Switching Eudora Dictionaries On-The-Fly

Although the spell-check facility in Eudora supports multiple languages, there is no built-in mechanism for switching languages on a message-by-message basis. The standard way to change dictionaries is either to define files for multiple languages in the MainLexFiles= option in the .ini file, or exit Eudora, edit the MainLexFiles= line in the .ini file, and re-start Eudora. The problem with the former is that it can let all kinds of misspellings through because maybe there really is a word spelled that way in the other language. The problem with the latter is that it becomes tedious very fast.

However, by employing some ridiculously simple DOS batch files and exploiting the fact that the spell-check function cares only about the content of the dictionary files, and not the name of those files, you can change dictionaries on the fly.

These are the steps:

Download the dictionaries you might want to use from Qualcomm's ftp site.
Put them all together in a particular directory, one that is different from the directory where Eudora looks for the current dictionary file(s). I use c:\mail\dict for my "dictionary collection," and Eudora looks in c:\eudora for the current dictionary. Make sure that your "dictionary collection" includes copies of any dictionaries you have in the usual Eudora location.
Make a set of DOS batch files, one for each language you want to use, including your default. These are simple, three line batch files (could easily be one line) which will copy the dictionary you want to use over top of the dictionary files that you usually use. For example, I usually use the American dictionary (american.clx and american.tlx). So the "target" for each of these copy commands is american.?lx.
I have the following batch files, with the corresponding contents:
```
FRANCAIS.BAT
@echo off
copy c:\mail\dict\francais.tlx c:\eudora\american.tlx
copy c:\mail\dict\francais.clx c:\eudora\american.clx

BRITISH.BAT
@echo off
copy c:\mail\dict\british.tlx c:\eudora\american.tlx
copy c:\mail\dict\british.clx c:\eudora\american.clx

AMERICAN.BAT
@echo off
copy c:\mail\dict\american.tlx c:\eudora\american.tlx
copy c:\mail\dict\american.clx c:\eudora\american.clx

etc.
```
When you want to spell check a document in a language other than your default, change the current dictionary by running the command francais.bat, or british.bat, or american.bat, etc. You can run this from a DOS window, or the Start / Run menu in Win95, or File / Run menu in File Manager or Program Manager, etc. Eudora doesn't care that the dictionary is called american.?lx but is filled with French words.
When you want to go back to your default language, don't forget to run the relevant batch file, which in my case is american.bat. Even if you do forget, you'll figure it out pretty quickly when you go to spell check something and 90% of the words aren't recognized! Of course, if your spouse/roomate/co-worker doesn't know what you've done they might be a little puzzled....

I find this approach easy to use and effective. As Eudora Pro 4.0 has a built-in file browser that I presume supports executing a program with a double-click, once you set up the batch files you can do this all from within Eudora in EP4, although that is not a big concern to me.

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