ECTACO
Talking Electronic Dictionary & Phrasebook
®
Partner® E500T
USER MANUAL
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
ECTACO, Inc. assumes no responsibility for any damage or loss
resulting from the use of this manual.
ECTACO, Inc. assumes no responsibility for any loss or claims by third
parties, which may arise through the use of this product.
ECTACO, Inc. assumes no responsibility for any damage or loss
caused by deletion of data as a result of malfunction, repairs, or
battery replacement. Be sure to back up all important data on other
media to avoid data loss.
The contents of this manual are subject to change without notice.
No part of this manual shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without permission from
ECTACO, Inc.
®
is a registered trademark of ECTACO, Inc., NY, USA.
Partner
© 1990–2009 ECTACO, Inc., New York, USA.
All rights reserved.
FCC Statement
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is
subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause
harmful interference, and (2) This device must accept any interference
received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.
2
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
Warning: Changes or modifications to this unit not expressly
approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user's
authority to operate the equipment.
Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the
limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC
Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection
against harmful interference in a residential installation. This
equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy
and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may
cause harmful interference to radio communications.
However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a
particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful
interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined
by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to
correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from
that to which the receiver is connected.
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
3
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 6
General View........................................................................ 8
Power Supply ....................................................................... 8
Reprogramming to Other Language Pairs.......................... 10
Initialization......................................................................... 10
Keyboard ............................................................................ 11
Display................................................................................ 13
Main Menu.......................................................................... 14
DICTIONARY........................................................................ 14
Viewing entries ................................................................... 15
Vector Ultima™ Spellchecker............................................. 16
Parts of Speech, Gender Labels, Abbreviations................. 16
Reverse Translation ........................................................... 17
Pronunciation of Words and Phrases ................................. 18
PHRASEBOOK .................................................................... 19
POPULAR IDIOMS............................................................... 20
IRREGULAR VERBS ........................................................... 21
GRAMMAR GUIDE .............................................................. 21
HANGMAN WORD GAME ................................................... 22
SAT 200................................................................................ 23
4
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
SAT 5000.............................................................................. 23
USA INTERVIEW ................................................................. 24
CALCULATOR ..................................................................... 24
CURRENCY CONVERSION................................................. 25
Setting and Checking Rates ............................................... 25
Conversion ......................................................................... 25
METRIC CONVERSION ....................................................... 26
WORLD TIME....................................................................... 26
SETUP .................................................................................. 27
Set language ...................................................................... 27
Set font size........................................................................ 27
Speech settings.................................................................. 27
Slang lock........................................................................... 28
Date format......................................................................... 28
Time format ........................................................................ 28
Clock................................................................................... 29
Key tone ............................................................................. 29
Set contrast ........................................................................ 29
Set sleep time..................................................................... 30
5
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
INTRODUCTION
Congratulations on purchasing ECTACO® Partner® E500T! This
product is the result of the combined efforts of Ectaco's linguists,
engineers, and programmers, and represents the last generation of
the highest-performance integrated linguistic systems available.
®
ECTACO
Bidirectional dictionary of over 500,000 words (depends on
14,000 phrases per language pair in Phrasebook
Voice function based on the TTS (Text-to-Speech) technology
Instant reverse translation
Look-up function
Vector Ultima™ spell-checking system
Phonetic transcription
Irregular verbs
Over 200 popular idioms
SAT 200 and SAT 5000 vocabularies
Hangman word game
Metric and currency converters
World time
Partner® E500T features:
language pair), including idioms, medical, technical, legal, and
business terms, as well as slang and general expressions
6
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
Grammar guide
USA Interview
Calculator
Slang lock
Three font sizes
Mini-USB port for external power supply
Headphone jack
As continuous efforts are being made by the manufacturer to
ensure the best quality and performance of the ECTACO
®
products, some characteristics of the device you have
Partner
®
purchased may slightly differ from their description in this manual.
The functionality of a particular model depends on the set of
languages included, and it may partially differ from the device
description in this manual. For more information about a particular
model, please visit our Web site at www.ectaco.com.
7
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
General View
The general view and external features of ECTACO® Partner® E500T
are shown below.
Power Supply
The device is powered by two AAA (LR03) batteries.
8
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
How to Replace the Batteries
• Ensure the power is off. Press ON/OFF to turn the device off.
