Looking for alternatives to AnyLexic and/or the PC-Bibliothek 2.0 dictionary interface
Thread poster: Hugh Jarce
Hugh Jarce
Hugh Jarce
United Kingdom
Jun 24, 2019

Hello, can anyone help me please?

The AnyLexic trial won't install at all on Windows 10. I tried to install it on XP running in VirtualBox but got an error message saying it can't run on a virtual machine. I contacted the AnyLexic developers and was told they're bringing out a Windows 10-compatible version, but they didn't say when. I emailed back earlier today to ask when, but haven't received a reply yet. Windows 10 has been out for a while, so they're clearly in no rush. What is
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Hello, can anyone help me please?

The AnyLexic trial won't install at all on Windows 10. I tried to install it on XP running in VirtualBox but got an error message saying it can't run on a virtual machine. I contacted the AnyLexic developers and was told they're bringing out a Windows 10-compatible version, but they didn't say when. I emailed back earlier today to ask when, but haven't received a reply yet. Windows 10 has been out for a while, so they're clearly in no rush. What is the last version of Windows AnyLexic runs on? 8.1? The website doesn't say (or if it does, I missed it).

After doing some research online, AnyLexic seems to be what I'm after. I just want some relatively simple terminology management software (CAT software is far more than I require) so I can create a headword and a translation/multiple translations (I'd need bold, italics and underline) and be able to carry out fast full-text searches and the sorts of searches that PC-Bibliothek 2.0 allowed me to carry out with Duden Oxford (e.g. searching for dog#breed would find all entries where the two search terms appear right next to each other; an exclamation mark would exclude a search term; an asterisk at the start or end of a search term would find all entries that start with or end with the search term (useful for German compound nouns)).

I also tend to create quite long user entries. I like to look up terms/phrases in my general-purpose German-English dictionaries (Duden Oxford, Langenscheidt Collins, Langenscheidt Muret-Sanders) and then combine the headword entries into one long user entry. Plus if I find any meanings when I carry out a full-text search that aren't already in the user entry I add those too. Plus I add missing meanings from dict.cc and other online dictionaries.

As with AnyLexic, the PC-Bibliothek 2.0 dictionary interface won't install on Windows 10 (there's a newer version 3.0 but I consider it far inferior to 2.0). Compatibility mode doesn't work (and never has in my experience). PC-Bibliothek 2.0 also only half-works on XP in VirtualBox: I can install the interface, but due to the ridiculously strict data protection, I can't import the dictionary data into the interface. I contacted Duden and they kindly e-mailed me the Duden Oxford dictionary data (which unfortunately requires PC-Bib 3.0), but I was able to import the Duden Oxford dictionary data into Langenscheidt's e-Dictionaries interface, but that interface, while good, crashes when performing the more sophisticated full-text searches with hashes (#), exclamation marks and asterisks that PC-Bibliothek 2.0 is so good at. The advantage of the Langenscheidt e-Dictionaries interface though is that I can access all 3 of my general-purpose dictionaries through that single interface, which saves a lot of time when looking up terms.

Ideally I'd also like to be able to paste images into user entries and I'd like metadata like the date the entry was created/last modified to be created automatically.

If anyone can suggest any software that would run on Windows 10 Home 64-bit, Linux Mint 18 64-bit or Windows XP 32-bit running on VirtualBox I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.
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Hedwig Spitzer (X)
Hedwig Spitzer (X)  Identity Verified
Peru
French to Spanish
+ ...
InterpretBank Jun 25, 2019

Hello Hugh,

I had the same problem. I used Anylexic for many years until Windows 10 arrived. I tried everything, too. I even contacted AIT, Vitaliy tried to help me but it did not work and finally they confirmed it was legacy software and they did not intended to update it. I recently contacted them again to beg for an update, not interested.

It seems it is not useful anymore for translators so not worth the effort. I was and still am very sad and frustrated about it, A
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Hello Hugh,

I had the same problem. I used Anylexic for many years until Windows 10 arrived. I tried everything, too. I even contacted AIT, Vitaliy tried to help me but it did not work and finally they confirmed it was legacy software and they did not intended to update it. I recently contacted them again to beg for an update, not interested.

