OXFORD-HACHETTE FRENCH DICTIONARY CD-ROM HELP TEXT

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Windows only

PC with minimum Pentium-class processor
64 MB of RAM
16-speed CD-ROM or DVD drive
Windows 98, Me, NT4, XP or 2000
Minimum 100 MB free hard disk space (150 MB recommended)
SVGA monitor, set to display high colour (64K or 16-bit colour)
Windows compatible 16-bit sound card
INSTALLING THE Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary (OHD)
Start Windows as usual or, if you are already running Windows , exit any other applications running on
your PC.
Place the OHD CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive. The installation program should start up automatically. If
it does not, look at the contents of your CD-ROM drive using Windows explorer and double-click on
Install.exe.
Follow the instructions on the screen and the OHD will be installed into a new folder on your hard disk.
The Realspeak pronunciation software and language files for the French pronunciation are quite large, so
installation may take a few minutes.
A new program group called OHD is created in the Programs menu that can be reached from the Start
button. It contains two items: Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary and Uninstall Oxford-Hachette
French Dictionary.
A shortcut Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary is also created on the desktop.
When the End window appears, telling you that the program has been installed successfully, click Exit.
We suggest that you restart Windows at this point.
LAUNCHING THE OHD
Double-click on the Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary icon on your desktop, or click the START
button on your Windows Taskbar, choose Programs, then OHD and Oxford-Hachette French
Dictionary.
THE SIMPLE SEARCH
Use the toggle button under the search box to switch from English-French to French-English, and back
again.
Choose which side of the dictionary you wish to search. Type a word or expression into the search box to
find the translation. The incremental search function will automatically position you at the nearest match,
and the translation of the headword highlighted in the index will be displayed on the right.
NB: The simple search ignores accents and case. You can also use wildcards and Boolean operators in
Simple search (see below)
The number in the bottom left corner of the window displays the number of headwords in the selected

side of the dictionary.

French pronunciation
Right click on a single French headword or on any single word in the translation entry and have it read
back to you. Hold down the SHIFT key and right-click on the mouse on a French compound headword, or
on a French example phrase in the translation entry and hear the WHOLE PHRASE read back to you.
Grammar, verbs and lexical usage notes
Some entries have explicit links to related grammar and lexical usage notes which appear straight after
the headword. When you click on the link, the note will open in a new window. If the French headword is
a verb, a link to the relevant verb table will also appear after the headword. Again, the verb table will open
in a new window. You can also reach the whole set of verb tables, including English irregular verbs, by
pressing the button on the toolbar.
Hypertext search
While looking through an entry, click on any word in French or English to jump straight to the headword
and translation, even if it is on the opposite side of the dictionary.

Structure of the entries

Click on the information button on the toolbar for more information about how the Oxford-Hachette French
Dictionary is structured.
Adjusting the window
Change the size of the whole window by dragging the bottom right corner with the mouse. Adjust the
relative size of the headword index and entry display area by dragging the bar separating the two to the
right or left with the mouse. Use the AA tool button to change the size of the display text.

The Toolbar
On the bottom frame of the window is the toolbar: from left to right
1. Alter the size of the headword index and entry text
2. View previous search results
3. Copy or print an entry. A new window will open with the current entry in it. Either press the print button
to print the whole entry or highlight the section you want and press copy. You can then press print to print
the selected text, or paste the text into another Windows document. You can also paste text from the
dictionary into the text-to-speech pronunciation box (see below)
4. Print the whole entry
5. Use the options button to choose if you want the OHD window to float on top of other applications as

you work, and if you want words on a Web page or a document you are working on to be instantly looked
up if you double-click on them.
Supplementary information
6. Help: either view this help text or the printed manual text
7. Information: background information on the dictionary
8. Verb tables: list of English irregular verbs and French verb tables
9. Correspondence: example letters, email, CVs etc. in both French and English. You can easily cut and
paste material from the guide into your own documents or even into the text-to-speech pronunciation box.
NB: You will need to have Acrobat 4 or above installed to open and view the manual, the information, and
the correspondence. If you don't have Acrobat, it is easily obtainable, free, from the Adobe website.