Never try to remove batteries from the device when the power is
on. This can seriously damage the device. If you experience
difficulty turning the device off, press the Reset button on the lefthand side of the keyboard (under the A key) and reset the system.
• Remove the battery compartment cover by sliding it away from the
device.
• Remove the used batteries and replace them with new ones. Do
not mix old and new batteries.
When replacing the batteries, you have one minute to place new
ones in the device without risk of losing any data stored in RAM.
Do not exceed the one-minute limit! Neither the manufacturer
nor the dealer may be held responsible for loss of user data.
• Make sure to place the batteries according to the polarity marks
(+ -) inside the compartment.
• Replace the battery compartment cover by sliding it toward the
device. Make sure the cover sits in place properly.
®
ECTACO
external power supply via the shielded cable.
Partner® E500T is equipped with a mini-USB port for
9
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
Use of an inappropriate external power supply may cause failure
of the device and may void the warranty. Always use the original
accessories manufactured by ECTACO, Inc.
Reprogramming to Other Language Pairs
ECTACO® Partner® E500C can be reprogrammed to other language
pairs. To reprogram the device, perform the following steps:
1. Order an SD card with firmware corresponding to the desired
language pair(s) from www.ectaco.com. If you already have the
firmware package, copy it to a blank SD card of up to 2GB capacity.
Make sure the file system on the card is FAT.
2. Slide the card into the SD slot located on the right-hand edge of the
device – the label of the card face up, contacts face down. Push the
card gently until it clicks into place. To eject the card, just push it in
slightly.
3. Turn the device on.
4. While holding down the ON/OFF button, press and release the
Reset button. The device screen will turn off. Keep the ON/OFF button
pressed until the device screen turns on.
5. Press ENTER and then follow the instructions on the screen.
6. Press the Reset button.
Initialization
The initialization routine is started:
when ECTACO
time;
after the system has been reset with the Reset button.
®
Partner® E500T is turned on for the first
10
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
The Reset button is located on the left-hand side of the keyboard
(under the A key). It can be accessed with any thin object like a
paper clip. Never use a needle or pin for this purpose since it can
damage the device.
Electrostatic discharge may cause failure of the device. Please use the
Reset button to restore full functionality of the device.
• If you see the Initialize system? (y/n) message, press the N key to
abort initialization and customization.
The System initialized! message indicates that system initialization
has been completed and the factory defined default settings have
been restored.
Keyboard
The standard keyboard allows you to enter any word just in seconds.
• Enter the desired symbol from the keyboard by pressing the
corresponding key.
Unlike PC keyboards, there is no need to keep a key (such as
SHIFT) down while pressing another one. It is enough to press it
only once and release.
The available set of national characters is dependent on the selected
keyboard layout.
Control and edit keys
ON/OFF Turn the device on or off
Reset Re-initialize system
11
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
SPELLER
Launch spell-checker
(SHIFT+ P-UP
or P-DN)
SHIFT+ Access additional symbols
Pronounce a headword or a highlighted portion of
translation
1
SHIFT+ Switch between the Insert and Overtype modes
, Move cursor / highlight / switch Main Menu
, Highlight / scroll lines / switch Main Menu / change
values
P-UP / P-DN Page Up / Page Down
ENTER Execute
ESC Cancel / return to the previous page / switch to Main
Menu
ALT Enter diacritic letters (for example: ä, ö, ü, ß) –
press the corresponding key + ALT. To enter such
letters in caps, press SHIFT + the corresponding
key + ALT.
SHIFT Type in uppercase
BS Delete character to the left of the cursor
1
Use , , , to select the desired symbol and then press
ENTER. Press ESC to return to the input line.
12
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
Switch translation direction
SHIFT+ Switch language pair (where available)
Other shortcut keys open sections corresponding to the marks on the
keys (press SHIFT+ shortcut key; for example, SHIFT+DICT).
Display
ECTACO® Partner® E500T features a high-resolution screen (255x160
pixels).
The indicator line is at the bottom of the display and shows the
following indicators:
SHIFT SHIFT key pressed
INS Insert mode selected
OVR Overtype mode selected
EN, DE
EN-DE, DE-EN
, Horizontal scrolling enabled
, Vertical scrolling enabled
Battery life indicator
Slang lock is on
The number of reverse translations performed
Language input mode
Translation direction
13
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
Main Menu
ECTACO® Partner® E500T Main Menu consists of 15 icons, which
visually organize access to the dictionary's sections.
