Added May 2012: See here for a better solution to problems with the LDOCE.

In last week’s episode, I decided to say goodbye to the PC version of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE) after months of putting up with its slowness, missing features, and — most of all — random bugs. Today, I am pleased to report that I seem to have found a satisfactory solution.

Every copy of the LDOCE comes with an access code to the online version of the dictionary, available at www.longmandictionariesonline.com.

Web applications give the programmer much less freedom than native Windows applications. In this case, that’s a good thing, because it means that Longman’s developers have had much less freedom to screw up basic features like scrolling or copy-and-paste.

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Since I wrote my enormous comparison of English dictionaries for learners, I’ve been using the LDOCE (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) for Windows as my main dictionary. And you know what? I can’t stand the pain anymore.

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I have updated and reorganized two of my articles on pronunciation:

• What is good English pronunciation? (new audio samples, a whole new section on what it means to have Level 3 pronunciation)
  
• Why you should study English pronunciation (rewritten “Communication is not enough” section)
  

Do you pronounce basic English words correctly? Take this short test to find out:

Test your English pronunciation

Did you know Windows 7 ships with a set of good-looking fonts with a full complement of IPA symbols?

Microsoft has been making great strides on the IPA front. In Windows XP, the only IPA-enabled font was Lucida Sans Unicode. Windows Vista also had Arial, Tahoma and Times New Roman, which had been updated to include phonetic symbols, and the beautiful new system font – Segoe UI. Windows 7 extends IPA support to two good-looking fonts that first appeared in Windows Vista — Cambria and Calibri.

Here is a sample of the new and old IPA-enabled fonts available on Windows Vista and Windows 7:

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