4.8 A safety-first suggestion for when you start making changes.
4.9 The Rules Manager.
4.1 Opening the Entering Words window.
There are two ways of opening the Entering Words window:
• Pull down the File menu and choose Add Words. This is the best method if you want to add a new word or study the Entering Words window; or
• Double-click any word in a scroll-list in the Browse window. This is the best method if you want to change an existing word. As well as opening the Entering Words window, this method selects the word you clicked and presents it ready for changing.
This time, we recommend that you open the Entering Words window by pulling down the File menu and choosing Add Words.
Let's look at the Entering Words window. Near the top left-hand corner there's a pop-up menu. It probably says 'General List'. Change it to 'Groups', and the panel below will offer you another pop-up menu listing the various 'groups' of words that you have already seen in the Browse window. When you choose a group in the lower pop-up menu, the number of words in the group (e.g. 21) is displayed just to the right of the pop-up menu, and the scroll-list underneath displays the words belonging to the group. It's a copy of the Groups Scroll List in the Browse window. You can scroll up and down, and you can select a word by clicking on it. Underneath the scroll-list there's a button called 'List'. This works the same way as the similar button in the Browse window. Click it to see the miniature List window, which gives you another way of accessing the groups. If you click the name of a group in the miniature List window, the group you choose will be displayed in the scroll-list in the Entering Words window. Using groups in the Entering Words window is helpful if you want to make changes to several words in an existing group. You can also create a temporary group to hold words that you are planning to change.
If the miniature List window is obscuring the view, move it out of the way or close it by clicking its close box.
Go back to the pop-up menu in the top left-hand corner, and change it back to 'General List'. The scroll-list underneath is quite likely to be empty. If so, you have to tell the program to Find the word you want. The panel immediately above the scroll-list is now a Find box. Click in the Find box (or type ‚åòF), and the insertion point starts winking. Type the Italian word for which you want to make a change (or the beginning of the Italian word), then press Return on the keyboard or click the word 'Find' beside the Find box. The scroll-list fills with words, automatically scrolls to the right part of the alphabet, and highlights the word that has been found. In case of a typing mistake, or if you only typed the beginning of the word, check that the word that is selected is the word you want. If necessary, select the word that you do want, by scrolling and clicking it, or by Finding it again.
Details of the word you chose are displayed in several parts of the window. Near the top centre of the window, there's a panel called 'Word' or 'Word in DB'. This displays the word as it appears in the various scroll lists. Near the bottom of the window there's a larger panel called 'Meaning' which displays the existing translation of the word you've chosen. At the right-hand side there's a column of six panels which are for entering different forms of the word when you come to add new words. Don't freak out because of the six panels - for Italian nouns you only ever need the top two, and mostly you only need one.
4.2 Changing existing translations.
To change the translation of a word that you have selected, click in the 'Meaning' panel, and edit the translation using standard editing techniques. Be a little cautious until you get used to making changes. If the translation you want is short and simple and doesn't include any punctuation, or if you just want to change a spelling, you can go ahead. If you are deleting one of several translations separated by commas and spaces, delete the comma and space as well. If in doubt, you may prefer to wait until you've had a look at Chapter 5 - 'Things to think about when entering new translations'.
When you are satisfied, click the Add/Change button in the bottom row of the Entering Words window (or press ‚åòR). This enters the change, and automatically saves it.
If you decide you don't want to make the change after all, don't click any of the buttons in the bottom row of the Entering Words window. Instead, select a different word, or close the Entering Words window.
Quick reference : to change an existing translation:
1. Pull down File menu and choose Add Words. This opens the Entering Words window. Alternatively you can double-click in a scroll-list in the Browse window on the word you want to change, and the program will do the next three steps for you.
2. In the Entering Words window, click in the Find box (or press ‚åòF).
3. Type the Italian word of the entry that you want to change.
4. Press the Return key on the keyboard (or click on the word 'Find'). The Italian word will be highlighted in the scroll-list under the Find box, and the translation will be presented in the 'Meaning' panel near the bottom of the window.
5. Click in the 'Meaning' panel and edit the translation.
6. Click the Add/Change button in the bottom row of the window.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 for each word whose translation you want to change.