To display the Main Menu, turn the device on and/or close the current
section.
• Move between icons by using , or , .
• To open a section, which icon is highlighted, press ENTER.
The icons shown in the Main Menu represent the following sections:
Dictionary PhraseBook Popular
Idioms
Hangman SAT 200 SAT 5000 USA Interview Calculator
Currency
Conversion
Conversion
Metric
World Time Setup
Irregular
Verbs
Grammar
About
DICTIONARY
The Dictionary section includes a bidirectional dictionary with a total of
over 500,000 words (depends on language pair). Pronunciation of
14
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
English words in the Dictionary is illustrated by means of the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
• Press SHIFT+DICT to enter the Dictionary section.
• Use to switch the translation direction.
Viewing entries
• To translate a word, enter it from the keyboard.
• When the desired word is highlighted, press ENTER to see its
translation(s).
You can listen to the pronunciation of words and phrases in the
Dictionary – just highlight the desired item by using , , ,
and then press
Use:
, to scroll through the translations;
P-UP, P-DN to switch between adjacent entries.
• Press ESC or any letter key to return to the input line and translate
another word in the same dictionary.
.
15
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
You can change the translation direction by pressing .
Vector Ultima™ Spellchecker
When you are unsure of the spelling of a word, the multilingual spellchecker Vector Ultima™ will help you.
• Type the word as you hear it. For example, "foll" for "fall".
• Press SHIFT+SPELLER (SHIFT and either of the P-UP / P-DN
keys).
• Select the desired word and then press ENTER.
If the spell-checker is unable to suggest alternative words, the No
variants message will appear.
Parts of Speech, Gender Labels, Abbreviations
Translations of a headword are marked with part-of-speech labels:
adj. – adjective
id. – idiom
phr. – phrase
abbr. – abbreviation
art. – article
npr – proper noun
pron. – pronoun
aux. – auxiliary
16
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
interj. – interjection
pref. – prefix
adv. – adverb
noun – noun
prep. – preposition
Nouns can be marked with gender and number labels:
F – feminine
M – masculine
MF – common gender
Certain words and expressions in the dictionary are marked with
abbreviations to indicate the use of such entries. For example:
Brit. – British
colloq. – colloquial
comp. – computers
dial. – dialect
Fr. – French
hist. – history
num. – numeral
suff. – suffix
conj. – conjunction
part. – particle
verb – verb
FPL – feminine plural
MPL – masculine plural
MFPL – common gender plural
med. – medicine
mil. sl. – military slang
obs. – obsolete
poet. – poetic
Scot. – Scottish
sl.– slang
Reverse Translation
For your convenience, ECTACO® Partner® E500T provides Instant
Reverse Translation for words and expressions in the Dictionary
section.
• Press , to select a word or expression for the reverse
translation.
17
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
• Press ENTER to obtain its reverse translation.
You can make up to 10 reverse translations in succession (without
closing windows). The current number of the reverse translations
performed is shown at the bottom of the display.
Use:
• ESC to close the reverse translation windows2;
• SHIFT+DICT or any letter key to return to the input line.
Pronunciation of Words and Phrases
The Text-To-Speech technology provides pronunciation of words and
phrases for English and other languages (if available).
• Make the selection by using , , , .
• Press
.
2
The windows will be closed in reverse order.
18
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
PHRASEBOOK
The phrasebook contains over 14,000 phrases per language pair. The
phrases are divided into 15 conversational topics. Translation direction
can be changed by pressing .
Basics Bank Repairs / Laundry
Traveling Communication means Sport / Leisure
Hotel In the restaurant Health / Drugstore
Local transport Food / Drinks Beauty Care
Sightseeing Shopping Calling for police
All topics contain a number of subtopics.
• Press SHIFT+PHRASES to enter the Phrasebook section.
• Select a topic. Press ENTER to see its subtopics.
You can listen to the pronunciation of any topic or subtopic title –
just highlight it and then press
• Select a subtopic. Press ENTER to see the phrases.
When viewing phrases:
use the P-UP / P-DN keys to scroll through the phrases;
to listen to the pronunciation of the phrase or its translation,
highlight the desired item by using , and then press
• When in the topics list, press SHIFT+ or SHIFT+, to set
the desired viewing mode: Words or Phrases.
