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ART8
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1992-08-27
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╓────────────────────────────────────╖
║ The American Heritage Dictionary - ║
║ Windows Edition ║
╙────────────────────────────────────╜
by Tony Curro
This program is made by a subsidiary of WordStar. It contains both
a dictionary and a thesaurus. It also contains several other features that
set it apart from the others.
The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD), comes with both 3.5" and
5.25" disks. You will need at least 1MB RAM and 3MB of hard disk space to
install it. For the Windows edition you will also need Windows 3.0 or
higher. It also comes with a 60 day money-back guarantee.
As with most programs for Windows, you install the disk in either
A: or B:, start Windows, and run the INSTALL program from the floppy.
Installation takes several minutes. AHD will ask if you wish it to set
itself up so it will automatically start each time you run Windows. This is
a good idea, as it will always be ready for you. It does install itself in
the top left button. You just click on it and select AHD from there.
AHD works with all programs that use Windows. For programs like
Ami, Ami Pro, MS Word for Windows and WordPerfect, there is a special
README file. This explains how to set AHD up with them. These programs
allow AHD to be installed directly into them, and can be accessed directly
from their tools or utilities menu.
For the other programs like: Excel, PageMaker, Write, and WordStar,
there are several steps to follow:
(1) Highlight word
(2) Copy to Clipboard
(3) Click the button to get AHD
(4) Check your word.
(5) If you want to change it, from the AHD menu you select
COPY.
(6) Go back into your application and select PASTE, and the word
is changed.
I have spoken to several people about similar products, and they
all work in a like manner. To me this seems like too much work. Too many
steps. It is not the fault of the program, but rather of the environment.
Hopefully, we will see changes made in Windows in the future, where this
will be eliminated. And people say DOS is hard!!!!
AHD also has a thesaurus. You can activate ANY of the functions of
AHD, by just clicking on it in the menu. Once you have it up, you can
search for a definition or a synonym, without having even having the word
in your document.
AHD also comes with a few other little features that will be of
help to some, while others may not use them all. The other features include
a crossword helper, anagram helper, and WordHunter. I will take each in
turn.
CROSSWORD HELPER
-------------------------------
If you are a crossword puzzle buff, as I am, this is for you.
Have you ever gotten hung up on a word? Of course you have. AHD can help
you here also. Say you have a clue that says: measure of time. It is a
6-letter word that has the letters MI-U--. Bring up AHD, and click on
XWORD. It awaits your input. This can do a wildcard search. Enter MI* and
press RETURN. You are presented with words that contain less or more that
6-letters. This gives you 102 words that starts with MI. Is there an easier
way? Yes! AHD also uses the ? as a wild card with one exception. While the
asterisk signifies ANY number of characters, the question mark represents a
single character. So if you enter MI?U??, you will be presented with only
the 6-letter words that contain the above letters. You only see three
words. The middle word sounds right, minute. You click on it, and you see
the definition pop up on the left of the screen. The definition: A unit of
time equal..., seems to fit right in with our earlier clue.
ANAGRAMS
--------
This is good for you anagram or Jumble fans out there. You enter a
group of scrambled letters, and it will spout out words that make sense.
There is an option whereby you can select how many letters you want each
word to be. So rather than seeing many 2 and 3-letter words, you can start
at 4 or 5 if you wish. I chose the 4-letter option. I entered the letters
SNIG. Anagrams returned: SIGN, SING, GINS. You can even use this for
Scrabble. Enter the 7-letters you have in your rack, and the program will
find words you can use. Is this legal? Maybe against the computer, as I
don't think the computer would mind.
WORDHUNTER
----------
WordHunter is a dictionary, an information finder, and much more.
It is hard to describe. You are thinking of an Eskimo home. You cannot
recall what it is called. WordHunter can. You know it is mad of snow. You
type in SNOW, and WordHunter will return 36 words. One of them is Igloo,
which, when you click on it, has the definition of Eskimo house. WH can
also use operators like: AND, OR, and NOT. You could type different things
to get some ideas. You can use more than one operator on the line. Typing
something like: gold AND silver NOT currency, will return 6 words. Typing
gold AND silver alone will return 7, one of which describes the process of
using gold and silver in currency.
Another feature of WordHunter is a list of categories. Clicking on
it will drop down a menu, that has many choices. You can search for words
from a variety of areas. Several of them include: Regional:Southern,
Usage:Military, Greek, Law, Mythology, Judaism, Hockey and so on. For
example searching under words relating to Greek, you will find Adonis. This
will not appear in Hockey, or Southern. This is a very useful feature if
you like to dabble in words. It will give you words to use for almost any
subject; and, like all the other parts of this program, you can get
definitions of the words.
Overall, I was impressed with the features of this package. The
only drawback I have is the steps involved in changing a word. It would
seem easier to me, to check the spelling, and do the changes manually.
╓─────────────────────────────────────╖
║ Product Information ║
╟─────────────────────────────────────╢
║ The American Heritage Dictionary - ║
║ Windows Edition ║
║ List Price: $99.00 ║
╟─────────────────────────────────────╢
║ The Writing Tools Group of ║
║ WordStar International, Inc. ║
║ One Harbor Drive Suite 111 ║
║ Sausalito, CA 94965 ║
║ 800 227-5609 ║
╙─────────────────────────────────────╜