4.3 Deleting an Italian word from the module.
1. Pull down File menu and choose Add Words. This opens the Entering Words window. Alternatively you can double-click in a scroll-list in the Browse window on the word you want to delete, and the program will do the next three steps for you.
2. In the Entering Words window, click in the Find box (or press ‚åòF).
3. Type the Italian word that you want to remove from the module.
4. Press the Return key on the keyboard (or click on the word 'Find'). The Italian word will be highlighted in the scroll-list under the Find box, and the translation will be presented in the 'Meaning' panel near the bottom of the window.
5. Click the Remove button in the bottom row of the window.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for each word you want to delete.
The word will be removed from the module, and so will all the information stored for it. However, if the word has been included in a group, it will still be visible in the Groups Scroll List. Clicking on the word will not display any information, and it is best to delete the word separately from any groups that contained it.
4.4 Adding new entries, and using the 'rules'.
When you add extra words to 'Italian Nouns', you can enter all the details yourself if you want to. Alternatively, if the word is reasonably regular, the program will generate the singular and plural forms and the two definite articles, provided you give it a 'stem' and tell it which 'rule' to use.
There's also a feature called 'Auto Assign Rules' which has not yet been tested with 'Italian Nouns'.
To add extra words you use the Entering Words window. If you intend to add words, or study the Entering Words window, we recommend that you open it by choosing Add Words on the File menu. The other method mentioned in 4.1 would also open the window, but the things you see in the window would be different.
In the Entering Words window, there are three pop-up menus near the top right-hand corner. The second one down is called 'Class', and it probably says 'All Rules'. If it doesn't, please pull it down and choose 'All Rules'. Below this there's a pop-up menu called 'Rule', and it probably says 'fem.a/e.c'. If the pop-up menu above says 'All Rules', the 'Rule' menu gives you access to all the 'rules' that have been built into the module to help create new words with the correct inflections and definite articles. There are 59 'rules' in 'Italian Nouns', but they aren't all currently in use. This long list of rules is needed to cater for about 22 different ways of forming the plural, multiplied by 2-3 combinations of the forms of 'the'. The list looks a bit frightening, but it's easier than it looks.
Each 'rule' has a name that breaks into three parts.
The first part of the name is either 'fem' or masc'.
The second part of the name refers to the way the plural is formed. It generally contains two to five letters with a slash in the middle, for example a/e or ca/che. If you use a rule with ca/che in the middle of its name, the program will take whatever 'stem' you give it, and will add 'ca' to make the singular, and 'che' to make the plural. A few rules have 'inv' in the middle of the name: these are for use with invariable nouns that don't change in the plural.
The third part of the name consists of a letter: c, v, or z. This tells the program what forms of 'the' to use for the singular and plural definite articles. If the word starts with a consonant, you want a rule with 'c' at the end of it. If the word starts with a vowel, you want a rule ending in 'v'. If the word is masculine and starts with z, or s-impure, or is one of the other words that use the masculine 'lo', then you want a rule ending in 'z'.
Chapter 7 contains a list of all the 'rules', with an example of a word that fits each rule. The module doesn't contain examples for all the rules.
The program has a feature called the Rules Manager which allows you to organise the rules in a way that suits you, but to start with it's probably simplest to choose 'All Rules' in the Class menu, and choose the rule you want in the 'Rule' menu. There's more about the Rules Manager in section 4.9.
4.5 Adding a word - an example.
Let's say you want to add the (non-existent) word 'barga' to the module. If you like, you can add the word 'barga' as an exercise, and remove it afterwards. Open the Entering Words window by choosing Add Words on the File menu. If the window is already open, please check to see that no existing word has been selected. The panels at the top, at the right, and at the bottom of the window should all be empty. If they are not, click the New button in the bottom row of the window to clear the panels in preparation for adding a new word.
'Barga' is feminine, so you want a rule starting with 'fem'. It forms the plural by changing 'ga' to 'ghe', so you want a rule with ga/ghe in the middle. It begins with a consonant, so you want a rule with 'c' at the end. Find the rule you want in the pop-up menu called 'Rule' (it's the 5th rule down in the list that shows all the rules) and choose it. Check that its name (fem.ga/ghe.c) is displayed in the window.
In the middle of the Entering Words window, in one pop-up menu choose 'Noun'. In the other pop-up menu, choose 'Feminine'. Leave the 'Regular?' checkbox checked - there's a rule to suit 'barga', so it counts as regular. 'Barga' has both singular and plural forms, so you don't have to do anything about the pop-up menu called 'Defect'.
