Ectaco Partner EP850 User manual

ECTACO®Partner®EP850
Hand-held Electronic Language Teacher®, Text Translator,
Talking Dictionary, and Audio PhraseBook™
USER MANUAL

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
2
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®, Language Teacher®, Audio PhraseBook™, MorphoFinder™, iHELP™,
iTRANSLATE®, and Vector Ultima™ are trademarks of ECTACO, Inc.
© 1990–2008 ECTACO, Inc., New York, USA.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks
of their respective owners.
All rights reserved.

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
3
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.
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.

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
4
CONTENTS
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.................................................................................. 6
Introduction ........................................................................................................ 6
General View ..................................................................................................... 7
Power Supply..................................................................................................... 8
SD Card ............................................................................................................. 8
PC Communication ............................................................................................ 8
Initialization ........................................................................................................ 9
Keyboard............................................................................................................ 9
Display and Main Menu ................................................................................... 10
Sidebar............................................................................................................. 11
On-screen Keyboard........................................................................................ 12
ECTACO C-Pen®............................................................................................. 12
Windows .......................................................................................................... 13
Pop-up Toolbar ................................................................................................ 13
Pop-up Menus.................................................................................................. 15
Parts of Speech, Gender Labels, Abbreviations.............................................. 16
Pronunciation of Words and Sentences .......................................................... 18
Online Manual.................................................................................................. 19
DICTIONARIES ................................................................................................. 19
Dictionary ......................................................................................................... 19
WordNet Dictionary.......................................................................................... 21
Audio PhraseBook ........................................................................................... 21
Text Translation ............................................................................................... 23
English Idioms.................................................................................................. 23
Irregular Verbs ................................................................................................. 24
Usage of Audio PhraseBook for Foreign Language Studies........................... 24
LANGUAGE TEACHER®.................................................................................. 25
Language Teacher®......................................................................................... 25
FlashCards....................................................................................................... 26
Hangman ......................................................................................................... 29
USA Interview .................................................................................................. 30

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
5
ENTERTAINMENT ............................................................................................ 30
Audio Books..................................................................................................... 30
Audio Player..................................................................................................... 31
Voice Recorder ................................................................................................ 32
Calendar .......................................................................................................... 33
Tasks ............................................................................................................... 34
EXTRAS ............................................................................................................ 35
Calculator......................................................................................................... 35
World Time....................................................................................................... 35
Size Equivalents .............................................................................................. 35
Metric Conversion ............................................................................................ 36
Settings ............................................................................................................ 36

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
6
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Introduction
Congratulations on your purchase of the high-end class ECTACO Partner®EP850 Hand-
held Electronic Language Teacher®, Text Translator, Talking Dictionary, and Audio
PhraseBook™! The product you have purchased is the result of the combined efforts of
the ECTACO team of linguists, engineers, and programmers. You are now the owner of
one of the most advanced electronic devices ever produced for translation purposes and
language studies.
ECTACO Partner®EP850 features:
• Talking dictionary of 1,055,000 general, medical, technical, legal, and slang words and
expressions with transcriptions, samples of usage, part-of-speech labels
• WordNet dictionary – 70,000 words with definitions
• Unlimited voice function based on TTS (Text-to-Speech) technology
• Phonetic transcription
• Instant reverse translation
• Look-up function
• Advanced word recognition and MorphoFinder™
• Professionally narrated Audio PhraseBook™ with more than 14,000 phrases, ECTACO
Speech Recognition system
• Vector Ultima™ spell-checker
• State-of-the-art Full-text Machine Translation Program
• English idioms and irregular verbs
• ECTACO Speech Recognition based tutorial with graphical testing system
• Linguistic games: FlashCards, Pockets, Spell it Right, Translation Test, Hangman
• USA Interview
• Audio Tours for the Louvre Museum, the Orsay Museum, Versailles, the Historic Paris
Walk
• Audio Player with mp3 support
• Calendar
• Tasks
• Size Equivalents
• Metric Conversion

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
7
• World Time
• Voice Recorder
• Calculator
• Bilingual interface
• Backlight
• SD slot
• mini-USB port
• Headset jack
• The device is compatible with the ECTACO C-Pen®hand-held scanner for text
recognition and translation
Device is powered by AC/DC adapter (Travel Charger) and rechargeable battery (all
included in the standard package).
Note: Always use the original accessories manufactured by ECTACO, Inc.
General View
The general view and essential features of ECTACO Partner®EP850 are shown below.

