An increasing number of users prefer using online dictionaries than traditional printed versions. This figure is confirmed by the continuous decrease in the sales of these works in bookstores.
On the other hand, it is understandable that in the face of an expense that often exceeds 100 euros, many prefer to use the online or electronic versions, which are often free or available at much lower prices. However, putting aside for a moment the economic aspect, no wonder that the introduction of electronic and online dictionaries offers a true alternative to the traditional printed offer. Let’s see some pros and cons that may help to clarify tihis development.
Reference
In a printed dictionary, the search for a lemma requires a certain mental and physical effort. You have to flip through the pages to find the correct section in alphabetical order, then you must scroll through the items until you find the one you want. This reading work can be tedious and time consuming, but often helps you to also find other terms in the context, making easy to learn new words, and helps you to keep your mind working, similar to “do mental arithmetic and not with the calculator”.
Searching an electronic dictionary is much quicker, often you can just type a few characters to go directly to the desired entry. You can also do full search text for phrases or idioms to find all matching entries. This is a very useful option for those who travel abroad and want to find local idioms leveraging the phraseology.
Convenience
A printed dictionary does not require electricity or an Internet connection, and it does not crash due to software or hardware problems. Moreover, it is useful in many circumstances, for example, where specific regulations prohibit the use of electronic devices, in locations without Internet coverage, on planes that prohibit the use of electronic devices, while conducting tests, etc.
By contrast, an electronic dictionary can be brought anywhere, on a PC or a smartphone, without the weight and bulk of a volume of thousands of pages. Not only, the amount of information that it can provide is absolutely greater than that of a printed dictionary.
Cost
The problem of the cost has certainly contributed to the significant decrease in sales of the traditional printed volumes. A good dictionary can still cost more than 100 euros, although there are often pocket versions available at a lower cost.
In the electronic world, there is an extremely wide range of free or cheap dictionaries. Just connect and you can quickly download a dictionary in a few seconds to find what you’re searching for, not to mention the continuous availability of multilingual dictionaries online.
Updates
The traditional printed versions were updated with new editions published after many years, often just before the exhaustion of stocks.
An online dictionary can be updated in any moment, both in terms of software and content. The wide spread of social media helped to increase the interaction with the users, so they can contribute to the development of the content with comments and suggestions, or by creating specialized or custom dictionaries (unfortunately, not always with satisfactory results).
Quality
All the best printed dictionaries were created by experienced teams of linguists through a long and accurate editorial work. Important authors (and publishers) have helped to create works recognized worldwide for their quality. This is confirmed by the fact that dictionaries are often known by the name of the author (some examples: “Zingarelli”, “Gabrielli” or “the Devoto Oli”) which immediately denotes the content (Italian rather than English Dictionary) and consequently the reliability of the content.
In the case of electronic and online dictionaries, it is often not clear who is the author, who chose and edited the entries and what sources were used. Much of the free offers is made with the sole purpose to get the largest possible number of users to whom pouring out banner ads. Even the social media impact, mentioned above, and the development of online communities contribute to a greater confusion: the higher interaction with users can help and accelerate the content creation, but often this is not subject to adequate quality control procedures.
Fortunately, all the historically printed material accumulated is not wasted and the same versions of the dictionaries that are on paper are now being increasingly transformed into reference tools available on the Web or in the form of applications for the various operating system platforms. These proposals often have a cost, which, however, is generally lower than the corresponding printed version, and is certainly compensated by the quality of the product.
An example of an online offer is the one proposed by the Italian eLexico.com website, where you can find the leading dictionaries published in Italy. A subscription allows access at any time to the desired dictionary with the possibility to also download an offline version.
Another interesting initiative comes from our collaboration with Edigeo, who is publishing many of the best known Italian dictionaries and encyclopedias (check out the catalog) in the form of app for Android and iOS mobile devices, and PCs and smartphones using Windows 10. The apps are available in major online store and offer an interesting solution especially for those who make intensive and professional use of these reference tools (translators, students, travelers, etc.).
Classic Greek Dictionary
The app Grande Dizionario Greco Classico by Jannis Korinthios aims to reconcile a scientific treatment with a clear, comprehensive and simple explanation, following the latest spreading and communication forms; it is mainly intended to satisfy the needs of classical secondary school and university students.