THE REALSPEAK TEXT-TO-SPEECH WINDOW

Open the Realspeak text-to-speech window by clicking on the Realspeak button on the bottom right of the
window.
You can paste French text from the Web or any other document, including the dictionary's copy window,
or from the dictionary's supplementary material (including the sample correspondence); or you can type it
in yourself and hear it spoken back to you. If you type in your own text, it is very important to use the
correct accents and punctuation to get the correct results. The pronunciation is for French only. The
software will not recognise English text as being English, but will assume that any text typed into the box
is French and try to pronounce it as French.
You can copy and paste text from the dictionary entry, using the copy/paste function. Once you have
typed or pasted text into the text-to-speech box, press play to hear the French text read back to you. You
can pause and restart, or stop using the control buttons. You can also adjust the volume and speed using
the slider control buttons.
Realspeak is a registered trademark of Scansoft Inc. Scansoft Realspeak is only licensed for use in the
Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary (3rd edition) CD-ROM. Use of Realspeak with any other software
application is a breach of license. Unauthorized copying, lending or resale under any circumstances is
strictly prohibited.
THE INSTANT LOOKUP
The OHD allows you to look up words on the web or in any document (including the dictionary's own
sample letters and background information) with a simple double-click.
To activate the instant lookup, click on the Options button. Check the option "Watch clipboard and
respond to double-clicks"
Open the OHD and choose the appropriate side of the dictionary: (French-English or English-French).
Double-click on the word you want translated on the web page or in another document. The translation of
the word you have double-clicked on will appear instantly in the entry window.

ADVANCED SEARCH OPTIONS

Choose which side of the dictionary you wish to search and open the advanced search window with the
>> button underneath the search box
Type in the word(s) you wish to search for. There is an accent palette from which you can choose
accented characters, if your keyboard does not support them. You can also use wildcards and Boolean
operators.
Wildcards
There are two wildcards at your disposal: ? and *
They are very useful if you want to find a word in its singular and plural form, variants, or words of which
you are not sure of the spelling
The ? represents one character, whereas * represents any number, or no characters
For example:

?mbre* finds ombrelle and ombreux

*mbre? Finds cambrer, chambrer, timbrer etc.

You can also use wildcards in a simple search

Boolean operators
The Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT allow you to set different criteria
AND allows you to search for all entries containing both words
For example entries containing the word chat and chien
OR allows you to search for entries containing either of the two words; either chat or chien
NOT allows you to search for entries containing chat but not chien
Further refining the scope of your search
You can refine the scope of your search. On the French-English side you can either search the full text
(ie. for both French and English words), within the French idioms or French compounds section, or just
within the English translation text. On the English-French side you can search the full text, English
Idioms, English phrasal verbs, or just on the French translation text.
You can choose to search for an exact match, or ignore the case and accents
Launch the search
Once you have chosen your search criteria, launch the search by pressing the search button (you can
also press the Enter or Return key to launch an advanced search)
Once the search has been completed, the entries containing hits from your search will be listed in the

index window, and the number of entries containing hits will be displayed at the bottom left of the
application window.
The first entry on the list will be highlighted by default. To move to another entry, click on the headword in
the list of results
Words within the entries which match the search criteria are highlighted in pink.

CLOSING THE OHD

To close the dictionary, do one of the following:
Press ALT+F4
Click on the button in the top right-hand corner of the application window
Click on the OHD icon in the top left-hand corner of the application window and choose CLOSE.

UNINSTALLING THE OHD

To remove OHD from your computer:
Select PROGRAMS from the START menu on your Windows taskbar, then select the OHD Program
group, then Uninstall Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary
Follow the instructions on the screen.
FURTHER HELP AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
If you need any further guidance in using the OHD, please contact:ep.help@oup.com
There is also an area on the Oxford dictionaries website (www.oup.co.uk/ep/prodsupp/) which contains
tips and answers to frequently asked questions.