Alfred workflow to use a dict.cc wordbook offline

Features

• translates in both directions (using sqlite databse with FTS4)
• translate via keyword
• translate from selected text in OS X via global hotkey
• save favorite words (by clicking the translation in Alfred)
• retrieve list of favorite words (using keyword)

Getting Started

As it is not allowed to distribute copies of dict.cc dictionary you need to do some steps manually to get your offline dictionary working with Alfred:

1. download the dict.cc - offline dictionary.alfredworkflow and install via Alfred
2. download a wordbook of your choice at dict.cc download site (always select the UTF-8 version)
3. go to your workflow directory in Alfred and copy the downloaded dictionary file to the "db" directory (e.g. db/de_en.txt)
4. run ruby scripts/creatdb.rb from your terminal (while being in the Alfred workflow folder), this convertes the dictionary into a sqlite database

Configuration

• use config.yaml in this workflow directory
• setup storage/file to a file of your choice (otherwise favoring is inactive), use full path + filename, e.g. /Users/username/vocab.tsv
• use homepath to point to your home directory, e.g. "homepath/Dropbox/dict.txt"

Tip

Your favorite translations are stored tab separated in a file of your choice (-> see configuration). You can share it with other apps in order to learn your vocabulary.

I highly recommend using Flashcards for iOS for this purpose. It also supports Dropbox Sync. You can point your vocabulary file to a folder in your Dropbox and access it via Flashcards.