Designed with innovative graphical and textual features, the dictionary stands out because of the abundance of entries, and the comprehensiveness of verbal paradigms, constructions, phraseology, and idioms.
This dictionary is a definitive tool for the modern study of ancient Greek, away from both oversimplification and complexity, allowing effortless consultation to a wide range of users. The entry list includes all words used by authors commonly studied in secondary schools specializing in classical studies. Translations have been chosen in order to respect the current use of Italian language.
Product Description
Requirements
This app is available on the following online stores:
Everyone can create a website … or not?
Having a site has become a must for bloggers, professionals and companies. To this end, there are numerous tools, platforms and templates that allow you to create sites with extreme ease and speed, with the result that many believe and submit themselves to professional web designers.
Actually, creating and managing a site effectively requires professionalism, experience and a combination of factors that involve various skills and abilities. Here are some questions to ask those who will have to make it happen
Layout: simple and immediate
Pages that are too crowded create confusion and frustration among visitors, forcing them to examine large amounts of links and images to find what interests them. Simplicity makes websites easier to use.
The first impression is always the one that matters, and also applies to websites. The choice of a good graphic design is essential to retain visitors and encourage them to continue browsing.
Intuitive navigation and consistency
Nothing is more frustrating than the impossibility to find what you are looking for on a website. The pages must be well organized, with an optimized hierarchical structure that allows easy access to the various sections of the site.
The visitor should not feel like visiting a new site every time he opens a page. Consistency is essential as a reassuring factor and helps to make navigation easier.
Responsive or not?
Web sites can be accessed now from any device: computer, smartphone, tablet, etc. It is therefore essential that the site appears correctly on every device and on every screen, making sure to implement a responsive style.
Contents are critical
As beautiful as it is, a site with confusing and unclear contents is just an empty shell. It is essential to know the purpose of the site well and to create targeted content in line with the message to be transmitted. Always remeber that the mouse is like a remote control …. just one click to go elsewhere.
And the contents must be regularly updated and refreshed.
Testing, indexing and search engines
Clicking and seeing the famous “404” page not found is the first step to get visitors away. Each site must be checked and tested thoroughly with appropriate tools and with a certain frequency.
Added to this is the targeted selection of keywords to promote the site in search engines, a task that often requires the involvement of specialized companies.
Social and security
Sharing the contents of the site or blog requires the configuration of all necessary accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and a corresponding effort in these areas to promote it with further effectiveness.
Also extremely important is the security of the site. Avoiding spam and attacks of any kind is essential to prevent this from being blocked or used for other unwanted activities.
Then…
These are just some of the key aspects to create and manage a good site, enough to understand that improvisation does not pay. Of course, anyone can decide to use a template or the wizards made available by hosting sites, but if we want a quality result, managed continuously, there is no doubt that it is better to choose experience and professionalism.
Beyond Wikipedia…
The word “encyclopedia” has now become synonymous with “Wikipedia”, and vice versa. In less than two decades this extraordinary reference tool has become the most important source of knowledge on the Internet. Unfortunately, for many people it has also become the only one, obsuring a loto of other works with a long history of excellence and quality. This evolution has also hampered the very concept of the encyclopedia and its function.
An encyclopedia is a reference work that contains information about a wide variety of topics or even just about specific subjects. The goal of giving a systematic form to human knowledge makes these tools the ideal vehicle for many study and research activities.
Academic Research
Traditionally, scholastic research involved a lot of consultation work accomplished between school, home and library. Today, these activities are increasingly limited to searching and printing a Wikipedia page at the expense of any further investigation. In fact, an encyclopedia should be a starting point, not the final one, offering good insights into more specific works. The best-known and accredited encyclopedias provide the opportunity to add more legitimate sources to research, presentations, and theses. Credibility is important because very often online sources have not been accurately verified.
Personal Research
Professional Research
General encyclopedias provide a comprehensive view of a wide variety of topics, while subject-specific ones provide detailed information on specific areas. Any profession that requires frequent consultations has certainly a dedicated encyclopedia. There are, for example, encyclopedias about psychiatry, law, economics, medicine and many other subjects. Professionals use it to control data, facts, events or to get more information on particular topics.
Not only paper…
The encyclopedia displayed in the living room library is a thing of the past, but it is important to remember that these reference tools have not lost their function. Each public and school library offers numerous works of this type. Moreover, over the last decades, technology innovoations allowed to completely change the way we access the knowledge. Traditional books are now offered in form of CDs / DVDs and online versions that make the consultation much more fast and efficient.
