Adding New Searches

On-line resources

The easiest way to add new on-line resources (search engines, dictionaries and encyclopaedias) is to use the IntelliWebSearch Wizard (installed with version 3.1 or better). Simply select Wizard from the red i icon menu (or Wizard from the Search Settings Window Window menu). If everything works well, the Wizard should be self explanatory. However if the Wizard is unable to extract the data it needs, you will normally see an error message like the one below.


This error message provides useful information on how to try again manually (without the Wizard). Method tells you which of the instructions below to follow (GET method or POST method). Encoding tells you if the Wizard has failed because the site uses encoding which IntelliWebSearch does not support. If it says anything apart from UTF-8, Windows-1252 or ISO-8859-1, IntelliWebSearch may only access the site using Form Fill mode (see below). Frames tells you if the site uses HTML frames and their type. If there are frames, it may be possible to extract the necessary data using the Wizard by inputting one of the internal frame URLs. This however requires a little knowledge of HTML. If you do not feel up to it, you could try asking the Users’ Group for help or simply force the site using Form Fill mode.
In order to improve the tool, I would appreciate it if you could let me know the addresses of any sites that do not respond to the Wizard despite having compatible encoding and no frames.

Note that, unlike the main IntelliWebSearch program, the Wizard component only works with the most common browsers.

When the Wizard has finished, simply add a Key Label (see figure 3 below), click Save and close and add the new search to the appropriate Group(see Search Settings Window).

The following keys have specific functions during the Wizard:
F1: Pressing F1 calls up this help page.
F2: For certain browsers in certain circumstances, the Wizard may ask you to input a specified shortcut key. If you input the wrong key or if the Wizard no longer works correctly after inputting it, press F2 at the Introduction Window to reset the default value.


Figure 3 – Edit Window

Adding on-line resources manually (without the Wizard)
Search engines, on-line dictionaries and on-line encyclopaedias use one of two methods to submit the search terms you input: GET or POST. Luckily it is very easy to tell which method is used. With the GET method, the search terms are visible somewhere in the result page address string (URL). If the POST method is used, they are hidden. Here is what to do in each case:

GET method (e.g. Acronym Finder)
This is the most widely used method.

1. Type the Acronym Finder address into your browser: http://www.acronymfinder.com.
2. Type who into the “abbreviation to define” box, choose “abbreviation” and click the “find” button.
3. the URL of the page which appears is:
   http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?Acronym=who&Find=find&string=exact.
4. Open IntelliWebSearch’s Edit window (right click the red “i” icon in the system tray and choose Search settings>Edit>Add new search).
5. Copy the part up to the word who (shown in red above) and put it in IntelliWebSearch’s Start string.
6. Copy the part after the word who (shown in blue above) and put it in IntelliWebSearch’s Finish string.
7. Add a Key Label and Description of your choice.
8. Click Save and close.

POST method (e.g. IATE)
These are more difficult to find since you will have to use a third party freeware application such as Slim Browser or the Firefox add-onNeedleSearch. Fortunately this method is much less commonly used. Here is what to do using Slim Browser:

1. Install and run Slim Browser: www.flashpeak.com.
2. Type the IATE address into Slim Browser: http://iate.europa.eu/iatediff.
3. Select the IATE languages and options you are interested in (e.g. IT>EN and “Type of search”).
4. Put the cursor in the IATE “You are searching for” box.
5. Choose “extract search engine data” from Slim Browser’s “Tools” menu.
6. A message box appears with the URL you need:
   http://iate.europa.eu/iatediff/SearchByQuery.do;jsessionid=999?method=search&saveStats=true&query=$key&valid=Search+&sourceLanguage=it&targetLanguages=en&domain=0&typeOfSearch=t.
7. Open IntelliWebSearch’s Edit window (right click the red “i” icon in the system tray and choose Search settings>Edit>Add new search).
8. Copy the part up to “$key” (shown in red above) and put it in IntelliWebSearch’s Start string. In this case, experiments have shown that;jsessionid=999 is superfluous.
9. Copy the part after “$key” (shown in blue above) and put it in IntelliWebSearch’s Finish string.
10. Add a Key Label and Description of your choice.
11. Click Save and close.
12. Close Slim Browser.

