FAQ: Eng-Ger for Palm OS^® handhelds

• Is the application also capable of translating German to English?
  
• And how can i buy Eng-Ger?
  
• What is the HotSync UserName (HUN) and what is it good for?
  
• I am a registered user of Eng-Ger, can I use new versions without paying again?
  
• I don't find a term!
  
• How can I add new words to the dictionary?
  
• How do i enter the registration key?
  
• The registration key does not work! What is the problem?
  
• The database on the external memory card can not be found!
  
• The Install Tool tells me "File does not exist".
  

Is the application also capable of translating German to English?

There are some misunderstandings.
Eng-Ger for Palm OS handhelds currently has two modes of operation:

1. Browsing
   Here you can browse through the dictionary just like you would do with a paper version. Just enter the first characters of a word and tap the 'Goto' button. From there, you can browse up or down as you wish.
   In this mode, you can only enter english terms.
   
   
2. Search
   Just enter a term to find. Eng-Ger has a very fast method to search the whole database for a word.Thus you can find all occurances, even within an expression.
   You can search for german words too! This is the most usefull mode of Eng-Ger which i am using almost every day.
   You can enter English OR German terms. All translations with the searched term will be displayed. You can enter beginnings of a word for the search! Try this if your search did not produce any results.

In the beginning i had an additional Ger-Eng database. Within the years it was clear, that this needs almost double the amount of memory without having much additional use. Only the browsing in the Ger-Eng database would be possible. This is why i dropped the second database and only the Eng-Ger database is maintained today.

The usual mode is searching. Using both databases would give this type of result:

english word - german word
german word - english word

(I was running such a version for quite some time!)
What you see is that almost everything gets printed two times. The next step would be to use only one database for the results. For translating german words you would use the Ger-Eng version only. For this to make sense, you must have two fatabases with almost the same quality. One idea would be to use the Eng-Ger database and just writing the words on the other side. This would lead to some absurd translations. This means that it would be double the work to maintain both databases well.
This is something that i can't do because my time is limited. Additionaly, you would have to store two databases on the Palm OS handheld. This would increase memory usage.

To make it short - i tried the concept with two databases and my finding was that it is not very usefull. This is why Eng-Ger only works with the Eng->Ger database, because this is the direction that most of my customers are using. The result is, that this database now is much bigger than the other direction. (Eng-Ger is well-known on the Atari-ST computers since more than five years. This is where i got my experience.)
But please remember - you can search for german terms too!
Just try it!

And how can i buy Eng-Ger?

At the moment, you have different possibilities for registering. To learn more about the methods, please visit the following page: Register

What is the HotSync UserName (HUN) and what is it good for?

The HotSync UserName can be found like this: Launch the HotSync application on your Palm OS handheld. On the top right of the screen you will find the HotSync UserName of your handheld.

During the registration process, the registration key gets calculated based on the HotSync UserName. This key has to be entered into the registration dialog of Eng-Ger. This is how the application knows that you have paid your registration fee.

The registration key matches only one HotSync UserName.
For the registration key, the HUN is not case sensitive, but it makes a difference, if the HUN has additional space characters or similar. In this case, please refer to the section "The registration key does not work! What is the problem?" of this FAQ.

I am a registered user of Eng-Ger, can I use new versions without paying again?

Yes, as a registered user of Eng-Ger, you can use new versions without paying again.
You only have to install the new files (application and database) onto your Palm OS handheld and you are all set!
You don't have to delete the old version, you don't have to input the registration key again.

I don't find a term!

Please use the dialog "Search" not "Browse". Enter the first three letters of the term that you are looking for. If there are to much results, enter one more letter of the term. Do this until you have found the term you were looking for.

How can I add new words to the dictionary?

At the moment, you are not able to add new words yourself. There are two ways to add new words to the dictionary:

1. Enter the new words into the online dictionary. These requests will be analyzed once a week.
2. Send the new words to me via email.

I will have a look at these requests and will add the words to the dictionary.

How do i enter the registration key?

I am assuming that you are using the englisch version of the application (eng_ger_english.prc). Please follow these steps:

1. Launch Eng-Ger on your Palm OS handheld.
2. The dialog "Eng-Ger Registration" appears. In the first line, you should see the HUN (HotSync UserName) of your Palm OS handheld. In the third line, you should see "Status: Day 1 of the Evaluation" or similar.
3. In the second line, marked as "Key:     ...............", you can enter your registration key.
   The registration key consists of 10 letters. It does not matter if you enter these letters in lower or upper case. The second line now reads "Key:     YOURKEYXXX", with "YOURKEYXXX" being the registration key that you got during the registration process.
4. Click on the button "Test key".
   Then you should see "Status: Registered" in the third line of the dialog.
   Now you can leave the dialog with "Done".
   Attention: Do not leave the dialog with "Done" before clicking on "Test key"!
   Clicking on "Done" before "Test key" cancels the registration process!
   If the registration does not work, please check if the HUN on your Palm OS handheld is absolutely correct. Please refer to the section "The registration key does not work! What is the problem?" of this FAQ.

The registration key does not work! What is the problem?

First of all, you can check, if the HUN (HotSync UserName) of your registration matches the HUN of your Palm OS handheld.
I am assuming that you are using the englisch version of the application (eng_ger_english.prc). Please follow these steps:

1. Launch Eng-Ger on your Palm OS handheld.
2. Quit the registration dialog with "Done".
3. Select the item "HotSync UserName" in the "Options" menu. The dialog "HotSync UserName" appears on the screen.
4. You should see the HUN in two different ways. For example, you gave your Palm OS handheld the name "John Smith". Below "String:", you should find the HUN as it was asked while the registration process:

   "John Smith"

   Below "Detailed view:", you should see your HUN in detail:

   J o h n <space> S m i t h

   This view shows special problems that you can not easily see. For example, if your HUN has a <space> at the end. This makes a difference for the registration within Eng-Ger!
   If the detailed view shows the correct HUN, your registration key should work.
   If you see something different, just tell me what the detailed view shows and i can send you a matching registration key.
5. If apparently the HUN is correct and the registration key does not work, there is one last thing that can go wrong:
   Entering the registration key is somewhat tricky. Please refer to the section "How do i enter the registration key?" of this FAQ.

The database on the external memory card can not be found!

On the external memory card (MemoryStick, MultiMediaCard (MMC), SecureDigital (SD)) the file zVoc_Eng_Ger.pdb has to be in the folder /PALM/Launcher/ in order to be found by Eng-Ger.

The Install Tool tells me "File does not exist".

The Install Tool on my desktop computer tells me

"Unable to install <path/filename>. File does not exist."

This usually means that the path to the file is to long (more than 100 characters).
Move the files you want to install to a higher folder, for example "C:\" .