I am evaluating tools and platforms for a one-way dictionary project. One possibility is to expand an existing Wiktionary, but rather than creating and editing entries with its markdown. I wonder if there any tools that would use a Wiktionary template as a form, allowing me to create an entry and generate the markdown for me to copy-paste into the Wiktionary. Are there tools for making the creation of Wiktionary entries easier?
1 Answer
As far as I can tell the only tool Wiktionary editors use is MediaWiki (the Wiktionary platform).
However, they also use templates, so if you install your own local copy of MediaWiki, you could create your own templates to simplify certain aspects of the article content.
Example: If your language has predictable tenses (I'm not a grammar genius but I suspect all languages have a system for their tenses) they can even be used to create tables for them. For instance, in Swedish these templates seem highly complex, to the level they automatically derive tenses from the article name (URL/header) and the category of tenses to be used, see this Swedish example, the table to the far right (titled "Böjningar av kaka 1., 3.-4."), and the wikitext
{{sv-subst-n-or|betydelser=1., 3.-4.}}. However, things do not seem this complex on the English version of Wiktionary, or maybe I've just not found those pages.
Alternatively, you may be able to create your own tool.
I use Dokuwiki for similar projects and in some cases, I've used Excel/LibreOffice Calc to go from input values in some cells to building wiki-text in others. For instance tables (where I use a monospaced font to create nice looking output), but also when a few input values are processed and result in lots of output (e.g. values based on coordinates and distances or FFM personality values that is then used to produce a personality profile).
Maybe you could create your own tool based on Excel/LibreOffice and some Calc-text processing?
