Magic Search is a multilingual tool allowing you to look-up multiple sources with a single click (dictionaries, corpora, machine translation engines, search engines).
How to search with Magic Search
Select a language pair, enter a word or phrase in the text box and press Enter or click on the Search button. MagicSearch will display a single scrollable page with multiple sources (outer scroll will scroll through the sources and inner scroll within each specific source). Moreover, MagicSearch will remember the language pair you selected next time you visit.
How to navigate in search results
You can click on each source button as it changes its colour (=loads) to move to the respective source (you may lose focus if you click on a button too fast as they are still being loaded with the default setting One page results: ON). If this setting is OFF, sources load in the background (but they are not scrollable) and you can click straight away.
How to reorder and include/exclude sources
Click on the gear icon (). Drag and drop sources on the left column to reorder them. Click on the "x" icon next to each dictionary on the left column to exclude it; click on the icon next to each source ("+") on the right column to include it. Alternatively, you can drag and drop sources between columns. You also have the option to include Monolingual sources in bilingual pairs. For example, if you search for English>Spanish you may want to have a Monolingual English dictionary there as well or Google Search. Submit a search—your selections will be remembered next time.
How to reset the order and include/exclude settings
If you played around with reordering and include/exclude settings and you want to revert to default settings, click Reset.
One Page Results ON/OFF
When this setting is ON, you can scroll through all dictionary results or click the source button to move to each source. When it is OFF, you can only click on each source button to display it (scrolling through sources is disabled).
Sometimes, when clicking on links in sources displayed in a frame in One Page Results ON/OFF mode, they will not work. This is because the page is in a frame. You will have to right click on the link and select Open link in a new tab (for Chrome), or similar options in other browsers.
Same Tab
When this mode is selected sources open in a new tab (all subsequent sources will refresh that tab).
After searching, the first source will open automatically in a new tab. If it doesn't, click on the address bar and allow pop-ups from this site.
Different Tab
A variation of Same Tab, each source will open in different tabs when you click a source button.
Multi Tabs
A variation of Different Tab. All sources will open automatically in new tabs. Multiple tabs will open on your browser and in order for this to happen you need to allow allow pop-ups for this site from your browser’s address bar.
Tabs for non-embeddable sources
For technical reasons, some sources cannot be embedded in One Page ON and One Page OFF modes. This has been addressed by defining these sources as tab only (their button has a different colour). Therefore, once you click on the button of such a source it will open in a new tab.
Link and bookmarklet below each source
Below each source, on the left hand side, in One Page ON and One Page OFF modes you will see a link, should you wish to open the results for a specific source in a new tab.
Below each source, on the right hand side, you will see a bookmarklet link. You can drag it to your browser’s Link Bar and use it in order to search that specific source by clicking on its link on your browser’s Link Bar.
Reverse pairs icon
Click on the ⇄ icon to reverse the language pair.
How to use the Chrome Extension
Install the extension on your browser. Press ALT and double click on a word. Alternatively, select a word or phrase in your browser and click on the extension icon on your browser to display a tab with search results. You can also right click on a selected word or phrase and then click MagicSearch on the right-click menu.
How to add and use the search link on your browser’s link bar
Drag and drop the search link on your browser’s link bar. If you don’t see your browser’s link bar it is probably hidden, and you will have to unhide it first (Chrome: Ctrl+Shift+B, Firefox: right-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and select Bookmarks Toolbar in the pop-up menu). You can see a video demonstrating the procedure.
How to search from Microsoft Word
First go to the home page and select your language pair.
Select the lines of the macro and copy them (Ctrl+C).
Press Alt+F8. It will display the Macros dialog.
In Macros In select Normal.dotm (global template)
On the dialog, click Step into or Create.
Go to the end of the macros and paste your macro (Ctrl+V).
Click File>Save Normal (Ctrl+S), then click File > Close and Return to Microsoft Word.
Press Alt+F8. You should now see the name of the macro in the list of installed macros.
If you want to run the macro with a shortcut, you have to assign that shortcut to the macro. In Word 2010/2013 click on:
File > Options > Customize Ribbon then on the bottom left Keyboard shortcuts: Customize.
Scroll down the Categories list on the top left and click on Macros.
Then on the right pane, click on the macro you want to assign the shortcut to.
On the Press new shortcut key below, press the shortcut key you want for the macro. (Check the Current keys box to make sure that you aren't assigning a key combination that you already use to perform a different task). Important: To make your macro available in all documents, be sure that Normal.dotm is selected in Save changes in:.
Click Assign and close all windows.
How to embed MagicSearch in your site
Select a language pair, copy the embed code, open your html page with an html or text editor, and paste the code where you want it to appear.
Troubleshooting
Problems with sources: If a source does not display search results, or does not load properly, try accessing it directly from its URL (i.e. via the search results link on the bottom left of the source) and submitting the same query; if it still has trouble, then it is some issue with that specific source and there is nothing that can be done about it.
If the source displays results via the external link, but not in the frame of the site, try the search with an incognito browser window. If it is displayed correctly then it is probably some browser extension interfering like an ad blocker or Privacy Badger for example. You may add exceptions in Privacy Badger both for magicsearch.org and the target site which does not display in frames.
Bad Request: If you get a "Bad Request" screen, then you should clear your cookies or just MagicSearch cookies (Chrome > Settings > Show Advanced Settings > Privacy > Content Settings > Cookies > All Cookies and Site Data, in Remove All Shown box type magicsearch and delete all relevant cookies.)
Suggest new sources
You can suggest new sources if you think they are worthy of being included. Please note that it is not possible to add any available source, due to possible technical limitations, limited linguistic merit or limited number of terms (as the search would be slowed down by sources that hardly ever give any results).
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About
Magic Search is a Translatum.gr project, launched in 2011 with support for a limited number of pairs before getting refactored and enhanced as MagicSearch.org in December 2015. The person in charge of Translatum.gr is Spiros Doikas, a Greek translator with a machine translation background.