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 TM
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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