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
8
Power Supply
ECTACO Partner®EP850 is powered by a special Li-Polymer rechargeable battery.
When the battery becomes weak, the red LED signal starts blinking. In that case, the
voice function will be disabled in order to prevent excessive discharge of the battery and
a resulting loss of data in RAM. To restore full functionality of the device, recharge the
battery as soon as possible.
How to Recharge the Battery
• Make sure the battery is inserted in the battery compartment.
Note: Only a special rechargeable battery, special charger, and special USB cable may
be used with your ECTACO Partner®EP850. Use of an inappropriate external power
supply may cause failure of the device and will void the warranty.
• Connect the AC/DC adapter to your device via the mini-USB port (see General View), or
connect your device to your PC using the special USB cable.
The red LED signal shows that the battery is recharging.
LED status: blinking blue – recording is in progress or data being transferred; blinking
red – SD card is being scanned, or the battery is critically low.
Note: Charge the battery overnight prior to the first use of the device.
SD Card
Before you start using your ECTACO Partner®EP850, please make sure the SD card
(included in the standard package) is installed into the SD slot of the device. If the card is
not installed, slide it into the slot located on the right-hand edge of the device – the
contacts of the card face up, label face down. Push the card gently until it clicks into
place. To eject the card, just push it in slightly.
PC Communication
The PC Communication function allows you to manage files and folders stored on the SD
card. For example, you may wish to add music files.
• Ensure the SD card is installed into the device.
• Turn the device on.
• Connect the device to your PC using the special USB cable and the mini-USB
port located on the device (see General View).
Please wait while your PC detects the device. On the device screen, you will see the
Device is ready to work with PC message.
• Navigate to the newly detected removable disk on your PC to browse through
the files stored on the SD card.

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
9
Note: Do not modify the content of the system folder. Do not delete system files.
• To disconnect the device, just unplug the cable.
Note: Always back up your important data! Neither the manufacturer nor the dealers
assume any responsibility for lost or corrupted data.
Initialization
In the rare event that the data on the screen is corrupted or a program is not responding
properly, you will need to perform a reset.
The Reset button is located on the left-hand side of the keyboard (over the key). It
can be accessed with any thin object like a paper clip. Never use a needle or a sharp pin
for this purpose since it can damage the device.
• Unscrew the removable cap of the stylus – it will serve you as a reset pin.
• Press the Reset button.
On completion of the reboot, you will see the calibration screen with five targets,
appearing one after another as you tap them with the stylus. Tap the screen to accept the
new calibration settings.
Keyboard
The American standard QWERTY keyboard (combined with the Polish layout) allows you
to enter any word just in seconds. Each set of national characters is linked to its language
input mode. Language modes can be toggled by pressing the key.
Note: To enter Polish diacritic letters in Calendar and Tasks, switch to the Polish
layout by pressing . The English layout is set by default.
The function and control keys are described below.
Note: Key1+Key2 here and further on signifies the combination of keys to use – first
press and hold Key1, then press and release Key2.
Key / Function(s)
Turn the device on or off
Reset Re-initialize system
Use speech recognition (available in Audio PhraseBook)
Show or hide the pop-up toolbar
Use speech function / Listen to the pronunciation of the source item in Audio
PhraseBook, English Idioms, Irregular Verbs (press +)

