To look up the definition of a word, perform the following steps:
To clear the text of the Search field, click the Clear button on the left, or just press Alt-C or ESC.
There are two ways to copy the text in the Definition area to another application:
To find text in the Definition area, perform the following steps:
Selection is made when you release mouse button. This is the time when the Scan key must be pressed down. It takes some time for StarDict to inspect selection, you must hold the Scan key all this time. What is why you need to hold the key for a few seconds after selection.
For scanning in PDF documents see Section 2.6 ― WordPick Adobe Acrobat plugin.
There are a number of ways to enable or disable the Scan selection mode. When in Scan mode, StarDict shows translation of the text you select in different windows. See Section 2.5 ― Scan selection.
Quit StarDict.
Minimize to tray. StarDict Main window is closed, taskbar item disappears, but the application continues to run. You may open the Main window again clicking on the Notification area icon.
Iconify the application. The Main window is hidden, the taskbar item remains.
Save word definition to a file. See Section 2.3 ― Definition area toolbar for more details.
Show help.
Search in the Definition area. See Section 2.3 ― Definition area toolbar for more details.
Go Back. Return to the word that was queried before.
Previous word. Query the previous word in the Word index.
Next word. Query the next word in the Word index.
Menu. Show the Main menu.
Query clipboard text in StarDict.
Clear the Search field and focus it.
The same as Ctrl+u.
The focus is in the Word list.
If the selected index item has children, expand or collapse the item. If the selected index item has no children, query the item in the main window.
The focus is in the Definition area.
Requery the text in the Search field.
Focus the Search field.
The focus is in Definition area Search bar.
Hide the search bar.
Otherwise, this hotkey has the same effect as Ctrl+u.
Open the Main window of StarDict. The Main window may be iconified, or StarDict may only exist as a Notification area icon. In all the cases pressing this hotkey presents the Main window to the user. You may change the hotkey in the Preferences dialog, see Section 4.3.2 ― Options.
Toggle the Scan mode. You may change the hotkey in the Preferences dialog, see Section 4.1.1 ― Scan Selection.
Dictionaries for StarDict you download are normally packed in archives. You must unpack them and copy into one of the StarDict dictionary directories. If you simply copy an archive file into the dictionary directory, StarDict will not find the dictionary. It is recommended to place each dictionary in its own directory. You may build a hierarchy of directories to organize your dictionary collection. StarDict search directories recursively. See also Section 5.7 ― StarDict dictionaries.
Download a dictionary. Normally a dictionary is packed in an archive file, for example, WineEnRu.zip.
Unpack the archive in a new directory. You may name the directory after the archive name, though that is not required.
WineEnRu/WineEnRu.dict WineEnRu/WineEnRu.idx WineEnRu/WineEnRu.ifo
Copy the dictionary directory into one of StarDict dictionary directories, see Section 5.7.1 ― Directories.
Restart StarDict. The new dictionary will be added into the default dictionary group.
Some dictionaries you may find on Internet violate restrictions of StarDict dictionary file format. Using such a dictionary may result in StarDict crash. If StarDict becomes unstable, check your dictionaries, especially new ones, with StarDict Editor or stardict-verify command line tool.
To remove a dictionary it's enough to remove all files belonging to that dictionary. All files of a dictionary share the same base name, for example.
WineEnRu.dict WineEnRu.idx WineEnRu.idx.oft WineEnRu.ifo
Some dictionaries may include resource database that is named differently. For complete list of file see Section 5.7 ― StarDict dictionaries. If you follow the rule "one dictionary ‒ one directory", removing a dictionary will be easer.