It seems it is not useful anymore for translators so not worth the effort. I was and still am very sad and frustrated about it, Anylexic was great. Fortunately I had my backups and did not loose my precious glossaries.

After weeks trying to find a glossary manager that met my needs, I found and tested InterpretBank http://www.interpretbank.com/ which I am about to purchase. It is simple, friendly and can use several active glossaries at the same time for terminology searches. It is also helpful for terminology extraction and for my interpreting missions. The software is updated regularly and their manager and sales representative are very receptive and responsive. So I guess it is expected to have a long-term live. It works very well with several platforms. It has a note field but I don't know if one can paste images.

I also found https://interpretershelp.com/ but it was not very useful for my needs. It is online based, does not work with several glossaries at the same time, so it does not work for me.

If you find a better solution, please let me know.

Good luck!
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Rolf Keller
Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 07:02
English to German
Searching several term sources simultaneously - a must in these frantic days Jun 25, 2019

Hedwig Spitzer Cáceres wrote:

does not work with several glossaries at the same time, so it does not work for me. If you find a better solution, please let me know.

Try Omni-Lookup. It uses a different paradigm but enables you to search an arbitrary selection of many data sources at the same time by a single keystroke.

(As it is MS.NET based it should work on any future version of Windows. Actually it works from Windows XP to today.)


 
Hugh Jarce
Hugh Jarce
United Kingdom
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Jun 26, 2019

Hi Hedwig

Thanks for your reply.

Received a reply from Vitaliy today and he said he doesn't know when a Win 10 version of AnyLexic will be released, which doesn't make much sense since (a) he's the developer and (b) it also contradicts what he said to you. He did offer to give me a REG file that apparently enables AnyLexic to register without an internet connection, but I don't see what good that will do me since it won't install on Win 10 at all and when I try to insta
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Hi Hedwig

Thanks for your reply.

Received a reply from Vitaliy today and he said he doesn't know when a Win 10 version of AnyLexic will be released, which doesn't make much sense since (a) he's the developer and (b) it also contradicts what he said to you. He did offer to give me a REG file that apparently enables AnyLexic to register without an internet connection, but I don't see what good that will do me since it won't install on Win 10 at all and when I try to install it on XP I get an error message saying it can't install on a virtual machine. Did he offer you this same REG file? Is this the thing you tried that didn't work?

I have several reference sources (monolingual & bilingual dictionaries, English and German encyclopaedias, thesauruses) I bought back in the XP days that simply will not install on Windows 10 and there are no Windows 10 versions of them. I would like updated versions of these programs but they simply don't exist, because the developers haven't made them which is a great shame. I run these programs on XP running in VirtualBox on Linux Mint (although I could run them on Win 10 too, but I find Linux Mint much more user-friendly than Win 10 and it's much easier & faster to install updates on Linux Mint).

I find it ludicrous that some old Windows programs won't run on Win 10 64-bit. Surely Win 10 should provide support for old 32-bit programs? And in an ideal world 16-bit programs as well - I have a couple of dictionaries I bought on floppy disks that are 16-bit (I might be able to get them working again if I buy a USB floppy drive and run them in DOSBox but I haven't tried that yet). As I said I've never had any success with compatibility mode in Win 10. A far better solution imo would be to ship Win 10 with virtual machines of previous versions of Windows. (Not that that solution would help re AnyLexic, but it would be far better than the compatibility mode imo).

I've just been reading about InterpretBank on the website and it sounds promising. I especially like the fact you can access online dictionaries using it, which is a feature I'd find very useful. I'll give the trial a go. Pity it doesn't come in a Linux version though, a lot of developers ignore Linux.

You said you searched for weeks trying to find a glossary manager. I can believe it. Similarly I've spent quite some time looking for INSTALLABLE and UP-TO-DATE dictionaries released this year or last and I couldn't find any. They're all years old. I have no idea why the companies don't bring out new up-to-date versions of software that can be installed on my computer. And ideally with an update feature so new terminology can be downloaded daily or once a week or something. Langenscheidt's e-Dictionaries interface used to offer this functionality but they discontinued it. It was a great feature and a great shame to lose it. Imo terminology updates should be as regular as antivirus updates because language changes all the time and new terms are created all the time. To NOT have regular terminology updates seems nonsensical to me. Anyway, whatever, we have to live with it.