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
10
Close active window / Cancel
Delete character to the left of cursor
Switch focus between displayed controls (check boxes etc.)
+key Press and hold this key down to type in uppercase or to enter additional
symbols marked on the keys. Press this key twice to toggle the Caps Lock mode
+ , Launch spell-checker
+key Enter Polish diacritic letters
+ +key Enter Polish diacritic letters in uppercase
Switch language or translation direction
Execute
, , , Move cursor or highlight / Scroll lines
, Page Up / Page Down / Switch Main Menu sections
Enter space
Display and Main Menu
ECTACO Partner®EP850 features a touch screen (320 x 240 pixels) with a windows-
driven graphical interface. The Main Menu consists of four sections, which visually
organize access to the ECTACO Partner®EP850 applications.
Note: Tapping screen items is preferably done with the supplied pointing device known
as a stylus, which, when not in use, is kept in a special slot at the side of the device's
back panel (see General View).
Main Menu
• To display the Main Menu, turn the device on, and/or exit the currently running
application. The Main Menu consists of the following sections:
Dictionaries
Language Teacher®
Entertainment

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
11
Extras
At the top of the screen, you will see the battery life indicator.
The Main Menu sections are described below. The content of the Main Menu depends on
product model.
• Use the Dictionaries section to access Dictionary, Audio PhraseBook, Text Translation,
English Idioms, and Irregular Verbs.
• Use the Language Teacher section to access Language Teacher®, FlashCards,
Hangman, and USA Interview.
• Use the Entertainment section to access Audio Books, Audio Player, Voice Recorder,
Calendar, and Tasks.
• Use the Extras section to access Calculator, World Time, Size Equivalents, Metric
Conversion, and Settings.
To open a section, do one of the following:
• tap the section icon;
• press the numeric key that corresponds to the section number.
• When in a section, tap the desired application name. Alternatively, highlight it and then
press . The application will open.
• To close an application, tap at the upper right of the screen, or just press .
Sidebar
Twelve applications of ECTACO Partner®EP850 have their permanent touch-sensitive
shortcut buttons on the Sidebar to the right and left of the screen:

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
12
Dictionary Toolbar
Audio PhraseBook Say
Audio Player Record/recognize
Calculator Volume
Settings On-screen keyboard
Back Forward
On-screen Keyboard
The on-screen keyboard is a set of virtual keys displayed on the screen. This set of keys
simulates the conventional physical keyboard or part of it.
• In applications featuring text input, tap on the sidebar to activate the on-screen
keyboard.
• To hide it, tap once again.
ECTACO C-Pen1
With ECTACO C-Pen®you can acquire and then translate words or text portions from
paper media. It is capable of recognizing texts in languages based on Latin, Cyrillic or
Greek character set.
• Connect ECTACO C-Pen®to your device. Make sure the device is turned on.
• Press the Function key on ECTACO C-Pen®. You will see the Ready to scan dialog.
• Select the desired language and application.
1Optional accessory. Included in the ECTACO Partner®EP850 Deluxe package.

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
13
• Place the tip of ECTACO C-Pen®before the first character of your text. The leg with the
touch trigger should be below the text line and the other leg above the text line.
• Keep the touch trigger pressed onto the surface and move ECTACO C-Pen®over the
line of text. You can move ECTACO C-Pen®either left-to-right or right-to-left over the text.
• Lift your ECTACO C-Pen®.
• In the Ready to scan dialog, tap Ok.
The text will be transferred to the selected application.
Windows
Every application, pop-up menu, or dialog box used in ECTACO Partner®EP850 appears
in its own window. A window is displayed as a framed screen area with two main
elements: the title bar and the close button ( or OK).
• To move an overlapping window, tap on its title bar and drag the window to another part
of the screen holding the stylus down.
The scroll bar is shown when the contents do not all fit on the screen. The slider shows
the position of the displayed contents relative to the rest of data.
On the scroll bar:
• tap a scroll arrow ( or ) to advance or go back one line;
• tap and drag the slider to browse information;
• tap the scroll bar below or above the slider to jump to the corresponding portion of text.
Pop-up Toolbar
A toolbar is a set of horizontally arranged buttons shown at the bottom of the relevant
window.

