Word Magic - Guide
Here is how to do everything...
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Word Magic is a software that lets you search and compile words from a user-chosen word list according to various criteria, based on word length or composition...
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Click here to download word lists
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A word list is a simple text file (.txt) in which words are separated by a valid separator. Separators recognized by Word Magic are the following:
If the selected file contains at least one of these separators, the file will be assumed valid and the first match is used to separate all the words. If the file contains more than one kind of separator, you might get unexpected results...
When the list is loaded (this process can take a few seconds), you are ready to make searches of all kinds...
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Partial search lets you find words according to the condition determined by the popup menu and the contents of the text field. You can find words starting with, ending with, or containing a specific chain of characters...
For example, if you want to find every word that starts with "anti", select "starting with" on the popup menu and enter "anti" in the text field on the right. Press the return key to start the search...
If you want to find all words containing a "r", choose "contain" in the popup menu and type "r" in the text field...
If you like crossword puzzles, this is your thing. Type the word you want to find by replacing any unknown letter with an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?). Word Magic successively replaces each asterisk with every letter of the alphabet and displays all possible results...
An anagram is a word formed by rearranging the letters of another word. Enter a word or any mix of letters and Word Magic will show you all possible words that can be formed with the characters. Great for Scrabble players...
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Statistics functions let you display results in numeric form instead of a word list. Some modes are similar to the basic functions. You can also replace letters with an asterisk (*) to obtain a list of every possibility...
For example, if you enter only a "*", Word Magic replaces it with "a", then "b", and so on. If you enter "a*", Word Magic will search for "aa", then "ab", etc...
Note: a search with more than 2 asterisks can take a few minutes to complete, depending of the speed of your computer. Since you can't cancel searches (yet), you must wait. If in doubt, stick with 2 asterisks at most. Functions will be optimized as much as possible in the next versions of Word Magic...
The Words Statistics window let you count words according to specific criteria. you can compute the mean length of all the words in the list, with 2 digits precision. Or find words starting with, ending with, or containing a specific chain of characters, and calculate the mean length from the results...
The Letters Statistics window is similar to the the one above, but it's the letters of the words that are calculated. You can display the total of all the letters contained in the list. Or limit the search to other criteria. You can also look for the number of occurrences of a specific chain of characters in the entire list...
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An anadrome is a word that, when read backwards, gives a different word. This function finds all anadromes in the list...
A palindrome is a word which reads the same backwards as forwards. This function finds all palindromes in the list...
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The Secret Function is a special function that changes every new version of Word Magic. Can you guess what it produces?
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Keep in mind that you can modify the contents of the field where results appear any way you want. You can perform any standard operation on text: cut, copy, paste and delete...
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The menu "Save Results" lets you save the contents of the output field in a text file (.txt)...
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You can sort the results by alphabetical order or by word length. Simply click on the corresponding radio button, above the output field...
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Although officially the English language has no accents, it's useful for languages with many accented characters. If you check the box, accented letters are treated the same way as their equivalent non-accented counterpart. This way, letters like é, è, ê et ë will be treated just like a regular e. This means that, for example, the word "résumé" would be considered identical to the word "resume". On the other hand, if you don't check the box, then "à" is different from "a", "ù" different from "u", etc...
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If you check this box, results displayed in the output field are separated by a line made of dashes ----- according to the sorting method selected. Examples:
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If you have any questions, suggestions or bug report, Contact 3Z Software
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