However, on the Internet we can find everything: works with a respected and consolidated name, and other more improvised ones that have the sole purpose of attracting visitors but which are often susceptible to inaccuracies, partiality and poor reliability.
Some good news
Talking about works with a long story of success and quality, I’d like to point out the release of some encyclopaedias in form of mobile apps. These apps can be used on a variety of mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Kindle) as well as on Windows 10 systems, they can be accessed offline (Internet connection not required), making them flexible tools to always bring with you.
Enciclopedia dell’Arte
la Zanichelli 2017
Antichità classica
Economia
Filosofia
Letteratura
New Economics and Business
The app New Economics and Business is an English-Italian encyclopedic dictionary spanning every branch of finance and economy, from international trade to economics and financial politics, from accountancy to management, from statistics to law. This new edition offers a rich set of headwords related to these areas, with particular attention to the new finance developments.
Every English headword is followed by their Italian translation and by a clear and accurate definition in Italian, using a simple language with no need of useless technicalities, therefore fit for both translators and students.
Beside the search within the wide choice of headwords, the app offers the option to search within the phraseology, the Italian translations, and full text, providing an essential point of reference for anyone interested to get a deep knowledge of economics and finance.
Product Description
Requirements
Main Features
This app is available on the following online stores:
Legal lexicon in 3 languages
The app Legal Lexicon in 3 languages by Alfredo Snozzi is the first juridical trilingual dictionary (Italian-German-French), with more than 10.000 headwords and expressions taken from the juridical, political, and administrative language. Although pointed on the Italian and Swiss law systems, the data bank is full of links to legislations and juridical terminology of other European countries, mainly France and Germany. Because of its structure and content, it differs from traditional bilingual dictionaries as not only it is trilingual, but it also defines and contextualizes the individual headwords, indicating any different meanings..
The app is a valuable tool targeted not only to legal practitioners (lawyers, judges, officials), but also to linguists, professional translators, and students in law, politics, social sciences, and, in general to those interested in events and institutions of legal and social life.
The author Alfredo Snozzi has been chief of the Legislation Service and of the Italian Translation Service at the Federal Swiss Chancellery in Bern, and professor of juridical translation for over 30 years at the University of Geneva.
The app user interface, available in three languages (Italian, French, and German), allows you to search headwords, sub-headwords and full text.
Product Description
Requirements
Main Features
This app is available on the following online stores:
Online or printed dictionaries?
On the other hand, it is understandable that in the face of an expense that often exceeds 100 euros, many prefer to use the online or electronic versions, which are often free or available at much lower prices. However, putting aside for a moment the economic aspect, no wonder that the introduction of electronic and online dictionaries offers a true alternative to the traditional printed offer. Let’s see some pros and cons that may help to clarify tihis development.
Reference
Searching an electronic dictionary is much quicker, often you can just type a few characters to go directly to the desired entry. You can also do full search text for phrases or idioms to find all matching entries. This is a very useful option for those who travel abroad and want to find local idioms leveraging the phraseology.
Convenience
A printed dictionary does not require electricity or an Internet connection, and it does not crash due to software or hardware problems. Moreover, it is useful in many circumstances, for example, where specific regulations prohibit the use of electronic devices, in locations without Internet coverage, on planes that prohibit the use of electronic devices, while conducting tests, etc.
By contrast, an electronic dictionary can be brought anywhere, on a PC or a smartphone, without the weight and bulk of a volume of thousands of pages. Not only, the amount of information that it can provide is absolutely greater than that of a printed dictionary.
Cost
The problem of the cost has certainly contributed to the significant decrease in sales of the traditional printed volumes. A good dictionary can still cost more than 100 euros, although there are often pocket versions available at a lower cost.
In the electronic world, there is an extremely wide range of free or cheap dictionaries. Just connect and you can quickly download a dictionary in a few seconds to find what you’re searching for, not to mention the continuous availability of multilingual dictionaries online.
Updates
The traditional printed versions were updated with new editions published after many years, often just before the exhaustion of stocks.
An online dictionary can be updated in any moment, both in terms of software and content. The wide spread of social media helped to increase the interaction with the users, so they can contribute to the development of the content with comments and suggestions, or by creating specialized or custom dictionaries (unfortunately, not always with satisfactory results).
