austraLasia #3369
MELBOURNE: 12 February 2014 -- Salesians from A-Z: everything you wanted to know and have within easy reach regarding Salesian language. A compendium, a glossary, a ready-reference. This has been a personal desire for many years, and it now looks as if it is pretty much in place, so why not offer it to the rest of the English-speaking world.
WHAT IS IT?
Salesians from A-Z is a glossary. It is rather more than that, as it happens. It is something that did not grow overnight. There is something like ten years work behind it - Salesian termbase has already done much of the hard work, but that item is (and needs to be) somewhat technical, a foundation for other products, and 'Salesians from A-Z' is one of these, and it is simple in concept and in execution.
HOW MIGHT I USE IT?
Are you a Provincial or Delegate about to head off to the General Chapter? You will already have been swamped with material, and there is a deluge ahead - most of it written in 'Salesian language', and you may well need a ready reference at hand to make sense of some terminology you are faced with. Acronyms for example - what if the ACSSA and/or ACS crowd want to tell you about their work - and they will! Salesians from A-Z also covers a good part of the ground that GC27 will cover because, well, because it covers a good deal of the ground we Salesians are standing on wherever we are in the world!
Are you a novice, or in postnovitiate or even practical training or theology? You might be coming to grips with all this new language, and might have been assigned a topic to write or talk about. You might have to find out more about the Salesian Family. Salesians from A-Z could be a useful start.
Do you have to translate or at least make some sense of a Salesian document only available in Italian? While Salesians from A-Z won't do the translation for you, it will alert you to some of the important words and also some of the tricky ones (Just look up 'False friends', for example.
Are you a Rector or Principal or Delegate and need to prepare material to help local mission partners, lay helpers, whoever, to understand some aspects of Salesian life and organisation? Well, Salesians from A-Z is likely to be a goldmine.
Are you just about to set out on a tour of the Salesian Holy Places? You know, with Salesians from A-Z you could almost find your way around most of them, and at least you can look up the main centres there and get some basic info.
Etc. etc. ...
HOW DO I USE IT?
(1) Unzip both versions to your PC desktop. You will end up with two separate folders, one called 'sdbglosslisted', the other 'sdbglosslivesearch'. Just find the index.html file in either folder and double click it - Salesians from A-Z will open in your browser. Afterwards, you could put your folders anywhere else in your computer, then just send the index.html file to your desktop or make it a 'favourite in your browser.
(2) Depending on which version you use, you have two different search possibilities (well, three, really).
WILL IT WORK ON A HANDHELD DEVICE?
Probably. It is not yet built as an App, but it is optimised for mobile use - not guaranteed however. sdbglosslisted will possibly work better for you on a mobile.
WILL THERE BE AN APP?
Yes there will be! Does anyone want to help here? In those folders you have all the basic parts - just the 'app-making' process has to happen. You may be better than me at that!
BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE THE TERM I WAS LOOKING FOR!
Salesians from A-Z currently has 551 terms in it to be precise. It could easily have 551 more, but you would need to let me know if 'your' term is not there and if you believe it should be. You have v.01 in hand at the moment. There could easily be a v.02 if there is need for a few more terms and they are indicated.
MY VERSION DOESN'T WORK!
Possible, but unlikely to be the fault of the program - it is merely html and some javascript and css. Can't go wrong there too much. Different browsers, though do funny things with javascript. Is yours 'turned on'? If it is turned off, you'd be having problems with most websites today anyway. But - nothing is perfect. If yours does not work, let me know. In the meantime, you can go to:
Salesians from A-Z v.1 and/or
Salesians from A-Z v.2
and it will certainly work.
WILL IT BE AVAILABLE IN OTHER LANGUAGES?
Now, why would you be asking that? But then again, why should English have all the fun!
CAN I SHARE THIS?
Yes of course! It is 'open source'. In fact do share it, as widely as possible, if it can help someone. And since it is fully 'open', anyone may improve on it. It is a CC license allowing you to copy, distribute, edit, remix and build upon.
Enjoy! Not too sure who to thank for for the partly borrowed logo! But thanks just the same. If you want acknowledgement, let me know.
MELBOURNE: 12 February 2014 -- Salesians from A-Z: everything you wanted to know and have within easy reach regarding Salesian language. A compendium, a glossary, a ready-reference. This has been a personal desire for many years, and it now looks as if it is pretty much in place, so why not offer it to the rest of the English-speaking world.