I found and subscribed to WordFinder because it's pretty cheap and you get access to a lot of dictionaries, but I really am not keen on the subscription model. I'd much rather buy software, install it and have access to it for life on my hard drive, not in the cloud, but such software is becoming increasingly rare.

I definitely need to work with several glossaries and user dictionaries at once, so I doubt if interpretershelp.com would be of much use to me either.

"If you find a better solution, please let me know."

Will do.

Btw, do you use CAT software? I tried Trados years ago and found it incredibly un-user-friendly. It boggles my mind that a company could release such unintuitive software. Well unintuitive to me anyway.

Thanks again
Take care
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Hedwig Spitzer (X)
Hedwig Spitzer (X)  Identity Verified
Peru
French to Spanish
+ ...
Wordfast Jun 26, 2019

Hi Hugh,

I do use a CAT, Worfast Pro 3, super friendly, not very expensive and easy to install, learn and maintain. There is the more recent Wordfast Pro 5 but I am not changing yet, too many bugs reported. I prefer my 'old' non bugged version until 3 is considered... a legacy version (we all know how it goes).

Give it a try!

Cheers.


 
Rolf Keller
Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 07:02
English to German
Win 10 Pro provides virtual machines Jun 26, 2019

Hugh Jarce wrote:

A far better solution imo would be to ship Win 10 with virtual machines of previous versions of Windows.

Windows 10 Pro includes a Virtual Machine Function (called Hyper-V) right out of the box.

(Among other things I use it for my 20-year-old bookkeeping software which needs Windows XP. Actually it runs even faster than on the old XP machine.
You just need your old XP DVD to install it. Or buy such a DVD for 5 bucks.)


 
Hugh Jarce
Hugh Jarce
United Kingdom
TOPIC STARTER
Why does my reply require a title? Shouldn't this be optional? Jun 26, 2019

Hi Hedwig

Yeah sometimes getting the supposedly "newest and best" is actually a downgrade, not an improvement.

Received an email today from AnyLexic saying "The message you sent requires that you verify that you are a real live human being and not a spam source", followed by a hyperlink. Didn't click on the link, deleted the email. What on earth? We've already exchanged emails and now they think I might be a spam source? I'm lost for words.

I installed Inte
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Hi Hedwig

Yeah sometimes getting the supposedly "newest and best" is actually a downgrade, not an improvement.

Received an email today from AnyLexic saying "The message you sent requires that you verify that you are a real live human being and not a spam source", followed by a hyperlink. Didn't click on the link, deleted the email. What on earth? We've already exchanged emails and now they think I might be a spam source? I'm lost for words.

I installed InterpretBank and it takes quite a while to open. Haven't timed it, but I'd estimate about a minute. Never experienced anything like it. That's ridiculously slow. It's early days yet, I need to read the manual and experiment with it. I've 3 weeks to trial it.

Bye
Regards
Me

-----------------------

Hi Rolf

I had a look at Omni-Lookup and you're the developer. You should be upfront about that.

That said, that sort of functionality is something I've been looking for for years, so I'll definitely give it a go. If it works as advertised I'll be very happy.

As for Win 10 Pro and Hyper-V, what can I do with Hyper-V that I can't do with VirtualBox or VMware Player?

What I meant in my previous comment was that ALL versions of Windows 10 should come with a virtual machine as standard with previous versions of Windows already installed in the virtual machine and ready to go (e.g. virtual machines of 7, XP and 98SE would cover the majority of use cases I'd imagine). (I also have no intention of giving Microsoft another penny either for Win 10 Pro or to buy older versions of Windows. I consider Win 10 a travesty, beta software at best, and the users are being used as guinea pigs. However I'd buy LTSB in a heartbeat because it's what Win 10 should have been. No bloat and very few updates. I have the 90-day trial version running in VirtualBox and it works great. Only problem is, home users can't buy it.)

If Microsoft spent more time on actual useful features so people could run old software on Win 10 instead of the ludicrous Store, apps, Cortana, Candy Crush, and other bloat, then they'd gain back some of the trust they've lost since Win 10 came out.

Also people should be able to download ISOs of other versions of Windows and run them on the virtual machine provided (or in a virtual machine of their choice).
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Looking for alternatives to AnyLexic and/or the PC-Bibliothek 2.0 dictionary interface






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