Original review published on Steve Litchfield's 3-Lib.Before you start accusing me of being biased (I've used Mark O'Neill's
Popup utility in my LifeGuide and admit to already liking his software),
let me defend my verdict that this is a near-essential piece of EPOC software.
For a start, it's completely free. So there's nobody to gain but you.
Secondly, it does a very passable job at being the definitive rhyming
dictionary for the EPOC (Series 5/5mx/7 etc.) platform. And thirdly, it's
extensible (so that you can teach it your custom rhyming words) and beautifully
implemented.
In case you've never used a phonetic (rhyming) dictionary before, the screen
shot below should give the game away. The idea is to find words that rhyme with
one of your selection, perhaps to aid you in writing a poem or song. Over
12,000 rhyming words form the program's core database, which should be enough
for all but the most demanding poets. Mark's cleverly used the EPOC clipboard
as the mechanism for SWAPH to work, a technique which is fast and simple.
You simply highlight the word in question, copy it to the clipboard with
Control-C and then use SWAPH's system-wide hotkey (Control-Fn plus the number
of syllables you want to match, e.g. Control-Fn-2 to match a 2 syllable word).
After a second or so a 'popup' pick-list appears, with a rather nice sound
effect (unless no match is found, in which case an 'uh-oh' effect is used and
you're given the chance to add your word to the existing dictionary). Once up
on screen, you select the rhyming word you want, position the cursor as
required and then use Control-V to Paste the word into your document.
Within the limitations of any rhyming dictionary, SWAPH works very well,
including many a rhyme that you wouldn't obviously consider. A comprehensive
set of preferences and a compact, but useful, help database complete the
application. It's not often that an EPOC application lets you get to grips with
your creative side and I welcome SWAPH with open arms. Download your own copy
from Mark's web site.
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