Customer Reviews

Franklin Merriam Webster Advanced Dictionary and Thesaurus With Spell Correction (MWD-1500)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This device is great for any grade level up to college. I use it nearly every day, and it is worth every penny.

When I first opened and started using this item, the room was not very well lit and the words on the device were difficult to read. However, this was easily corrected by turning the contrast up.

Games include hangman, anagrams, word train, word builder, jumble, connect four, and tic tac toe, each of which you can put in your own word if desired. Word builder is very useful for games like scrabble; you can put in a bunch of letters and it gives you all of the different words possible to be made with them.

There are three choices for phont size: small medium and large. They have 10, 8, and 5 lines in a screen respectivly, however, size small is written in all caps.

Scrolling is simple, you can either press down to scroll one line at a time, or you can press space, which scrolls an entire page making the last line first.

The buttons are fairly easy to press after trying it for the first time for a minute or two; it does not usually press undesired keys

The first set of batteries that the device came with lasted about four months, but I use it a ton.

So far it has been very durable and usefull; I use it nearly every day when writing papers. On my last model (1440, out of print), its top broke off after a couple weeks.



Dictionary & Thesaurus: The dictionary is very easy to use, has had every word I have looked up (mostly college level words(, and it is very easy to look up a word inside a definition that you may not be familiar with. Switching to and from dictionary and thesaurus is not at all complicated; it can be done with the press of a button. Dictionary definitions are good and easy to understand. Thesaurus entries are filled with several synonyms, ranging from three to over twenty.

Punctuation & Style: Being a higher level student, I did not really use this feature very much, but there are 9 different categories to choose from on the first menu, and around five different options on each category once selected (i.e. choice of Punctuation, Capitals and Italics, Abbreviations, etc. Select Capitals and Italics. Choose from Introduction, Beginnings, Proper Nouns and Adjectives, etc.

Geographical Dictionary: This feature can be useful even if you think you'll never use it. It literally has thousands of entries in the A's alone (I scrolled down just out of curriosity). It even had my own city, now with a population of 80,000, however, its information must have been written around '03 or '04 because it said it only had 50,000. This feature is helpful even if you are just wondering what country or state a certain city is in. Definitions are very brief, usually less than three lines long.

Biographical Dictionary: At first, it was difficult to figure out how to look at other entries of people with the same name, but I simply went to the help menu, and it explained it to me. Its selection, I'm pretty sure, is close to the size of the geographical.

5 Language Translator: English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian are the different languages to choose from. You can have words translated to and from any of these languages. When the word is typed in (after auto correction), it gives the translation for each language. This feature is nice if you happen to read a sign in a different language and are currious about its meaning.

It also has a calculator, currency converter, clock, date, time etc., and conversions to and from metric and U.S. It also has a place to put contact information of friends (up to 50) which holds their name, number, and address.

Learn a Word: this feature randomly selects a word from the dictionary each time you turn on the device. This can be turnded off if desired.

I would have given this product 5 stars if it was expandable.
I would (and have) reccommended this product to a friend.

I got this for my kid who is in 3rd grade, who has been asking me to spell frequently. She finds it great fun to use and loves the games on it.

This is a very handy electronic dictionary. The screen is large enough to display multiple lines. The spelling correction is very effective, displaying multiple options. The thesaurus and dictionary contain more words than most dictionaries out there. Highly recommended!

I got this to replace my 15+ year old Franklin Language Master. This model has more features, a larger menu and folds up to protect the screen. Unlike other reviewers, I like the contrast/letter size options and have no trouble reading it. However, it is smaller than the original and is not as easy to key, but with practice I have gotten used to it. Overall a good value.

While adequate it definitely has a limited amount of data. The contrast is extremely low making it difficult to read in subdued light. I have an older model Franklin product which has a high contrast screen larger print and is ten times easier to read. They ought to Beta test their products before putting them out in the market.

