mguhlin

Thesaurus in UbuntuLinux


Source: Artha Thesaurus on my computer

Earlier today, I received the following:

I’ve been having great fun writing a new book on my Netbook, running Ubuntu. Working with a fun OS is not like working.

However, I have one pretty glaring gap to fill — and you can probably help. Do you know of a good thesaurus application for Ubuntu. The one that is built in to OpenOffice is simply not sufficient, and going to http://thesaurus.reference.com every time I need a better word —
well there’s got to be a more interesting way.

Can you help with a suggestion?

Here’s my response…what would your’s have been?

two possible solutions for you! Artha and KThesaurus. Option 1: Artha is a prettier, nicer option than Option 2: KThesaurus.

OPTION 1: ARTHA

Artha – A handy off-line English thesaurus based on WordNet. Artha has unique features like hot key look up, passive desktop notifications, regular expression based search, spelling suggestions, etc.When executed, Artha sits on the system tray monitoring for a set hot key combination. When the user selects some text on any window and presses this hot key, Artha pops up with the definitions of the selection. Should the user prefer notifications over pop-ups, he/she can enable notifications, where instead of popping-up, is shows passive notification of the selected text’s most important definition alone. With the 0.9.1 release, Artha also has regex based search for finding words that are vaguely known. Wildcard (*), Joker (?), Range ([, ]), etc. can be used in the regex search pattern to zero-in the sought word.

Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1065384

Step 1: Download the DEB file of Artha
Download for i386 – artha_0.9.1-1_i386.deb

Step 2: Install the Deb File at the Command Line
Make sure you are in the same directory you downloaded the DEB file to for this command to work.

sudo gdebi artha_0.9.1-1_amd64.deb

Step 3: Run Artha
Go to Applications->Accessories to run Artha.

OPTION 2: KThesaurus

KThesaurus, an English thesaurus based on WordNet, [http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/] is a new KOffice component which can also be used on a stand-alone basis (screenshot [http://www.danielnaber.de/tmp/art/thesaurus_screen3.png]). WordNet is a lexical reference system inspired by current psycholinguistic theories of human lexical memory.

Step 1 – Installing KThesaurus
You have to install Koffice first to get the necessary “dependencies” for KThesaurus.I installed “Kthesaurus” with these commands at the comand line and in this order:

sudo apt-get install koffice
sudo apt-get install kthesaurus

Step 2: Creating a Custom Application Launcher for your Panel
Your panel is the bar across the top of your screen in Ubuntu. KThesaurus may not appear in the Applications menu, so you will need to create a “custom application launcher” by right clicking on the panel itself and choosing “Add to Panel.” Then use the attached image to guide you on what to put into the appropriate boxes (it’s just the word “kthesaurus” without quotes).

Step 3: Running the Program
Although you can always drop to Terminal/command line to run the program with the command “kthesaurus” you can also just click on the application launcher now in your panel. This will bring up the program and you are set to go!

Adding Dictionaries:
You can also improve your built in dictionary – sudo apt-get install dictd dict-gcide dict-wn
Check under Applications->Office->

Dictionary

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