Template for building personal dictionary of foreign words

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I am looking for a template on which I could establish a personal dictionary
for the Slovak language. The Slovak language is very complicated. All words
have several grammatical forms. Many words have mulitiple uses. Best way to
decipher the differences is to have ready the definitions and to see the use
of the word in actual slovak sentences. So, a two field data base is grossly
insufficient. I would like something more comples but not sure how to be
innovative using excel creating such a template.
 
Hello!

I use Excel 2003.

My understanding is that you are creating this dictionary from scratch
and are not seeking to hyperlink each word to an online dictionary or
import data from another database.

If that is the case, and in its simplest form you'd just like to create
your own personal grammatical usage sample for each word (with several
examples of how that word could be used in a sentence), this is how I
might approach it:

In column A, cell A1 you would type the word. I can't use a Slovak
word, but I'll use the English word "blast" to demonstrate my example.
In column B, cell B1 just next to it, I would create a drop-down box as
follows:

Select cell B1
Click "DATA" on the menu
Click "VALIDATION"
You'll get a dialogue box that says "Data Validation"

Click the tab : INPUT MESSAGE
In the box called "Title", enter the word (i.e. 'blast')
In the box called "Input Message", type all the sentences that you feel
this word "blast" could apply to.

In my case I typed the following sentences in the Input Message box:

The spaceship created a "blast".
I had a "blast" at the party.
My parents said they would "blast" me if I stayed out late.

Click "OK"


What will happen going forward, is that each time you click on cell B1
(next to the word "Blast" in cell A1), is that you'll get a drop-down
window that will show you all the uses or possible sentences that the
word "blast" could apply to.

Again, I'm assuming that you are creating this dictionary from scratch
and are not looking to import data from other sources.

There may be a way to import this type of data and/or examples, but if
you are creating it yourself, then this would at least give you the
examples that you need at the click of a cell.

Best of luck with this! Let us know how it turns out!

Karen
 
Yes, your input is helpful. And I am not looking for links or anything like
that. Just something innovative in the way of a personal dictionary which I
can use to easily look up words with clear definitions and usages. In other
words, a quick reference the that best support my personal learning needs,
abilities, etc.

Thanks Karen
 
You may also want to search for tools from the following university sites
which have Slovak language departments:
http://www.pitt.edu/~votruba/ (U. of Pittsburgh)

http://www.ii.umich.edu/crees (International Institute, U. of Michigan)

http://www.utoronto.ca/slavic/language/czechslovak.html (U. of Toronto)

http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=20069&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (Comenius U. in Bratislava)


http://www.seelrc.org/webliography/slovak.ptml (online web resources from
Summer Institutes, SEELRC)

And, of course, the U.S. Army Presidio Language Schools.
Good Luck
 
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