[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.]
So I gather that this is not localized as yet … It’s about time Apple stepped up the feature parity for non-US residents.
Sory, don’t you mean localised.
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It would be great if you could copy the word, and/or, the meaning of the word. I don’t know how to copy and paste anything out of Dashboard. Does someone know how?
Ive been using it since Tiger came out .. catch up everyone
Yea, I’d like a British dictionary too (I’m an Aussie.) I’m hoping 10.4.3 will have one.
You American’s </finger pointing> leave the “u” out of so many words such as colour and harbour for example (which are currently underlined in red.)
However, sometimes you add the U back in again:
Quantas (err, no, it’s Qantas actually, coz it’s really an acronym!)
Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service
QANTAS
The command-control-D thing absolutely DOES NOT work on my Mac, or any other Mac I have tried it on. Must be a Tiger bug.
The highlight text, then control-click does.
Just did this on a macdailynews page.
kk,
Make sure it’s not highlighted, just mouse over it. You probably already knew that, but just pointing it out. I have a bad habit of highlighting things as I read. If I get further down the page and try to use the dictionary, it won’t work. But you have to try this feature…easily one of the top 5 features of the new Tiger. Awesome
Nope. The hightlighted text works if I control-click on it, but with text that is not highlighted, the command-control-D does not work.
Ron said:
“It would be great if you could copy the word, and/or, the meaning of the word. I don’t know how to copy and paste anything out of Dashboard. Does someone know how?”
Use the highlight, the right-click (or command click for the one-buttons). You can copy and paste it from there.
kk,
Make sure NO text is highlighted anywhere on the page. Probably still won’t work..not sure what to do about that.
Just tried it in Mail and it did not work there either. Clean install of Tiger on both Macs in the house.
Weird. All I get is the sound effect coming from OS X telling me I am clicking keys that are doing nothing.
It’s such a shame the way MDN is designed that valuable information cannot be retained for future reference.
Just think of all those who don’t know….
Anyone know how to map this feature to the F13 button, as the guy did back in May?
fsckingM$,
Scroll to the bottom of ANY page of MDN, type “Dictionary” and click “Search MacDailyNews.”
Let me know what happens.
Thanks g,
I activate Dashboard dictionary, type in any word. Cannot scroll over the description, the whole dictionary window moves, right click does nothing.
I think it’s not me doing it incorrectly.
kk,
check your keyboard shortcut settings. Make sure it is checkmarked in there.
Ron,
Don’t activate Dashboard dictionary. Use the dictionary that is integrated into Safari, not the widget. Then right click, then you can cut and paste from there.
Ron…
Sorry, I thought you were talking about Sarari. That is the way it is supposed to work…but if you use Safari, you won’t have this problem.
Another option is to use the Dictionary application.
Wow… I probably should have known about this. Funny that the dictionary widgit is one of my favorite additions to 10.4.
http://www.tigercompatible.com
That was it. System Prefs, Keyboard, Shortcuts….
Somehow, perhaps I changed it to F5.
Now it works!
Thanks guys!
g,
To remap to another keystroke
Go into System Preferences
Go to ‘Keyboard and Mouse’ and then into ‘Keyboard Shortcuts’
It should be self explanatory from there
For those who can’t get it to work, go to keyboard preferences, in the shortcut section and activate the feature using the check box next to it (scroll down the list, you’ll find it).