Pali Text Reader for Pocket PC

As of version 3.0 main window has a new look. Now there is only one menu and frequently-used commands have their own toolbar buttons.

Opening a text for reading

Tap on "book" toolbar button OR tap tools - "open book" menu item. This will invoke a dialog window that displays all the books in the Pali Text Library. You can expand tree nodes like you do this in windows explorer. You can only open items marked with a "document" icon (chapters and named paragraphs within the books). Tap on the item you want to open and tap OK button below the tree.

Reading the pali text

After clicking OK in the "open book" dialog, the program will display the text. The rendering can take some time for large chapters. You can scroll pages up and down and you can use a navigation dropdown list right above the text. If the document you opened contains named paragraphs (suttas etc.), you can quickly jump to them by selecting their names in the list.

Using the dictionary

To look up a word in the dictionary you need to select it with stylus. Then tap on the selection and choose "Translate term". If an exact match is found in the dictionary, it will show you the translation. If there are several matches, it will show you a list of matches. You can tap on the word in this list to see its translation. The active mode (list or translation) can be switched by tapping on tabs on the left side.

You can also type the search word with on-screen keyboard and click "Find" to look it up in the dictionary. To enter Pali special characters tap on the Kb button. This will invoke a dialog window that makes possible to enter them.

You can show or hide the dictionary window anytime by using the "Az" (dictionary) toolbar button OR tap tools - "Toggle dictionary" menu item.

The first term lookup is slow. That is by design.

Using the bookmarks

Bookmarks are useful for accessing the texts you read often. You can bookmark any chapter or paragraph in the "open book" dialog by tapping and holding on it and clicking "bookmark this item" in the context menu. The new bookmark is added to "bookmarks" collection under the "pali text library" tree node.

To open the bookmarked text select its bookmark and tap OK button.

To rename a bookmark tap and hold on it and select "rename" from the context menu. Enter a new name for the bookmark with on-screen keyboard and tap anywhere on the screen outside the editing area to complete.

To delete a bookmark that is no longer needed tap and hold on it and select "delete" from the context menu.

You can bookmark a page while you are reading the text. To do this tap tools - "bookmark this page" in the program's Tools menu. A new bookmark will be created and added to the bookmarks list.

Searching for a sutta (vagga etc)

1. Tap-and-hold on the container node you want to search within (this may be a Pitaka or any child node below it). The context menu appears.
2. Tap Find.
3. Enter the name of the sutta (vagga etc) and tap OK.
   The first found document will be selected in the tree.

Note 1: There is no "Find next" option. It will find the first match only. Any part of the sutta name will match.
Note 2: The search may take some time to complete if you start it within a container that holds many child nodes (e.g. whole Sutta Pitaka).
Note 3: The search is performed within names only, NOT the sutta content!

Searching within the currently open document

To search text within the open document you should follow the steps below:

1. Tap tools-"search in this text" menu item.
2. Enter the word/phrase to search for. It is possible to enter Pali special characters.
3. Tap OK.

The document is reloaded and all the found matches are marked with red background. You can click First-Prev-Next-Last green toolbar buttons to navigate between search results.

Entering pali text

This dialog is used to enter pali text and is invoked from the dictionary window. All the search facilities invoke it as well.

Preferences dialog

The preferences dialog can be opened by clicking File - Preferences in the main menu. There are three program settings.
1. Library location. This is a directory where pali text library resides.
2. Dictionary. This is the full file name of the dictionary.
3. open last book at startup. Check this if you want the last book you opened to be opened automatically each time you start the program. The page is remembered as well.