Even after following the above instructions correctly, IntelliWebSearch may not be able to access certain sites due to their use of java-script-driven frames, server settings (at least in theory) or encoding different from those supported by IntelliWebSearch. A brute-force method may be used to deal with these infrequent cases called Form Fill mode (v. 2.0.5 or later). This method should only be used as a last resort when the normal method fails: it is slower and more susceptible to the whims of other software installed on the system (especially the browser).

Form Fill mode (e.g. Le Grand Dictionnaire)

1. Open Le Grand Dictionnaire in your usual web browser and do everything you normally would to look up a word without using the mouse (note for mouseaholics: you can move around a web page and make settings with a suitable combination of tab and arrow keys; pressingEnter on the search button will start the search and will often work wherever you are on the page). Take careful note of the keys you have to press. For example, word-tab-tab-tab-tab-down-enter sets français>anglais and looks up word (this works in Opera and probably in other browsers too, but needs altering for Internet Explorer 7). For a simple Le Grand Dictionnaire search with the default parameters, word-enter is probably enough.
2. Copy the Le Grand Dictionnaire address into IntelliWebSearch’s Start string: http://www.granddictionnaire.com.
3. Press the Record button on the right of the Finish string (marked “•”) and type in the keystrokes you wrote down in 1 above, replacing word with an @. In our example, @{Tab 4}{Down}{Enter} will appear in Finish. If you make a mistake, press Insert to delete the recorded keystrokes and start again. Once finished press Pause or click the window anywhere to stop recording.
4. Add a Key Label and Description of your choice.
5. Click Save and close.
6. After launching the search, a message appears asking you to wait until the page has loaded completely. Only hit Enter (or click OK) when the Grand Dictionnaire page has completely finished loading.

IntelliWebSearch knows Form Fill mode is to be used when it finds an @ in the Finish string, so make sure you include one.

Local dictionaries
It might seem paradoxical, but it is much easier to access an on-line dictionary than a local one. All websites have a common front door key: the URL. Whereas every local dictionary is designed completely differently. Realistically IntelliWebSearch is never going to get into all local dictionaries, but it should be able to get into most with a bit of fiddling about. In other words, local dictionary access should be considered a bonus feature and not a primary function.
The technique in the case of local dictionaries is similar to Form Fill mode above.

1. Open the local dictionary and do everything you normally would to look up a word without using the mouse (note for mouseaholics: you can move around an application and make settings with a suitable combination of tab and arrow keys; pressing Enter on the search button will start the search and will often work wherever you are on the window). Take careful note of the keys you have to press. For example word-enter is probably sufficient to look up word with default parameters. You may need to clear the results of a previous search. To do this you may find these keys useful: Home takes the cursor to the beginning of a line; CTRL+Delete deletes from the cursor to the end of a line; CTRL+F4 may close a previous result window.
2. Click the button on the right of the Start string (marked “…”) and select the local dictionary. The full path will appear in the Start string, e.g. D:\LocalDictionary.exe.
3. Press the button on the right of the Window Title string (marked with a square) to capture the dictionary window title, e.g. LocalDictionary. It is more likely to work correctly if the dictionary is closed before you press the button. If it does not work, enter an unambiguous non-variable representative part of what appears in the dictionary window title bar when the dictionary is open.
4. Press the Record button on the right of the Finish string (marked “•”) and type in the keystrokes you wrote down in 1 above, replacing wordwith an @. In our simple example, @{Enter} will appear in Finish. If you make a mistake, press Insert to delete the recorded keystrokes and start again. Once finished press Pause or click the window anywhere to stop recording.
5. Add or edit the Key Label.
6. Click Save and close.

As you can see from these examples, defining your own customized “search” is in fact extremely simple*.  In any case, if you need help, there is also an IntelliWebSearch Users’ Group on the Internet, hosted by Yahoo! Groups where you can pick the brains of expert users.

Press F1 for context-sensitive help.

* For further information and illustration of advanced search options see:
General
http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features.
Specifically for translators
http://www.traduzioni-inglese.it/dictionary-glossary.asp;
http://www.term-minator.it;
http://web.ticino.com/multilingual/Search_Interfaces.htm.