WORD WORLD™ The Ultimate Word Finder (c) 2009-10 Dr Jeff Software™ Co. ============ USER'S GUIDE ============ WORD WORLD™ is "The Ultimate Word Finder" -- an app that answers the question, "What’s that word? It's right on the tip of my tongue." WORD WORLD™ is a compilation of word "similitude" groups -- groups of words that either sound alike or are spelled alike. WORD WORLD™ implements a proprietary "word search engine" -- so that you will never be "at a loss for words". It is an essential tool for wordsmiths, crossword enthusiasts, lyricists, writers, teachers and students. WORD WORLD™ is a new class of app implementing word search via its proprietary database -- a classified compilation of 1000s of word "similitude" groups. For example, "word" and "world" both sound alike and are spelled alike. Any search on "word" would find word groups "ward, weird, word" (vowel exchange), "whirred, word" (homonyms), "sword, words" (anagrams), and "word, world" (add consonant). Even "would" appears in the word groups with "Silent letters" sub-category of the "Consonants" main category (1 of 10). WORD WORLD™ has formed thousands of "similitude" word groups by classifying a select subset of the nearly 1,000,000 words in the English vocabulary into 10 "categories", each with up to 19 sub-categories (or "sections"). In WORD WORLD™, words are "similar" if they either sound alike: homonyms, malaprops; or are spelled alike: anagrams, prefixes, letter substitutions, etc. For example, homonyms have been organized into double, triple, quadruple and greater classes (each presented in a separate "section"). So far, a surprising number of triples and quads have been cataloged. Likewise, surprisingly large anagrams (and palindromes) have been found and included. CATEGORIES WORD WORLD™ has formed thousands of "similitude" word groups by classifying a select subset of the nearly 1,000,000 words in the English vocabulary into 10 "categories", each with up to 19 sub-categories (or "sections"), as follows: 1. Homonyms (sound alike) - includes: -sextuplets, quads, triples (>80) and doubles (>500) -"near" homonyms in several sub-categories including names -homographs (spelled same, different sound; e.g. verb/noun: "record"; tenses: "read") -alternative spellings (e.g., gage, gauge) and words 2. Malaprops (more complex, sound alike somewhat) 3. Prefix/Suffix substitutes (e.g., cord- accord, discord, record; and sect, sectarian, section, sector) 4. Vowels: -endings (e.g., and- band, bland, brand, ...) -substitutes (e.g., bad, bed, bead, bid, bod, bud) -final e or ee (e.g., bad, bade; corps, corpse; devotee) -double vowels (e.g., god, good; met, meet; chose, choose); and more 5. Consonants: -adds/substitutes/swaps (e.g., backlash, backslash; undeserved, underserved or debut, rebut) -d/t; and c/ch/s/sh/sch, f/v/b/ph, t/th, th/ph/gh (similar sounds) -silent letters 6. Anagrams (same letters) 7. Palindromes (just for fun) 8. Compound words (sound alike) 9. Coined 10. Reference: -Texting abbrevs. (OMG,IMHO, this is a great addition to this edition-LOL) -US state/territories (50 states, DC and 8 territories) -US Postal address abbrevs. (over 130; e.g., BLVD, HWY, CYN) -Internet TLDs (over 250 top-level domains, both "generic", e.g., .com, and "country", e.g., .us, .uk) -Gazillions: extreme scale numbers (trillion, quadrillion, ...) -Technical ordinals (from yacto, ..., pico, nano to giga, tera, ..., yotta) -Latin abbreviations (A.D., a.m., e.g., i.e., Q.E.D., etc.) BASIC OPERATION The single main window ("form") for WORD WORLD™ opens with a momentary blue title block, which persists as long as the user needs to read it. The "click to start" graphic reminds the user to simply click anywhere inside the blue block when ready, to terminate it. The single main window can be used conventionally: minimize, restore, close, resize, reposition, etc. All operations are based solely on user input -- as there are no online connections for Dr Jeff products (intentionally, for security). In the case of WORD WORLD™, the only user input is exercising one of the form sections enumerated below. FORM LAYOUT The main form for WORD WORLD™ is organized into these sections: >Menu bar - limited standard Windows menus for "File" and "Help" only. >List boxes - web-style user interface supports user selections via clicking on entries in a scrollable list. There are 4 left-to-right cascading list boxes: Each selected box is highlighted in light yellow, and all boxes to the right