Using WinThesaurus

TERMINOLOGY

WinThesaurus has 30,260 root words and phrases, or just roots for short, that organize its information. Each root has an average of 83 synonyms. A synonym is a word or phrase that has the same or similar meaning as the root.


Figure 1


STARTING WINTHESAURUS

To start WinThesaurus, click Start»Programs»WinThesaurus»WinThesaurus. This assumes you accepted the default installation setup.


FINDING ROOT WORDS AND PHRASES

WinThesaurus has three ways of finding roots and thereby finding synonyms.


FIRST WAY OF FINDING ROOTS

The first way of finding roots is a scrolling list box (at the lower left corner of the WinThesaurus window, see Figure 2) that starts out with all 30,260 roots:


Figure 2


Scroll the list to find a particular root. Select the root by clicking it. A list of synonyms will appear in the synonyms list box to the right of the roots list box. You can also move around in the roots list with the Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keyboard keys. Type a letter (when the roots list box has focus) to move the list to the first root that begins with that letter.


The roots list is showing only some roots if the button below it is enabled. Click the button if you want to show all roots. (You will learn next how the list gets narrowed.)


SECOND WAY OF FINDING ROOTS

The second way of finding roots is with the text entry box (at the upper left corner of the WinThesaurus window) and the top button next to it (see Figure 3):


Figure 3


Type a word or phrase in the text entry box and click the top button next to it (or press the Enter key or Alt+F keys instead of clicking the button). If your word or phrase is among the roots, it will appear in the roots list box (see Figure 2, above) below the text entry box. The roots list box will be empty if your word or phrase is not found. If you used wild cards the roots list box may contain a few or many roots. Click on a root to see its synonyms in the synonyms list box.


Hint: You can double-click a word or phrase in either list box to transfer it to the text entry box, as if you had typed it.


THIRD WAY OF FINDING ROOTS

The third way finds all roots that have your word or phrase as a synonym. This is a kind of "reverse" lookup, where you find roots that match a WinThesaurus synonym. This is useful because about 73,000 unique synonyms in WinThesaurus do not appear as a root.


Use the text entry box and the bottom button next to it (see Figure 3, above). Type a word or phrase into the text entry box and click the bottom button next to it (or press the Alt+S key; the Enter key doesn't work here).


Hint: You can double-click a word or phrase in either list box to transfer it to the text entry box, as if you had typed it.


VIEWING AND COPYING SYNONYMS

In the right two-thirds of the WinThesaurus window is the synonym list box and synonym copy button (see Figure 4):


Figure 4


Click a root in the roots list box to see its synonyms in the synonyms list box. Scroll the synonyms list to find a particular synonym. You can also move around in the synonyms list with the Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keyboard keys. Type a letter (when the synonyms list box has focus) to move the list to the first synonym beginning with that letter.


Click a synonym to select it. The Copy Selected Synonym button will be enabled. Click the button to copy the selected synonym to the Windows clipboard. Then you can paste the synonym into other Windows applications.


Note: The root that you selected appears as the first item in the synonyms list box. This allows you to copy the selected root to the Windows clipboard.


WINTHESAURUS BUTTONS

WinThesaurus has seven buttons:



WinThesaurus has no menu.


Copyright © 2005-2010, 2014, 2017 Ron Charlton