In the Words mode, the application shows useful words and speech
patterns pertaining to the topic, if available.
.
19
;
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
In the Phrases mode, the application shows full sentences, some of
which have changeable parts. These are underlined.
• Highlight the desired changeable part by using , and then
press ENTER.
For example, when viewing the phrase How frequent are the flights?
you can highlight the flights
• Press ENTER to confirm your choice.
and change it to the trains.
POPULAR IDIOMS
Over 200 widely used American idioms and their equivalents or
translations are included in the Popular Idioms section. Additionally,
German idioms are available in the English-German model.
• Press SHIFT+IDIOMS to enter the Popular Idioms section.
• To switch between English and other language, press the key
(if applicable).
• Type the first letters of the desired idiom and scroll through the list
to find it.
• Press ENTER.
• To listen to the pronunciation of the idiom or its translation(s),
highlight the desired item by using , and then press
• Use the P-UP / P-DN keys to scroll through the entries.
.
20
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
IRREGULAR VERBS
All commonly used English irregular verbs with their Past Simple and
Past Participle forms are stored in alphabetical order in the Irregular
Verbs section. Additionally, German irregular verbs with their
Präteritum and Partizip Präteritum forms are available in the EnglishGerman model.
• Press SHIFT+VERBS to enter the Irregular Verbs section.
• To switch between English and other language, press the key
(if applicable).
• Type the first letters of the desired verb and scroll through the list
to find it.
• Press ENTER.
• To listen to the pronunciation of the verb forms or translation(s),
highlight the desired item by using , and then press
• Use the P-UP / P-DN keys to scroll through the entries.
.
GRAMMAR GUIDE
ECTACO® Partner® E500T contains the English Grammar guide in
English and in the second language (if available). Additionally, the
German grammar guide is available in the English-German model.
The content of the Grammar section depends on the selected interface
language.
• Open the Grammar section.
21
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
• To switch between grammar guides, press the key (if
applicable).
The Grammar section contains three-level hierarchical menus. You
can reach a menu's third level by consecutively selecting topics from
the menu.
HANGMAN WORD GAME
ECTACO® Partner® E500T features the learning game Hangman,
which can improve your spelling skills and enhance your personal
vocabulary.
• Press SHIFT+GAME to enter the Hangman section.
• Select a language for the game by pressing . To change
the language pair, press SHIFT+ (if applicable).
• Enter letters from the keyboard, trying to guess the word before
the picture is complete.
To enter additional letters, press SHIFT+ the corresponding key (if
applicable).
• When playing, press ENTER to display the translation of the
hidden word (which will count as one try). To hide the translation,
press ESC.
• Press
available (counts as one try).
After the game ends, the hidden word and its translation(s) will be
shown.
to listen to the pronunciation of the hidden word, if
22
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
SAT 200
This section includes two hundred English keywords with
transcriptions and definitions from the SAT vocabulary. The EnglishGerman model also includes over two hundred and seventy German
words with their definitions. German nouns are listed with their gender
in the form of the definite article (der, die or das); Genitive singular and
Nominative plural endings are also listed.
• Enter the SAT 200 section.
• To switch between the English and German vocabularies, press
the key (if applicable).
• To view word's transcription and definition, just start entering the
word in the input line and then select the requested entry when it
appears in the list.
• Press ENTER.
• To listen to the pronunciation of any headword or definition,
highlight it by using , and then press
.
SAT 5000
This section includes five thousand English words with transcriptions
and definitions from the SAT vocabulary.
• Enter the SAT 5000 section.
All functions and keys in the SAT 5000 section work in the same way
as they do in SAT 200.
23
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
USA INTERVIEW
This is the ultimate talking preparation guide to the U.S. citizenship
exam.
• Enter the USA Interview section.
• To listen to the pronunciation of the chapter title, highlight it and
then press
• Select the desired chapter by using or . Press ENTER.
• Use the P-UP / P-DN keys to switch between questions in the
current chapter.
• To display or hide the answer, press ENTER.
The most important questions are marked with an asterisk (*).
No answers are available for some questions; for example, the
names of current government officials.
• To listen to the pronunciation of a question or answer text,
highlight it by using , and then press
.
.
