Ectaco Partner E500T User manual

ECTACO®Partner®E500T
Talking Electronic Dictionary & Phrasebook
USER MANUAL

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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.
Partner®is a registered trademark of ECTACO, Inc., NY, USA.
© 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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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®Partner®E500T features:
Bidirectional dictionary of over 500,000 words (depends on
language pair), including idioms, medical, technical, legal, and
business terms, as well as slang and general expressions
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

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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®
Partner®products, some characteristics of the device you have
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.

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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.

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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 left-
hand side of the keyboard (under the Akey) 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®Partner®E500T is equipped with a mini-USB port for
external power supply via the shielded cable.

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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®Partner®E500T is turned on for the first
time;
after the system has been reset with the Reset button.

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The Reset button is located on the left-hand side of the keyboard
(under the Akey). 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 Nkey 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

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SPELLER
(SHIFT+ P-UP
or P-DN)
Launch spell-checker
Pronounce a headword or a highlighted portion of
translation
SHIFT+Access additional symbols1
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.

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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
Battery life indicator
Slang lock is on
The number of reverse translations performed
EN, DE Language input mode
EN-DE, DE-EN Translation direction
, Horizontal scrolling enabled
, Vertical scrolling enabled

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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
Irregular
Verbs
Grammar
Hangman SAT 200 SAT 5000 USA Interview Calculator
Currency
Conversion
Metric
Conversion
World Time Setup About
DICTIONARY
The Dictionary section includes a bidirectional dictionary with a total of
over 500,000 words (depends on language pair). Pronunciation of

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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.

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You can change the translation direction by pressing .
Vector Ultima™ Spellchecker
When you are unsure of the spelling of a word, the multilingual spell-
checker 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

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interj. – interjection
pref. – prefix
adv. – adverb
noun – noun
prep. – preposition
num. – numeral
suff. – suffix
conj. – conjunction
part. – particle
verb – verb
Nouns can be marked with gender and number labels:
F – feminine
M – masculine
MF – common gender
FPL – feminine plural
MPL – masculine plural
MFPL – common gender plural
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
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.

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•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.

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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.

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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 and change it to the trains.
•Press ENTER to confirm your choice.
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.