in the cascade are updated per selection. >Search box - provided to enter any search text/partial word. DATA ORGANIZATION The word database is organized into 10 "categories" (displayed in the leftmost list box), with each category divided into up to 19 "sections" (displayed in the 2nd list box). A few sections have sub-sections (all displayed in the 2nd list box). Words can thus be found in multiple categories, and multiple sections thereof. The real fun of this database is being able to locate all the various categories a given word can be thought to belong. For example, many words paired in a "homonym" group can also be in an "anagram" group. SEARCH Word search is supported via a single text box. When the "SEARCH" button is clicked, the text entered in the search box is searched for. The search string must be at least 3 characters long before search is enabled (as indicated by the "SEARCH" button becoming enabled). Searches are constrained to the "category" selected. A "Search All" category is included for unconstrained searches (all categories). Categories with many sections are likely to produce multiple matches. Only the first match is displayed. Each time the "SEARCH" button is pressed, the next match is found (if there is one). SPELLING To find how a word is spelled, simply search for it -- using any 3 consecutive letters contained anywhere in the word. WORD WORLD™ is easier to use for spelling than a standard dictionary since the search text can be anywhere in the word. STORING DATA The entire WORD WORLD™ word compilation comes in a single data file distributed with the product. The user cannot update this file, so data is never "stored" by the user. PRINTING WORD LISTS All printing is selected under the appropriate "Print" menu bar item. Word lists can be printed in 1 of 2 ways: print any box, or print the whole form (as currently displayed). A windows standard print dialog box will open first, to support any printer selection. =============== ERRORS, ALERTS, BUGS, ISSUES =============== ERRORS 1. "missing .dll files" is a Windows message that means your PC does NOT have the "Microsoft.NET Framework" adequately installed. 2. "File Error!" messages mean that there was a data error in a data file. 3. "Program Alert!" messages are indeed errors intrinsic to the code, and should be reported to Dr Jeff Software (). 4. "Print Error!" messages can occur while attempting to print; such errors only affect the print function. ALERTS 1. "Demo Alert!" messages are not errors. This is to warn you that you are using a "Demo" version, and the operation is not supported. 2. "File Alert!" messages are not errors. This is to report that the "Help" file requested cannot be found in the same folder as the program, or that the data file to be "Opened" is not valid for the specific form. 3. "Action Performed" and "Action Denied!" alerts are occasionally activated as appropriate. 4. "diagnostic" alerts are for internal use only and should never appear; but if one does, it means that such an alert was accidentally not disabled for the production version. BUGS, ISSUES There are no known bugs, but there is this "security" issue: "Security" or antivirus software may interfere with trying to run any ".exe" file. Dr Jeff has registered each new version of its apps with Symantec/Norton, but occasionally new versions may, at times, be "quarantined". User intervention may be needed at times to initially instruct such software to allow the Dr Jeff ".exe" file to run (this should only have to be done once). ============ DEMO VERSION ============ The WORD WORLD™ "demo" version is sub-functional. Menus: Only the "Help" commands are enabled. Only partial/limited functionality is enabled, and this set can change from version to version (at least until product release). An alert box pops up to declare unavailable functions. In this version, all 10 categories are active, along with about 1/4 to 1/2 of the sections in each category. ============= USER FEEDBACK ============= Dr Jeff heartily welcomes user feedback of any type, but especially on adding or disputing words and/or groups. Please report such via email to . ============ ***WARNING: THIS "USER GUIDE" FILE NAME SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED (else the file will not be found). If the file cannot be found, make sure it is located in the same folder as the program, and is named: "WW-user_guide". TO CLOSE: if online, click browser BACK button LAST EDIT: 12/9/10