Quality
All the best printed dictionaries were created by experienced teams of linguists through a long and accurate editorial work. Important authors (and publishers) have helped to create works recognized worldwide for their quality. This is confirmed by the fact that dictionaries are often known by the name of the author (some examples: “Zingarelli”, “Gabrielli” or “the Devoto Oli”) which immediately denotes the content (Italian rather than English Dictionary) and consequently the reliability of the content.
In the case of electronic and online dictionaries, it is often not clear who is the author, who chose and edited the entries and what sources were used. Much of the free offers is made with the sole purpose to get the largest possible number of users to whom pouring out banner ads. Even the social media impact, mentioned above, and the development of online communities contribute to a greater confusion: the higher interaction with users can help and accelerate the content creation, but often this is not subject to adequate quality control procedures.
Fortunately, all the historically printed material accumulated is not wasted and the same versions of the dictionaries that are on paper are now being increasingly transformed into reference tools available on the Web or in the form of applications for the various operating system platforms. These proposals often have a cost, which, however, is generally lower than the corresponding printed version, and is certainly compensated by the quality of the product.
An example of an online offer is the one proposed by the Italian eLexico.com website, where you can find the leading dictionaries published in Italy. A subscription allows access at any time to the desired dictionary with the possibility to also download an offline version.
Another interesting initiative comes from our collaboration with Edigeo, who is publishing many of the best known Italian dictionaries and encyclopedias (check out the catalog) in the form of app for Android and iOS mobile devices, and PCs and smartphones using Windows 10. The apps are available in major online store and offer an interesting solution especially for those who make intensive and professional use of these reference tools (translators, students, travelers, etc.).
l’Enciclopedia Zanichelli
The Zanichelli Encyclopaedia is a powerful tool intended to work out doubtful information, clear up ideas, supply certainties, suggest new issues of discussion in any branch of knowledge. You will find proper names along with specialist expressions and common nouns requiring an encyclopaedic investigation; all entries are developed in a comprehensive way, with a great number of online resources: interactive maps, images, tables (their access needs an Internet connection, even in the downloadable version).
The new Edition features a brand new and optimized user interface, a search engine more efficient, the ability to set the font size to help reading on bigger devices such as tablets. Moreover, all the geographic entries now include a map and the flag.
Product description
Technical Specifications
Main Features
The app la Zanichelli 2016 is available on the following online stores:
Garzantina Antichità Classica
The app “le Garzantine – Antichità Classica” is a complete overview of Greek and Latin civilizations, touching every aspect: from Pericles to Augustus, and from Aeschylus to Lucretius, the whole history, with prominent figures, places and peoples, traditions, religion and myths, language and literature, theatre and music, philosophy and science, art, architecture, and archaeology: an alphabetical and interdisciplinary reference, essential to approach the classical culture.
Entries span over a time period from the origins of the Cretan and Mycenaean civilizations up to the decline of the Roman Empire, and over a geographical span of the same size: Greece and the Greek colonies, Etruscans and Rome, all other civilizations in the Mediterranean area, Near East, India, Egypt, the Judaic world, the ancient Italic, Celtic, and Germanic people.
The app allows for easy and user-friendly features, from a direct search along the full list of entries, to an advanced search within headwords or full-text, in order to display those entries satisfying the search parameters.
Product description
Technical Specifications
Main Features
The app Garzantina Antichità Classica is available on the following online stores:
Technical Dictionary FR-IT
The Hoepli Technical Dictionary French-Italian/Italian-French is an invaluable tool for translators, technicians and companies which work with French-speaking countries.
This new revised and expanded edition is the result of an impressive project undertaken by Edigeo involving numerous professional figures as well as compilers and lexicographers. In addition to the terminology of classic branches of learning, such as mechanics, chemistry and physics, there are also terms.
Technical Specifications
Main Features
This app is available on the following online stores:
Russian Dictionary
The new edition of Julia Dobrovolskaya Hoepli Dictionary Russian-Italian/Italian-Russian is a unique reference for students, teachers, and translators.
It presents an up-to-date list of entries and a practical approach of entries display, including an impressive range of registers: from literary to colloquial meanings, soviet and post-soviet bureaucratic, realias, popular and slang expressions.
Product description
Technical Specifications
Main Features
This app is available on the following stores: