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<h3>ABOUT WORDLEY...</h3>
<p>Wordley is similar in operation to the WordNet application maintained by Princeton University and uses a subset of WordNet's lexical database as its source of terms and definitions. About the only thing I don't like about WordNet is that to look up a word you have to actually know how to spell it. If you can't spell it, you can't look it up except by trial and error.</p>
<p>To make looking up words and phrases a bit easier, Wordley incorporates a Windows auto-complete feature that provides suggestions as you type. Click a suggestion, or type the whole word and click Enter, and the definition is provided in the display area below the text box.</p>
<p>I've tried to make Wordley dirt-simple to use, and while it doesn't include the entire WordNet database it does provide a dictionary of over 80,000 words and phrases. I hope you find it useful.</p>
<h3>USING WORDLEY...</h3>
<p><b>To Find A Word or Phrase:</b><br>
Type in the text box located near the top of the main window. As you type, a drop-down list containing words that start with the text you've typed will open. If Wordley's dictionary contains your search term, it will appear in the list. Click the desired list item to see the definition. Alternatively, you can type the search term and tap the Enter key to get the definition. For best results, type the first letter of your query and hesitate for a half-second to allow the list to open. Then continue typing.</p>
<p><b>When You Tap the Enter key...</b><br>
If the search term does not exist in the dictionary, Wordley will search the dictionary for similar words. If viable suggestions are found they will be displayed in a small dialog box. Click a suggestion in the list and click the "Accept" button to see the definition. Wordley will inform you accordingly if no suggestions are found.</p>
<p><b>How Wordley Searches for Suggestions...</b><br>
Wordley's search logic is based on a subset of a spell checker project I've been working on for over a year. If you have Wordley's source code, you'll find two files in Wordley's Resources: "letterlist" and "typolist." The typolist resource contains a list of 5,646 commonly misspelled words and their corrections. The letterlist resource is also a list of common spelling errors, but rather than whole words it contains "looks like" and "sounds like" errors (f/ph, ie/ei etc). Wordley first searches the typolist for a misspelling. If it fails to find it there, it searches your text for the existence of an error from the letterlist. This isn't as powerful as a spell checker like those found in MS Word or OpenOffice, but it does well with minor spelling errors. Typing "sojern" for example will return "sojourn." But, "sogern" will not return results.</p>
<p>If your search term is in the dictionary, results are instantaneous. If Wordley has to search for suggestions, you'll notice a delay of two to three seconds.</p>
<p><b>To Copy Text To The Clipboard:</b><br>
Once a term has been selected, you can use the standard Windows keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + C) to copy text from the search box or the definition display.</p>
<p><b>To Paste Text into the Search Box:</b><br>
Use Ctrl + V to paste text into the search box. This triggers the suggestion search mentioned above, so you'll either see a definition or a suggestion list a few seconds after pasting.</p>
<p><b>Internet Search Feature</b></p>
<p>Once you've typed your search term, you can also click the Internet Search button (just right of the text box) to search the web for your term. This is especially handy if Wordley happens to not contain your term. The search opens in your default browser. In the options dialog (more below on options) you can select from Yahoo, Google or Bing as Wordley's search engine.</p>
<p><b>Options Dialog</b></p>
<p>Click the Options button (the wrench and screwdriver) to open Wordley's tiny Options dialog box. Here you can choose Wordley's default search engine for web searches, whether it opens normally or maximized, and whether it keeps itself on top of other windows.</p>
<p><b>Help and About Buttons</b></p>
<p>Opens the About dialog and Wordley's short help file.</p>
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<b>NOTE:</b> The default behavior of the Windows AutoComplete function is to close the drop-down list when...<br>
<b>A.</b> Your search term exists and no other words begin with the search term<br>
<b>B.</b> No words in the dictionary begin with your search term<br><br>
This is a bit of a conflict where Wordley is concerned. However, you can tap the Enter key at any time and Wordley will either display the definition (if the term is in the dictionary), or search for suggestions as noted above.
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<p style="background-color:#FFFF9D;border:1px solid red;padding:5px"><b><span style="color:red">Known Issue:</span></b><br>
When typing, it's a good idea to type the first letter and hesitate for a half-second or so to allow the list to open. The dictionary contains over 80,000 word forms, so typing too quickly can cause it to miss a letter. Once the list is open, this problem does not occur. This is due to the fact that Wordley uses a built-in Windows "Auto-Complete" function that evidently was never intended to work with such a large list. If you're a slow typist like me it's doubtful this will ever be a problem.</p>
<b>Credits...</b>
<ul>
<li>Button Images and Application Icon Courtesy of Icons-Land: <a href="http://www.icons-land.com/" target="_blank" title="">http://www.icons-land.com/</a></li>
<li>Word Lists Created from the WordNet Database: <a href="http://wordnet.princeton.edu/" target="_blank" title="">http://wordnet.princeton.edu/</a></li>
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I'm not an IT guy. Programming has been a hobby for me (and occasionally useful) ever since a sister in-law introduced me to a TI-99 4/A about a million years ago.
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Now, if I can just get Code Project to add "Truck Driver" to the list of job titles in the profiles...