Alpus

Dictionary viewer

Alpus is a viewer application for dictionaries in StarDict, DSL, XDXF, Dictd, and TSV/Plain formats ¹.

Features:

• Fast and fully offline operation

• Searches ignoring case, diacritics, and punctuation

• Wildcard search

• Fuzzy search

• Full-text search

• In-page popup translator

• History and bookmarks

• Customization options

Compatibility:

Alpus is compatible with the following dictionary/file types:

• StarDict dictionaries (*.idx)

• DSL dictionaries (*.dsl)

• XDXF dictionaries (*.xdxf)

• Dictd dictionaries (*.index)

• TSV/Plain dictionaries (*.txt, *.dic)

• Hunspell dictionaries (*.aff)

Setting up dictionaries:

• Connect your mobile device to your computer.

• Copy dictionary files to the app's documents/files folder on device ². See Android help ³ for details.

• Select the dictionary index file as listed in the compatibility section above (or an archive of it) using the "Import Dictionary" option of the "Manage" menu.

• Select multiple indexes/files, with each selection assumed and analyzed as one dictionary. (optional)

• Select resource ZIP files (if any) to copy during importing. (optional)

• Edit properties of the dictionary such as visible name using the "Edit Properties" option of the dictionary menu. (optional)

• Create a full-text search index of the dictionary using the "Upgrade" option of the dictionary menu. (optional)

• Create profiles to group and organize dictionaries. (optional)

Resource files:

Resource files of a dictionary can be put into multiple ZIP files with arbitrary sizes and file names. The resource ZIP files placed into the root folder of a dictionary (beside Main.props file) will be detected and indexed automatically.

Full-text search:

The app supports searching full-text of all dictionaries for exact matches. The feature requires a one-time upgrading ("Upgrade All" option of the "Manage" menu) of a dictionary which can take a very long time to complete, since every single word anywhere on the dictionary is made searchable during the process.

Synchronizing between devices:

Copying/moving dictionaries between devices is done using one of the two available methods:

• "Export Dictionary" to an *.aaf file on the first device and then "Import Dictionary" that *.aaf file on the second

• Copy/move whole "Alpus.Config" folder or individual dictionary folders using a file manager or built-in file operations

Search types:

There are five kinds of searches you can perform on dictionaries.

• Regular search: Shows results exactly matching the query.

• Extended matching search: Shows results matching the query with case, diacritics, and punctuations ignored. Suggestions include in-phrase and phonetic matches.

• Full-text search: Shows list of articles containing exact matches of the query. The scope of search is not limited to headwords and includes all text in all articles (definitions, synonyms, examples, etc).

• Fuzzy search: Shows list of articles most similar to the query. The search works like a spell checker for words you're not sure how it's written/spelled.

• Wildcard search: Shows list of articles that match the criteria set with a wildcard query.

Help and Support:

• https://alpusapp.com

¹ No dictionaries are bundled with the application. You will need dictionaries in supported formats to use with the application.

² Typical location of the app's documents folder is: Android/data/com.ngcomputing.fora.android/files

³ https://support.google.com/android/answer/9064445