Franklin MWD-1500 is a nice product.
Very good feature, it has most of the words you might look for.
I had MWD-480 in past; this one is lot faster than that.
Size is also pretty handy.
It has five language dictionary which has basic words that you may look for.
Games are OK. not very interesting.
One option i like most is you can add words to your words list that you may feel are whether important to you or difficult for you. You can review them again and again. Thats a very useful feature.
Product feel is also very great. Keyboard however is not sufficiently sensitive, you may have to press few buttons HARDER to type. Trust me this is sometimes annoying. (But this was the same problem with my old MWD-480 too).
The display is not at all as crisp as they show on the product information photos.
It is pixeleted so first time i saw the product i thought there is something wrong with it but it was ok.
I think the consumer has a right to see the actual photo not a graphically edited one.
I had to buy this new one cause my old one's (MWD-480)display went blank just after the one year warranty was over.
Thats why they cant do anything to it.
If this one does the same i will not buy one more again and produce more landfills.
Overall happy with the product so far.

I bought this item for my 5th grade and 2nd grade kids. They are having difficulty spelling words any other way than phonetically. The MWD1500 does a great job of taking commonly misspelled words and finding the correct spelling. It does the same with words with the same sound (i.e. rain, reign, rein). I haven't confused the machine yet.

It has a calculator, phone/address book, conversion charts and many more features. I like the way it easily cross references the dictionary and thesaurus without needing to re-enter the word.

I wish the cover folded underneath to avoid a potential breakage, but at least the cover (when open) has some directions on it so you can easily remember how to use it.

My biggest complaint is I bought it at a retail store for more than $20 more than what Amazon has it listed for. Buy it online!

YOU CAN"T GO WRONG WITH BUYING THIS:
I bought this one as a replacement for a Franklin Dictionary & Thesaurus w/spell Check that finally stopped working for me. The one I had of course was very simple and much bigger, with not as many whistles & bells. BUT you have to remember that I bought it in 1989. It lasted me 21 YEARS!!!!! You will hear nothing but great things from me. I own other Franklin products and I have found out the same thing, my products or items seem to last forever. 5 stars *****'s from me with a A+ attached, Great Job, and Thanks, Saint Paul, Minnesota 04/2010

What Up, People!

Well, I was so excited to recieve this in the mail. I really needed one since I'm in college now. I've always found it a hassle to flip through the giant Webster dictionaries, but it's what I've had to do. So, when I got this in the mail I was so happy because I read the reviews. It came in a yellow package and the dictionary was packaged in a sealed plastic. Unfortunately, I ordered the product near the end of my semester and I didn't use much. However, I love the games on it like Jumble, Hangman, and there's even Tic Tac Toe. There are English, French, Spanish,German, and Italian translations. With this I was none too pleased; it was mostly alright, but when I entered a word like "Emprendedor" it gave me a list of other word options to choose from, so it was unable to translate the word for me. There have also been other times when I typed in an English word and it said, "Sorry, can't help". I was like, "Noooo!". I will say this, though. If you're someone who would like to learn more words with ease as you're reading a book and you would like to understand and you're too lazy to grab a dictionary book, then get yourself an electronic one. It's with you at all times just in case you're watching tv, in a conversation, or in a class and you'd like to understand more. I was recently watching "Law and Order", dhun, dhun (He, he), and you know when those crazy words pop up and you're like, "what'd he say", so you go and get your electronic dictionary. It's pretty cool because all you do is type in the word and "presto!" the definitions are there. That's the cool part. The not so fun part is when the dictionary doesn't know or it doesn't give as much as the book does. Most of the time it's been handy, yet I still have my book in my room; just in case I really want to know something. Overall, I like it and it looks cool with all the buttons and the screen is a nice size; as well as the text. It's easy to use and there's a Thesaurus, Punctuation & Style, Geography, and Biographical dictionary. Hope this helps at least a little bit. Oh, and don't lose it because I've left it in the car multiple times.

The Franklin Merriam-Webster spell checker is even better than I expected it to be. Along with the dictionary and thesaurus, there is also a punctuation & style guide, both a biographical and geographical dictionary, and a five language translatior. Pretty impressive. There are also spelling games though they are not intuitively easy to play. The instruction manual is well writen and easy to follow. The only flaw is that the LED readout is dark and I often have to change the angle to see the screen clearly.

It is very difficult to read the items on the screen. I changed the contrast to the maximum setting & it was still too dark. It doesn't matter how many features it has or how easy it is to use, it is worthless if the user has to work so hard to read the screen.