid entries in the personal dictionary now works as expected

Corrected and added some hotkeys

Improved the dialogs in which fonts and colors can be selected

Searches for Lucida Sans Unicode by default in order to display phonetic transcription if Arial Unicode MS is not installed

Bug fixes in version 7.0.2

Any Unicode-enabled font can be selected for displaying phonetic transcriptions now.

Provided more appropriate default settings.

Bug fixes in version 7.0.1

After decompressing the files overwriting an older version, an error message was displayed on start-up.

Problems entering German umlauts in SmileMan resolved.

New features in version 7.0

Completely revised editor for your personal dictionary and lessons

• Unlimited number of translations in the personal dictionary
• Input assistance by intelligent word completion
• Optional automatic vocabulary spell checking
• Clear representation by using different colors for both languages
• Automatic language recognition for German and English

Enhancement of QuickQuiz for learning vocabulary

• Testing you on irregular English verbs
• Testing you on conjugated Germn verbs (present and simple past)
• Reduced the default number of vocabulary for testing you on words from a lesson to 30
• Intelligent selection of vocabulary from a lesson with more than 30 words (when choosing the same lesson several times)

Copying and printing

• Copying a translation to the clipboard including phonetic transcriptions (if available)
• Printing search results with phonetic transcriptions (if available)
• Printing crossword puzzles also as a communicative crossword, to complete with a partner
• Printing your personal dictionary and lessons

Miscellaneous new features

• List of words for compleating search expressions
• Optional Swiss mode: displays ß as ss since there is no eszett in Swiss German
• Match ß when ss was entered, additionally also match ä when a was entered etc.
• Configurable colors for search results and editor
• Configurable number of entries in the history which can be cleared

Major bug fixes

• Using forward and backward buttons in order to navigate through the history sometimes resulted in an access violation
• Nouns entered in a lesson without a translation were sometimes asked for in QuickQuiz as if they were verbs, for example to suit instead of suit
• Searching the personal dictionary could lead to an access violation in rare cases
• The phonetic transcriptions were revised and corrected, in English for example lead [led] or [liːd] and wind [wɪnd] or [waɪnd], in German for example überstehen [ʏːbɐˈʃteːən] or [ˈʏːbɐʃteːən] und umgehen [ˈʊmgeːən] or [ʊmˈgeːən]
• Revised and corrected several database entries

New features in version 6.0

The direction of translation can automatically be changed

Improved settings, for example:

• The whole search expression can be marked automatically after a look-up
• A selected translation can be copied to the clipboard automatically
• Words copied to the clipboard from another application can be translated automatically, the program can be activated when a translation was found, and the translation can be copied back to the clipboard automatically, so you can paste it in the other application
• Expanded display of irregular verbs

The personal database now allows you to insert Tab separated translations and supports LF or CRLF as line separators

Graphics have been added to QuickQuiz to clarify the progress of the lesson you're learning

The background graphics at SmileMan and LetraMix can be disabled or customized

New features in version 5.9

Lessons in subfolders can be renamed now

Fixed some more bugs

New Features in version 5.8

Now it's guaranteed that all exact matchings will always be displayed, especially when the number of search results is limited and after automatic look-up.

Hall of Fame "Top 5" for lessons

Unknown words from lessons can automatically be added to the personal dictionary

New features in version 5.7

Phonetic transcriptions of frequently used words in both languages

Option to observe the Clipboard and automatically translate words copied to the Clipboad

Icons and menu can be hidden in order to save space on the screen

A lot of small improvements and bug fixes

New features in version 5.6

On popular request: optionally minimizes to the system tray when you click [x] in the window's title

Fixed problems with displaying the hint window, especially under Windows NT

New features in version 5.5

QuickDic can check for upgrades

You can use your own dictionary to create and print crossword puzzles

Pressing Ctrl-Space when adding words to your personal dictionary in the editor completes the word based on the previous line

Fixed some bugs

New features in version 5.4

None, but removed some bugs including one that could result in loss of your user dictionary. And sometimes there was an Index out of bounds error when you double-clicked a search result to look it up.

Thanks for all your feedback. I really hope you don't find any more bugs now ;-)

New features in version 5.2

Beside some minor bug fixes these problems were solved:

• It was impossible to shut down Windows NT when QuickDic was minimized in the system tray
• Under Windows 9x a lot of images and graphics were not diplayed correctly
• The option not to run multiple instances of the application now works as expected
• Entering a vowel or s followed by quotation marks did not result in German umlauts in the user dictionary
• Up to 50% faster display of search results

New features:

• For verbs it can be displayed if they are transitive or reflexive
• Translation results can be grouped by their meanings
• Added some useful operations to the user dictionary editor, for example a dialog box to find and replace strings of characters in one language
• The size of a QuickQuiz lesson is no longer restricted to 50 and can be set individually. Additionally, you can determine how often you want to be asked for words you answer incorrectly
• The lessons can be arranged hierarchically which makes it easier to handle them
• QuissWord puzzles can be printed (and can be recreated later by entering an ID).

Modifcations in version 5.1

The main concern this time was to remove bugs and to improve a lot of finer details, including:

• In QuickQuiz additional information are available about translations
• More economical use of system resources
• Improved graphics
• Copy function added to the context menu of translations
• Optionally no hints of standard buttons
• Lessons converted to the new German orthography

New features in version 5.0

• QuickQuiz allows you to learn special vocabulary
• You can create your own lessons with vocabulary for QuickQuiz
• Information about conjugated German verbs
• Information about irregular English verbs
• LetraMix--arrange given letters to words crossing each other
• Easier way to add missing words to the user dictionary
• Launching and minimizing QuickDic to the system tray on Windows start-up

New features in version 4.1

• Forward and backward buttons and history lists of expressions for easier navigation

New features in version 4.0

• The user dictionary allows you to add new words and translations
• You can create crossword puzzles in different sizes
• Improved searching for alternative words
• Extended configuration options, including an icon in the system tray
• Easy way to contact me and give feedback directly from within the application

Modifications since version 3.0

• The decompression algorithm was modified so that it still runs on systems with only 16 MB RAM. Thus the current database requires the new program to be set up.

New features in version 3.0

• Clearly-presented search results; all matchins are emphasized in a special color
• The exact search expression and its translations are listed first
• The input line remembers the last search queries to complete subsequent ones automatically
• You need just two mouse clicks to re-translate any word of the search result
• The application window can stay on top
• New translations can be looked up automatically every time the search expression is altered
• You can toggle the language for the dialogs and user interfaces at runtime