Click in the panel near the top of the Entering Words window and type 'barga'. This is the normal singular form of the new word and will appear in the Browse window.
Then click in the top panel of the six panels on the right-hand side of the window (or use the tab key to move the insertion point). In the top panel of the six panels, under the name of the rule you've chosen, type the same word, or you can use copy-and-paste. This time, type the word without its singular ending, i.e. type 'bar'. If you've copied-and-pasted the whole word, delete the ending 'ga'. The rule you've chosen has 'ga/ghe' in the middle of its name, so the program will add 'ga' to make the singular form, and 'ghe' to make the plural form.
If you want to provide a translation for this word, click in the 'Meaning' panel - near the bottom of the window beside 'Meaning' - and type the translation in the panel.
Then click the Add/Change button in the bottom row (or press ‚åòR on the keyboard).
The word you've just added appears in the scroll-list at the left of the Entering Words window. The panels where you entered the word and the translation are normally cleared, ready for you to add another word if you want. There's an option for this: if you don't want the panels cleared when a word has been added, pull down the DB menu, choose Preferences, uncheck the box for 'Clean Window on Add Word', and click OK. If you uncheck this box, you'll have to press the New button at the bottom of the Entering Words window to clear the panels before you can add another word.
The Entering Words window keeps count of the total number of words in the module (it's displayed just above the 'Meaning' panel), and the count changes to include the word you have added.
Find the word in the Browse window, and decide if the entry is what you expected. The bottom right-hand corner of the Browse window shows the name of the rule you used. You may need to widen the window to see the whole of the name of the rule. The bottom line of the Browse window also shows 'noun' and the gender of the word. If you can't easily find the word in the Browse window, please see the paragraph headed 'Where the program will put the new word'.
If the new entry is not what you expected, you may need to reselect the word in the Entering Words window before you can alter it to what you want. You can do this by using the Find box in the Entering Words window. Alternatively you can double-click the word in the Browse window, which opens the Entering Words window and selects the word in that window.
When you've finished, you can destroy the word. You have to select the word in the Entering Words window. Check that the word that is highlighted is the word you want to destroy. Then press the Remove button in the bottom row of the Entering Words window.
Adding invariable nouns.
Invariable nouns don't change in the plural. If you add an invariable noun, choose a rule with 'inv' in the middle. In the top panel of the six panels at the right of the Entering Words window, type the entire word, for example 'città'.
4.6 Adding defective words.
Some words have only a singular form, and others have only a plural form. If you add a word like this to the module, you'll want to use the pop-up menu called 'Defect' in the top right-hand corner of the Entering Words window. It usually says 'No Defects'.
If the word has only a singular form, make all the entries in the usual way in the Entering Words window, including choosing a 'rule'; in addition choose 'singular only' in the 'Defect' pop up menu.
If the word has only a plural form, take a look (in the Entering Words window) at the existing entries for some of these words: 'alimentari', 'calzoncini', 'calzoni', 'casalinghi', 'dintorni', 'fagiolini', 'forbici', 'nozze', 'occhiali', 'pantaloni', or 'tagliatelle'. If you want, you can use a temporary group of these words, to make it easier to see how they've been treated. The points to notice are -
• The pop-up menu called 'Defect' has been set to show 'plural only'.
• The plural form of the word has been entered in the panel called 'Word' or 'Word in DB'; this is what will appear in the scroll-lists.
• A rule has been chosen for the word in the pop-up menu called 'Rule'. This involves making an intelligent guess about what the singular form of the word would be, if the singular form existed.
• The word, minus its hypothetical singular ending, has been entered in the top panel of the six panels at the right. This is the same as the word minus its real plural ending.
There are certain advantages in choosing a rule for the word, but if you don't want to do this you can treat the word as 'irregular'. You'll find information about entering 'irregular' words in chapter 6.
Changing the assignment of a noun from one 'rule' to a different 'rule'.
You might want to do this if you decide that a different rule would be more suitable. Information about how to do it is in chapter 6.
Positioning the Browse window while adding new words.