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
14
• To activate the pop-up toolbar, press .
• To perform an action, just tap the corresponding icon. Alternatively, select it by using
or and then press .
Toolbar buttons have the following functions:
Activate spell-checker
Display History
Select options
Switch language
Add to Flash Cards
Find in WordNet
Display Help
Search
Adjust microphone sensitivity
Translate in Dictionary
Delete/Clear

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
15
Reset statistics
Start new game
Rescan the card
Hide
Edit
Clear date
Clear to date
Switch to Agenda View
Switch to Day View
Switch to Calendar View
Add new item
Sort
Filter
Turn the sound off
Turn the sound on
Volume control
The contents of the toolbar depend on the current application.
Pop-up Menus
With the help of pop-up menus, you can quickly choose an action to perform on the
selected item. For example, you can copy a text onto the clipboard. To paste the text you
have copied, place the cursor in a text input field and then select Paste in the pop-up
menu.

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
16
Note: Pop-up menus may vary from application to application.
• To activate the pop-up menu, highlight the desired item and hold the stylus down on it
for a second.
• When the pop-up menu appears, lift the stylus and then select the desired action. You
can close the pop-up menu by tapping anywhere on the screen, outside of the menu.
Parts of Speech, Gender Labels, Abbreviations
In the Dictionary, translations or definitions of a headword are shown with their parts of
speech:
A– adjective
ABBR – abbreviation
ADV – adverb
ART – article
AUX – auxiliary
CONJ – conjunction
ID – idiom
INTRJ – interjection
N– noun
NPR – proper noun
NUM – numeral
PART – particle
PHR – phrase
PREF – prefix
PREP – preposition
PRON – pronoun
SUFF – suffix
V– verb
Polish nouns are marked with gender and number labels:
F– feminine
M– masculine
MF – masculine or feminine
MN – masculine or neuter
N – neuter
PL – plural

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
17
Certain words and expressions in the dictionary are marked with the following
abbreviations:
akust. – acoustics
am. – American
anat. – anatomy
arch. – architecture
astr. – astronomy
aut . – motor transport
bibl. – biblical
bil. – billiards
biochem. – biochemistry
biol. – biology
bot. – botany
bud. – building
chem. – chemistry
chir. – surgery
dial. – dialect
druk. – printing
dypl. – diplomacy
dziec. – nursery
ekon. – economics
elektr. – electronics
farm. – pharmacy
film. – cinema
filoz. – philosophy
fin. – finance
fiz. – physics
fizj. – physiology
fonet. – phonetics
fot. – photography
garb. – tanning
genet. – genetics
geogr. – geography
lit. – literature
litur. – liturgical
log. – logic
lotn. – aviation
mal. – painting
mar. – nautical
mat. – mathematics
mech. – mechanics
med. – medicine
metal. – metallurgy
meteor. – meteorology
miner. – mineralogy
mit. – mythology
muz. – music
mysl. – hunting
ogr. – agronomy
opt. – optics
paleont. – paleontology
parl. – parliamentary
pieszcz. – nursery
plast. – art
poet. – poetic
pog. – pejorative
poligr. – printing
polit. – political
pot. – colloquial
prawn. – law
prozod. – prosody
przen. – in transferred use
psych. – psychology
rel. – religion