WHAT IS IT?
Salesians from A-Z is a glossary. It is rather more than that, as it happens. It is something that did not grow overnight. There is something like ten years work behind it - Salesian termbase has already done much of the hard work, but that item is (and needs to be) somewhat technical, a foundation for other products, and 'Salesians from A-Z' is one of these, and it is simple in concept and in execution.
HOW MIGHT I USE IT?
Are you a Provincial or Delegate about to head off to the General Chapter? You will already have been swamped with material, and there is a deluge ahead - most of it written in 'Salesian language', and you may well need a ready reference at hand to make sense of some terminology you are faced with. Acronyms for example - what if the ACSSA and/or ACS crowd want to tell you about their work - and they will! Salesians from A-Z also covers a good part of the ground that GC27 will cover because, well, because it covers a good deal of the ground we Salesians are standing on wherever we are in the world!
Are you a novice, or in postnovitiate or even practical training or theology? You might be coming to grips with all this new language, and might have been assigned a topic to write or talk about. You might have to find out more about the Salesian Family. Salesians from A-Z could be a useful start.
Do you have to translate or at least make some sense of a Salesian document only available in Italian? While Salesians from A-Z won't do the translation for you, it will alert you to some of the important words and also some of the tricky ones (Just look up 'False friends', for example.
Are you a Rector or Principal or Delegate and need to prepare material to help local mission partners, lay helpers, whoever, to understand some aspects of Salesian life and organisation? Well, Salesians from A-Z is likely to be a goldmine.
Are you just about to set out on a tour of the Salesian Holy Places? You know, with Salesians from A-Z you could almost find your way around most of them, and at least you can look up the main centres there and get some basic info.
Etc. etc. ...
HOW DO I USE IT?
(1) Unzip both versions to your PC desktop. You will end up with two separate folders, one called 'sdbglosslisted', the other 'sdbglosslivesearch'. Just find the index.html file in either folder and double click it - Salesians from A-Z will open in your browser. Afterwards, you could put your folders anywhere else in your computer, then just send the index.html file to your desktop or make it a 'favourite in your browser.
(2) Depending on which version you use, you have two different search possibilities (well, three, really).
- sdbglosslisted will give you a vertical list, visible, of all key terms. You can use the nav bar to go to the letter and term of your choice - you can also open all terms and descriptions with a single click (and you could then use 'search' in your browser to find any word you want).
- sdbglosslivesearch just gives you a search box. As you begin to type it will begin to list anywhere those letters appear. Obviously it's best to have a term in mind and complete or at least partly complete that, for efficiency's sake.
WILL IT WORK ON A HANDHELD DEVICE?
Probably. It is not yet built as an App, but it is optimised for mobile use - not guaranteed however. sdbglosslisted will possibly work better for you on a mobile.
WILL THERE BE AN APP?
Yes there will be! Does anyone want to help here? In those folders you have all the basic parts - just the 'app-making' process has to happen. You may be better than me at that!
BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE THE TERM I WAS LOOKING FOR!
Salesians from A-Z currently has 551 terms in it to be precise. It could easily have 551 more, but you would need to let me know if 'your' term is not there and if you believe it should be. You have v.01 in hand at the moment. There could easily be a v.02 if there is need for a few more terms and they are indicated.
MY VERSION DOESN'T WORK!
Possible, but unlikely to be the fault of the program - it is merely html and some javascript and css. Can't go wrong there too much. Different browsers, though do funny things with javascript. Is yours 'turned on'? If it is turned off, you'd be having problems with most websites today anyway. But - nothing is perfect. If yours does not work, let me know. In the meantime, you can go to:
Salesians from A-Z v.1 and/or
Salesians from A-Z v.2
and it will certainly work.
WILL IT BE AVAILABLE IN OTHER LANGUAGES?
Now, why would you be asking that? But then again, why should English have all the fun!
CAN I SHARE THIS?
Yes of course! It is 'open source'. In fact do share it, as widely as possible, if it can help someone. And since it is fully 'open', anyone may improve on it. It is a CC license allowing you to copy, distribute, edit, remix and build upon.
Enjoy! Not too sure who to thank for for the partly borrowed logo! But thanks just the same. If you want acknowledgement, let me know.