If your screen is large enough, you can arrange to see the effect of a change, or a new entry, as soon as it is made. Position the Entering Words window in front of the Browse window in such a way that you can still see the parts of the Browse window that show the translation, the singular and plural forms, and (if possible) the information in the bottom line of the Browse window. On a 12-inch monitor (or larger) you can usually do it by making the Browse window the full depth of the screen, and positioning the Entering Words window across the middle of the Browse window.
Pull down the DB menu, choose Preferences, check the checkbox called 'Position list with Keys?', and click OK. When you select a word in the Entering Words window, the Browse window will automatically scroll to the same word and display the existing details for it. When you click the Add/Change button in the Entering Words window, the Browse window will automatically display the change. Depending on the speed of your machine, it can take a second or more to do it. This feature helps you to check that everything is as you expected before you continue making changes. If the new entry is not what you expected, you may need to reselect the word in the Entering Words window before you can alter it to what you want.
The automatic scrolling of the Browse window will make entering words a bit slower. If you don't want to use this feature, you can close the Browse window to speed things up.
Where the program will put the new word.
The Entering Words window has its own scroll-list at the left. New words are displayed in this list. They are also added to a scroll-list in the Browse window.
When you are adding words to the module, the new words will normally be added to the Main Scroll List in the Browse window, provided the pop-up menu above the Groups Scroll List in the Browse window is set to show 'Multiple Groups'.
This manual doesn't deal with the use of 'Two Groups Split' in the Browse window, but we need to mention it in passing at this point.
When you are adding words to the module, if the pop-up menu above the Groups Scroll List in the Browse window is set to show 'Two Groups Split', the new words will be added to the second scroll-list. This means the list where the 'groups' are normally displayed. This can be useful, because it allows you to keep the new words separate from the existing words for the time being. When you are satisfied with the new words, you can transfer them to the Main Scroll List by selecting them and dragging them to the Main Scroll List. You can select and move them in one operation (see Groups in chapter 2). Then close and reopen the Browse window to allow the words to sort themselves in alphabetical order. You are not obliged to add the new words to the Main Scroll List. If you prefer, you can leave them in the separate list.
Under some circumstances, the program may transfer a new word from the Main Scroll List to the second scroll-list. If at any time you are adding words to the module, and the Main Scroll List doesn't display a word you've recently added, it's worth looking in 'Two Groups Split' to see if it's there. This is true even if you were able to see the word in the Main Scroll List after you added it. Occasionally a new word vanishes altogether from the scroll-lists in the Browse window. If this occurs, there are two things you can do:
• Close the Browse window and reopen it. This gives it a chance to sort itself out in privacy.
• Use the Find box to find the word. Even it's not otherwise visible, Find should find the word and highlight it.
4.7 Tuning and compacting the database.
When you have added new words, or removed old words that you no longer want, you should 'tune' the database. To do this, pull down the DB menu and choose Tune DB. You'll get a dialog box advising you that the procedure will take some time, and asking you to confirm that you want to do it now. If you're in a hurry you can postpone it until later, but you should make a point of doing it before you make much further use of the module. 'Tuning' reorganises the data more tidily. The module will work better if you keep it tuned, and it will occupy less disk space. If you don't 'tune' the module, one thing that may happen is that the Main Scroll List may not be able to display the number of words you have specified in Preferences.
It's not necessary to tune the database if all you have done is to change translations or add or change comments in the Comments boxes. However, if you make changes of these kinds, you should 'compact' the database from time to time. The module tends to grow in size with every change, and 'compacting' it reduces the amount of disk space it occupies. To do this, pull down the DB menu and choose Compact DB. You don't need to 'compact' as well as 'tune', because the tuning process includes compacting.
4.8 A safety-first suggestion for when you start making changes.
If you want to add some words or change translations but are nervous about making mistakes, there are some things you can do to protect your database.
• You can make a back-up copy first. If you get in a muddle you can throw out the copy you've been using. The Introduction contains a note about the best way to make backup copies.
• You can create a separate small database with the same rules and use it for adding and testing new words. If you are satisfied with the words you have added, you can import the small database into the large one.
• You can create a separate small database with the same rules and use it to practise entering new translations, and to test whether they will work successfully for Finding and for exercises. If you are satisfied with the new translations, you can incorporate them by importing the small database into the large one. The new translations will replace the old ones.
To create a separate small database with the same rules.
