[This article was originally published on May 3, 2005 and has been brought to the top of the list by recent requests from numerous MacDailyNews readers.]
Users of Apple’s new Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger operating system may have already figured out that if they highlight any word displayed as text in Apple’s Safari 2.0 (and other Tiger apps that handle text like TextEdit, for example) and Control-Click (right click for multi-button mouse users) the highlighted word, they can choose “Look Up in Dictionary” from the resulting Contextual Menu. Tiger Safari users, try it now on any word on this page.
That’s a pretty nice feature, but did you know that if you simply place your cursor over any word and press Command-Control-D, the Dictionary definition will just pop right up? Click “More” to launch the Dictionary (and Thesaurus) application itself and use the “Oxford Dictionary / Oxford Thesaurus” drop down menu to switch between the two.
Now for the ultimate: Hold down Command-Control-D as you move your cursor over multiple words and watch what happens! (Bonus secret: you can let go of the D key and as long as you continue holding Command-Control, it’ll keep working.) Even better yet, open the Keyboard & Mouse system prefs’ Keyboard Shortcuts. Assign an unused function key like F7 to “Look Up in Dictionary.” Now, just hit F7 to toggle the Dictionary feature “on” and and start mousing around the page. Hit F7 again to turn it off.
The system-wide Dictionary works in Safari’s text input boxes, too. So, no more misused, misspelled words for Tiger Safari users in your Reader Feedback comments, okay?
[UPDATE: May 3, 2005, 2:03pm ET: Thanks to MDN reader “Fork Ball” for alerting us to a QuickTime 7 (H.264) movie of the feature in action that’s posted over at macosxhints.com. Users with QuickTime 7 who might not yet have Tiger can see how the feature works here.]
This is new to me also. I also found that since I own Antidote a french corrector, dictionary, thesaurus etc this works for french text. COOOL !!!
I can’t believe no one has mentioned the function that gives you all the possible words that finish with how you have started spelling the word. This is a GREAT function to use when you know how a word starts but are unsure how to finish it.
1. Start typing a word in the MDN comments box that is difficult for you to spell and stop part way through. (i.e. type just “hypot” for the word hypothalamus, or just “hyperb” for the word hyperborean)
2. Press Option-Escape and you should see a list of all the words that end with the spelling you have started, scroll down with the mouse or the down arrow until the word you want is highlighted and press return.
This feature was also present in Panther and but since it hasn’t been advertised by Apple not many people know about it. It works in other Apple applications too such as TextEdit and Mail and iChat (but surprisingly not in Pages or Keynote yet). With some applications in Tiger like TextEdit you can just press Escape but Option + Escape will also always work.
Pass this on. This is another killer feature that for some mysterious reason Apple is not advertising. You should see the look on windozers face when you show it to them cuz EVERYBODY has a problem once in a while remembering exactly how to finish a word.
I did notice in Panther though that sometimes it would slow down the text input in Safari after you have used it. In Tiger so far it has always worked for me exactly as you would expect so maybe Apple was perfecting it. They should add the functionality to Pages and Keynote too though. And PLEASE APPLE, ADVERTISE these things for once. They are too cool and features like this could be the clincher that pushes a switcher over the edge.
Also for anyone that views pages in another language a lot, LiveDictionary is a great little plug in for Safari. You can hover over a word on a web page and it will pop up the translation of that word. I use it a lot with Japanese. It is great when you already know another language mostly but get stuck on a word once in a while.
Check it out at:
http://www.eloquentsw.com/livedictionary.html
Testing testing
a nice tip for the youngster in all of us.yet another opportunity to learn new words.
OK, where is the Dictionary application in Tiger? I can’t find it anywhere, and I can’t get this dictionary deal to work in any app (Safari, Mail, etc.).
Try looking for ‘Dictionary’ in your Applications folder for the main application.
I have looked in the main Applications folder as well as the Utilities folder. I have also Spotlight searched for Dictionary, but can’t find it. Any ideas?
OK, I found Dictionary on my PowerBook and just copied it to my iMac. Must have deleted it somehow. Now it works great! Very cool, and works wonderful with a multi-button mouse.
your installation of tiger was incomplete, and seems to be bootlegged…..
or the app just got deleted… just reinstall it, my mate, using the backup disk.
well that fixed it then. cheers.
Thanks a bunch I didn’t know why this option wasn’t working for me anymore! Works great now and I have a simpler short cut key, thanks for the tips!