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The Write Words at the Right Time

Saying it just the way you meant it has gone digital

By Patricia Kutza

When I find myself doing or saying something unfavorable, the words of one of my  grammar school teachers’ ring in my ears: “A word to the  wise is sufficient.”  I can’t remember the context that inspired her words but they still have a way of ringing true.

More often I  face the challenge of finding the right word for the right moment, especially it seems, when I am traveling:  Describing a powerful sunset on the limited space of a postcard, thanking an innkeeper for unexpected kind gestures, or crafting a travelogue while waiting for a flight:  so many times I wrestle with choosing just the right words to interpret my thoughts.

When electronic dictionaries and thesaurus’ products first came on the market, I was skeptical.  They seemed like overkill and I was reluctant to break away from my comfort zone.  I was used to flipping pages of my paper-made dictionary and thesaurus.  My entrenched behavior took a sharp reversal when I discovered Franklin Electronic Publishers’ line of powerful products. 

Gone are what I usually term the ‘one-pony’ gadgets:  those devices that do only one task, and do it minimally at best.  Franklin’s obviously put a lot of thought into their offerings and it shows:

Merriam-Webster® Dictionary PageMark™ edition with Built-in Book Light

This device combines over 80,000 words of the Merriam-Webster ® Dictionary with a spell-correction function.  It automatically corrects any word entered phonetically.  Additonal perks include nine interactive word games, a user vocabulary list plus a calculator and currency converter to share the 3-line screen display.  It’s light weight, with a hand-held footprint ( 7” long)  and so ultra-thin that you can clip it to the pages of a magazine or book.  It would have been a perfect companion for me on a overnight bus trip last year  when I got the urge to write but would had to do so in the pitch black.  The Page-Mark’s built-in Book Light has a high intensity beam that illuminates both the device and your reading page.

Roget’s II:  The New Thesaurus & Spell Checker

This is not your grandmother’s thesaurus! From a number of options I chose one that is not much larger than a credit card (4 “ long).  It’s made by Seiko and is multi-talented, offering over 500,000 synonyms as well as a phonetic spell checker, and metric, currency and clothing size converters.  It also has a nifty feature for word game lovers:  a Crossword and Anagram solver plus ten word games.

Rolodex Mini-USB Organizer

Small enough to hang from your key chain, this mini organizer has a phonebook (storing both phone numbers and Internet addresses), alarm, local and world clock as well as a bunch of casino games.  A clever built-in USB plug allows you to sync your data with your PC.

The Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary

If you’ve ever met die-hard Scrabble players, you know they play for keeps!  They carry the official board and dictionary with them everywhere.  Franklin has made their lives just a bit easier (and I suspect added a bit more fun!), creating this Scrabble brand-authorized electronic dictionary.  Folks challenging a proposed word by their opponent can rely on this gadget to instantly validate over 100,000 words, getting their short definitions as well.  It also has an interesting ‘brainstorming’ feature:  it creates words from available letter tiles and finds words from the letter pattern on the board.  Like some of the other products mentioned above, it provides automatic spell correction and a few word games.

Electronic Crossword Game

Franklin understands that crossword players are just as passionate about their games as  Scrabble lovers.  Instead of stuffing a bunch of crossword magazines into their duffel bags, they need only slip this 4” long wonder into their shirt pocket.  It features an eclectic mix of crossword puzzles, culled from such heralded sources as The London Times, the New York Post and the International Herald Tribune.  This handy product boasts that it can help game aficionados solve even the thorniest of puzzles by providing over 22,000 crossword clues.  It also features an Anagram solver and puzzle creator, so that players can build their own personalized crossword games.

Images courtesy of:  Franklin Electronic Publishers
www.franklin.com

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