Find word dialog help

To change dictionaries, simply click the Find word in: popup menu and choose which dictionary you wish to search in. Dictionary lists (eg. the Reference dictionary, Flashcard dictionary and Kana-to-Kanji dictionary) are shown at the top of the popup menu, whilst individual dictionaries are shown at the bottom.
Figure 1. A sample Find word dialog

To find a word in the dictionary, enter search criteria such as the Kana, Kanji or English meaning of the word you want, and then press the Spyglass button. The dictionary will then be searched and the results displayed in the Output dialog.

Kana/Kanji textbox
Use the Japanese input system to enter Kana and/or Kanji search criteria.

Filters popup menu
The search filters available in the Find Word dialog allow you to filter in or filter out words depending on certain selectable characteristics. For example, if you only wanted to find words which contained Grade 1 Kanji, then this can be selected from the popup Filter menu. During the search, each word in the dictionary will not only be checked against the information you place in the fields of the Find Word dialog, it will also be checked to ensure that it conforms to the selected filter. Words containing Kanji not in Grade 1, in this case, will be filtered out. Below are descriptions of the different filters.

No Kanji:
Only words which contain no Kanji will be filtered in. This means that only words containing Hiragana and/or Katakana will appear in the Output list.

Katakana:
Words which contain any Katakana will be filtered in. Words containing Hiragana and/or Kanji may also be shown on the output list, so long as there is Katakana in the word as well.

Jouyou Kanji:
Words which contain Kanji not in the Jouyou set are filtered out. Words containing pure Hiragana and/or Katakana may also be shown on the output list. This filter thus filters out words with Kanji not recommended for everyday use by the Japanese Ministry of Education.

Non-Jouyou Kanji:
Words containing any Kanji not in the Jouyou set will be filtered in. This filter provides a good way to locate words with unusual Kanji, and provides a complimentary filter to the Jouyou Kanji filter.

Hiragana only:
Words may only contain Hiragana, and no Katakana or Kanji.

Grade 1-x Kanji:
A Kanji grading scheme was set up by the Japanese Ministry of Education to introduce Kanji to students progressively on a year-by-year basis. The grade filters will filter in only the grades of Kanji selected. Words with pure Hiragana or Katakana are filtered out.

No Kanji grading:
Words containing any Kanji without a grading will be filtered in. This filter provides a good way to locate words with unusual Kanji, and provides a complimentary filter to the Kanji grade filters.

Furigana invalid checkbox
This checkbox allows you to filter in words which have invalid furigana ie. each group of Kana in the word isn't matched to the reading of a particular Kanji in the word. This checkbox is useful in finding words for which furigana information is not yet set up correctly.

English textbox
Use the Japanese input system to enter English search criteria.

Whole words checkbox
When searching by English meaning, the text you enter into the English textbox can match any part of the English definition. If you want only whole words to match your entry in the English textbox, check the whole words checkbox before starting a search.

Type textbox and popup menu
When searching for words by word type, the search method can be used to selectively broaden the range of words found. For example, if you want to find all verbs, do a search by entering 'v' in the word type field. If you want only intransitive verbs, enter 'vi'. If you want only intransitive group 2 verbs, enter 'vi2'. The same logic applies to the various types of nouns available.

Status popup menu
The Flashcard exercise system uses this information. This popup menu can be used to find individual words which are set to Learning, Mastered and Unused status.

Year, Lesson and Group textboxes
The Flashcard exercise system uses this information. The Lesson planner scans this data when bringing up the Lesson planner dialog by placing words with the same Year and Lesson numbers into sets. The Group number is user assignable, and can be used to create any arbitrary word set.

Search matching methods
During searches, each field of the Find Word dialog is compared in a consistent and predictable way to corresponding fields in words in the dictionary. If you don't enter any search information into the Find word dialog and start a search, all words will match and thus all words will come up in the Output list. Also, if there is a question mark in any position in the Kana area, the Kana will be ignored during a search. The methods used in these comparisons are shown below.

Kana: from start of entry Field size: 15 characters
Kanji: any compound position Field size: 8 characters
English: any matching fragment Field size: 45 characters
Type: from start of entry Field size: 5 characters
Status: exact match Field size: -
Year: exact match Field size: 0 to 9999 (numeric)
Lesson: exact match Field size: 0 to 9999 (numeric)
Group: exact match Field size: 0 to 9999 (numeric)
Furigana invalid: exact match Field size: -
Whole words: exact match Field size: -

Note: The 'from start of entry' method means that the information in the Find Word dialog is checked against the start of any information in the dictionary entry. For example, if you performed a search by entering 'こく' in the Kana field, then words such as 'こく', 'こくがい', 'こくばん' and 'こくご' could result.

Advanced search controls
If you enter a Kanji into the Find word dialog and hold down the Control key when clicking the Spyglass button, only words beginning with the Kanji you entered will be found. This is very effective in filtering out unwanted Kanji compounds.

If you enter a Kanji into the Find word dialog and hold down the Shift key when clicking the Spyglass button, words containing any of the Kanji you entered will be found. This is very effective in finding blocks of Kanji compounds with any of the Kanji you entered (you can enter up to 8 Kanji).

Adding extra words to the reference dictionary
You can build your own custom dictionaries to augment the dictionaries supplied with JWM. The best way to do this is to create a new dictionary, add the new words to it, and then add that dictionary to the top of the Reference dictionary list. Please refer to the section on adding new words for details on creating your own dictionaries.