Create a new group in the Browse window. You can put some words in it (for changing translations), or you can leave it blank (for adding new words). In the Entering Words window, choose 'Groups' in the pop-up menu called 'Show'. In the pop-up menu immediately below, choose the group you want to use. Below the scroll-list there's a button called 'Create Sub-DB'. Click this button. You'll get a dialog box inviting you to type a name for the new 'sub-database'. Give it a name, choose a place to store it, and click Save. Two new files will be created: the sub-database itself, and an associated 'keys' file. The sub-database will contain only the words from the group you chose. Double-click the icon of the new sub-database to open it. Alternatively you can open it from within the program: pull down the File menu and choose Open DB... which leads to a standard navigation dialog box. There's also the Easy Open feature, which you'll find on the File menu.
To import a separate database into an existing database.
1. Open the module. You now have two separate databases, and you need to be careful which one you open. If you've created a separate small database and have called it, say, 'Small database', and you want to import this into 'Italian Nouns 1.1', open 'Italian Nouns 1.1' and check that 'Italian Nouns 1.1' appears at the top of the Browse window.
2. On the File menu choose Merge DB.... You'll get a dialog box called 'Add DB Preferences'.
3. If you are adding new words, it doesn't matter whether the checkboxes in the preferences dialog box are checked or not. If you are importing new translations, check the checkbox called 'Make changes in Inflection of Existing Words'. If you want to add the comments in the separate database to the existing database, check the checkbox called 'Merge Foreign DB Comments with My Comments'. The existing comments will be preserved.
4. Click OK. You'll get a standard navigation dialog box where you can select the other database.
5. Select the database you want to import and click 'Open' (or click 'Cancel' if you don't want to proceed).
6. The new translations will replace the existing translations, and the new comments will be added to your existing comments. You may want to edit the comments afterwards.
7. If the importing procedure has added new words, you should 'tune' the database. Otherwise you should 'compact' it. Please see 'Tuning and compacting the database'.
4.9 The Rules Manager.
The program has a feature called the Rules Manager. You can use this to reorganise the rules in a way that suits you. The Rules Manager has already been set up to organise the 59 rules into two classes - feminine and masculine. Here we deal mainly with making use of this feature in the Entering Words window.
In the Entering Words window, the second pop-up menu down in the top right-hand corner is called 'Class', and it normally says 'All Rules'. You can use this menu to choose between separate lists of feminine and masculine rules. If you do this, you'll notice that the rules are listed in a different order from the order that's used when you use the single list that displays all the rules. The reason is that the single list displays the rules in the order in which they were originally entered into the module, but the separate 'Feminine' and 'Masculine' lists have been reorganised using the Rules Manager.
There's another way of getting to the separate 'Feminine' and 'Masculine' lists. Near the middle of the Entering Words window, there's a checkbox called 'Regular?'. In the pop-up menu above the checkbox, choose Noun, and in the pop-up menu below the checkbox choose Feminine or Masculine. Provided the rules are in groups (classes) whose names are 'Feminine' or 'Masculine', the appropriate class of rules will automatically be selected in the pop-up menu called 'Class'.
If you'd prefer the rules to be displayed in some other way, you can use the Rules Manager to reorganise them. You can reach it via the DB menu (choose 'DB Settings and Rules', and then choose 'Rules Manager'). In the Rules Manager window, use the pop-up menus to display the 'feminine' and 'masculine' classes as they are set up at present. You can reorganise rules within a class by dragging-and-dropping them. You can remove individual rules from an existing class by dragging them from the list at the left into the 'Not Classified' list in the right-hand half of the window. You can create a new class, for instance you might want to create a separate class for rules that are not often needed, and you can destroy an existing class.
The Rules Manager also offers a way of automatically building grammatical groups that will be displayed in Multiple Groups in the Browse window. The group will contain all the words that have been assigned to a particular rule. In 'Italian Nouns' this sometimes means only one or two words, or none at all. This occurs when the rule is for an unusual grammatical type, especially if it also employs one of the less-common forms of the definite article.
You can't create new rules in this module, nor can you destroy an existing rule.
The manual is continued in Chapter 5, which deals with things to think about when you enter new translations. To open Chapter 5, press ‚åò5 or pull down the Contents menu on the manual's menu bar and choose the next chapter.