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
18
geol. – geology
geom. – geometry
gield. – sock exchange
gimn. – gymnastics
górn. – mining
gram. – grammar
gw. – informal
handl. – trading
herald. – heraldry
hist. – historical
hutn. – metallurgy
irl. – irish
iron. – ironical
jez. – linguistics
karc. – cards
kin. – cinematography
kolej. – railways
komp. – computers
kosc. – ecclesiastical
kraw. – tailoring
ksiegow. – accounting
kulin. – cooking
ret. – rhetoric
roln. – agriculture
ros. – russian
sad. – legal
skr. – abbreviation
sl. – slang
sport. – sport
szach. – chess
szerm. – fencing
szew. – shoemaking
szkoc. – scottish
teatr. – theater
tech. – technical
tekst. – textile
teol. – theology
tk. – weaving
uniw. – university
wet. – veterinary
wojsk. – military
wulg. – vulgar
zool. – zoology
zart. – jocular
Pronunciation of Words and Sentences
One of the most exciting features of ECTACO Partner®EP850 is the TTS (Text-to-
Speech) technology which allows you to listen to the pronunciation of words and phrases
in English and Polish.
• To hear the displayed or highlighted headword pronounced, press the key.
Note: Certain words have several pronunciation variations. So the pronunciation of the
TTS engine and the given phonetic transcription may be different. In this case, consider
the version given in the dictionary as the basic one.
• To hear the translation or definition pronounced, highlight the desired portion of it by
using the stylus, and then press the key.

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
19
• TTS is able to generate the pronunciation of any text, not limited to dictionary entries.
Simply type a word or phrase in the Text Translation input field and then press the
key to listen to its pronunciation.
Note: The Volume options (found in the Settings section) allow you to adjust speech
volume.
Online Manual
ECTACO Partner®EP850 user manual is compiled in an electronic format and is stored
on the SD card. The content of the manual is only available when the card is installed into
the device.
• Press the key to activate the pop-up toolbar, and then tap on the toolbar. The
application will open.
• To see the table of contents, tap Contents.
• Tap the scroll arrows in the upper right and lower right corners of the screen to scroll
through the displayed content.
DICTIONARIES
Dictionary
ECTACO Partner®EP850 contains the most advanced electronic dictionary available on
the market.
• In the Main Menu, tap or press 1to open the Dictionaries section.
• Tap the application name. Alternatively, highlight it and then press . The
application will open.
• To translate a word, start entering it from the conventional keyboard. Alternatively, use
the on-screen keyboard.
Note: The MorphoFinder™ function helps you find the source words (headwords) for past
participles, gerunds, plural and adjective forms. For example, if you enter "distributes" you
will get "distribute" as there is no translation or definition for "distributes" because it is a
form of "distribute".
• When the desired word is displayed, select it (tap the corresponding line) to see its
translation(s).
• Within a translation, where applicable, tap <...> to see the entire text.

ECTACO Partner®EP850 User Manual
20
• To look up the highlighted English entry in the WordNet Dictionary, select on the
pop-up toolbar.
Spell-checker Vector Ultima™
The spell-checker Vector Ultima™ is one of the most advanced on the market. When you
are unsure of a word's spelling, Vector Ultima™ allows you to enter the word as you hear
it and choose a spelling variation from the list.
• Type the word board as you hear it: bord.
• Activate the pop-up toolbar, and then select . Alternatively, activate the pop-up
menu and tap Spellcheck.
A list of suggested similar words will appear. If the spell-checker is unable to suggest any
variants, the No variants! message will be shown.
• Select the word board to see its translations.
• To reverse translate an entry, simply double-tap it, or hold the stylus down on it and
then select Translate in the pop-up menu.
• To change the translation direction, tap on the pop-up toolbar or press .
• To list the words or phrases you translated, tap on the pop-up toolbar.
Alternatively, select History in the pop-up menu.
Note: The maximum number of entries stored in the History list is 7.
Adding and Deleting User Entries
ECTACO Partner®EP850 allows you to create your own vocabulary which automatically
links to the Dictionary.
• Hold the stylus down on any dictionary entry in the list and then select User words / Add
in the pop-up menu. You will see the Add user word window.
• Type your word or expression and its translation. Specify the part of speech.
• Tap Add to save your entry. The entry will be highlighted in red for easy identification.
You might want to delete a user entry.
• Hold the stylus down on your entry in the list and then select User words / Delete in the
pop-up menu.
Adding Entries to FlashCards
You can create your personal sets of entries copied from the Dictionary.
• Press and then tap on the pop-up toolbar. You will see the Add to FlashCards
window.
• Select the desired options.