CALCULATOR
ECTACO® Partner® E500T includes a standard calculator with
memory features. The screen has 14-digit display capacity.
• Press SHIFT+CALC to enter the Calculator section.
24
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
When entering numbers and operations from the keyboard, there is no
need to press the SHIFT key while in the Calculator mode. Use this
application as an ordinary pocket calculator.
CURRENCY CONVERSION
The Currency Conversion function allows you to instantly calculate
conversion values between twelve pre-installed currencies and three
user-defined currencies.
• Press SHIFT+MONEY to enter the Currency Conversion section.
Setting and Checking Rates
• Select the Set rate subsection to specify currency names and
rates.
• Use and to switch between names and rates.
• Specify an exchange rate relative to the basic currency (which
rate should equal 1).
• To remove characters before the insertion point, press BS.
• To set a currency rate to 1.0, select it and then press C/CE.
Conversion
• Enter the Calculation subsection.
• Select a currency name and enter an amount.
While you are typing a new amount, the conversion is being performed.
25
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
METRIC CONVERSION
With ECTACO® Partner® E500T you may easily convert units of
measure from the British-American system into the metric system
commonly used in Europe and vice versa, as well as convert within
each system.
• Press SHIFT+METRIC to enter the Metric Conversion section.
• Choose a subsection by pressing , . Press ENTER.
• Input the value.
WORLD TIME
Using the World Time section, you may view the current time in cities
around the globe.
• Press SHIFT+TIME to enter the World Time section.
The World Time screen shows the names of the selected city and
country, the date, day of the week, and the current time for that city.
• You can quickly find the desired city by pressing the first letter of
its name and scrolling through the list by using , .
• To select another city of the same country or switch to another
country, scroll through the alphabetic list by pressing SHIFT+
or SHIFT+.
• When you find the desired city, press ENTER to save changes.
The next time you enter this section, the city you have chosen will
be displayed first.
26
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
SETUP
Personalize your ECTACO® Partner® E500T by selecting options in
the Setup section.
• Press SHIFT+SETUP to enter the Setup section.
Most of the Setup section options are very easy to adjust. Unless
stated otherwise, enter a subsection and select the desired option with
, and , (if applicable). Then press ENTER to confirm your
choice.
• Press ESC to return to the list of subsections.
Set language3
Use this subsection to switch the interface language, if available. The
default interface language of ECTACO
Set font size
ECTACO® Partner® E500T offers you three font sizes: Small, Medium
or Large.
Speech settings
Use the Speech settings to adjust the Volume, Speech frequency and
Speech speed, shaping your own pronunciation style.
®
Partner® E500T is English.
3
Available in selected models.
27
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
• Use ENTER to move between the Volume, Speech frequency,
and Speech speed controls.
• Use , to adjust the levels of each option.
• Press ENTER to save changes.
Slang lock
In this subsection you can hide slang words or phrases contained in
the Dictionary. For example, you may forbid your children to access
slang. Slang lock is on by default. To disable the Slang lock function,
please use this password: showslan.
When Slang lock is on, the
display in the Dictionary and Hangman sections.
In Hangman, the
words are not used in the game.
indicator is shown at the bottom of the
indicator is always displayed because slang
Date format
The Month-Day-Year date format can be changed to Day-Month-Year
or Year-Month-Day.
When you switch the Interface language, the Date format may
change.
Time format
The American 12-hour time format can be changed to the 24-hour
format.
28
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
When you switch the Interface language, the Time format may
change.
Clock
In this subsection you can choose the desired city and adjust the
current time.
Use:
, or ENTER to move the highlight;
, or the numeric keys to change values.
• Specify the current date and time.
• Use the "A" and "P" keys to specify AM and PM, respectively.
• Select the desired city.
You can quickly find the desired city by pressing the first letter of
its name and scrolling through the list by using , .
• Press ENTER to save changes.
Key tone
This feature is designed to produce a short beep every time you press
a key on the device's keyboard. The Key tone is turned on by default.
Set contrast
The default contrast setting can be changed in the Set contrast
subsection.
• Change the Contrast level by using , .
29
ECTACO® Partner® E500T User Manual
• Press ENTER.
Set sleep time
This feature saves battery life by shutting down the device after a
specified period of inactivity: 1, 3 or 5 minutes.
4
Revision 1.
30
Loading...