Reading Glossary Builder: Map Articles to Your Terms

Reading Glossary Builder is a study app for dense reading. Paste in an article along with your own list of terms and definitions, and it shows where each term appears, how the text uses it, how much of your glossary the article actually covers, and which terms to learn first. It runs entirely on your machine — no dictionary lookups, no AI, and no network requests.

What it does

A glossary is only useful if you can connect it to the reading in front of you. This app does that connecting.

It highlights whole terms. Terms are matched as whole terms, not fragments inside other words, so the highlights point at real uses rather than coincidences.

It pulls context excerpts. For each term, you see the passages where it appears — the way a keyword-in-context index works — so you learn how this author uses the word, not just what your definition says.

It measures coverage. Coverage metrics show how much of your term list this particular text actually uses. That tells you quickly whether an article is the right reading for the vocabulary you're studying.

It builds a learning queue. Terms come back in a prioritised queue, so you know where to start.

It checks your glossary, too. Structural checks flag terms with missing definitions, duplicate entries, ambiguous terms, and terms that never appear in the text. Results can be exported for review.

What it won't do

• look up or write definitions — every definition comes from your own list
• translate anything
• fetch webpages or read inside your browser — you paste the text in
• call an AI model or send your text anywhere

That last point is a genuine strength for anything you'd rather not upload: course readings, unpublished drafts, or work documents.

How it differs from Saladict

It's adapted from Saladict, a well-known open-source browser dictionary. The two do very different jobs.

Saladict is ideal for looking up an unfamiliar word the moment you meet it. Reading Glossary Builder is for the other half of studying: you already have the vocabulary — from a course, a field, or a style guide — and want to see how a specific text uses it.

It also has its own name for a reason. Saladict's code is MIT-licensed, but its name and branding are not, and the project's trademark notes ask derived products to use their own.

When to reach for it

• You're working through a textbook chapter or paper with a course glossary
• You're learning a field's jargon — law, medicine, finance — from real documents
• You're a language learner with your own vocabulary list
• You want to check a document against a style guide's defined terms
• You're reading something you'd rather not paste into an online tool

What's actually inside

One app, running locally. No connectors, no AI calls, no network requests. Your article and glossary stay on your machine.

Setting it up

The GitHub route (the original). Saladict itself installs as a browser extension from the Firefox Add-ons site or the Chrome and Edge stores. Building it from source means cloning the repository, installing dependencies with yarn, adding an environment file for the dictionary services you use, and running the build. Neither route gives you glossary coverage or a learning queue — those belong to the Taku adaptation.

The Taku route. Open Reading Glossary Builder in Taku, paste your article and your terms, and read the results.

Who made it

Saladict is an open-source project by CRIMX. Reading Glossary Builder is a local-first adaptation published to the Taku marketplace by n1ko.

You don't need to be technical to use this

You don't need to understand GitHub, Codex, or Claude Code to use this app. Most tools built from open-source projects start with a repository and a build step, which has nothing to do with getting through tonight's reading.

Taku is a desktop app for skipping that part: find something useful someone already built, open it in your own workspace, and use it. Browse the free app library for more study and productivity tools, or read how to build an education app if you'd rather make your own. If you're writing as well as reading, the Copy Editing skill helps tighten your own drafts.

Download Taku and map your next reading to your glossary. Taku is in Beta, and the Mac app is available now; there's also an experimental, unsigned Windows build for Windows 10 and 11.

FAQ

What is Reading Glossary Builder?

A local-first study app. You paste an article and your own glossary, and it returns whole-term highlights, context excerpts, coverage metrics, a prioritised learning queue, and checks on the glossary itself.

Does it look up definitions for me?

No. Every definition comes from the term list you provide. It doesn't use online dictionaries or AI.

Does it send my text anywhere?

No. It makes no network requests. Your article and glossary stay on your machine.

Is it the same as Saladict?

No. Saladict is a browser extension for looking up words on webpages using online dictionaries. Reading Glossary Builder is adapted from it but works offline, on pasted text, with your own glossary.

Is it free?

The app is free in the marketplace. For what Taku itself costs, see pricing.

Key points

• Maps a pasted article to your own glossary, with whole-term highlights and context.
• Shows how much of your term list the text covers and what to learn first.
• Flags missing definitions, duplicates, ambiguous terms, and unused terms.
• Fully local: no dictionary lookups, no AI calls, no network requests.
• Adapted from the Saladict browser extension, but built for studying, not lookup.