I’m almost shamed to admit that I’ve been having a torrid affair. But it’s okay, because it’s with words. I’ve always loved them, you see, ever since I was a wee bairn. One of the single biggest reasons I wanted to upgrade to Tiger was for OS X’s built-in Dictionary app (to be fair, I’m the guy who listed Terminal as his must-have application).
While I usually rely on the Dictionary dashboard widget for my definition du jour, the full application also has some nifty tricks up its sleeve. For example, if you have the application open in the background, and you happen to be surfing the web in Safari and come across a word whose meaning you simply must know, there’re a couple easy ways of doing that.
The first is to put your cursor over the word and hold down the Dictionary’s shortcut (by default, command-control-D). A little floating panel (seen above) will appear with the definition. If you keep holding the keys down, you can mouseover any word and it will give you the definition of that word. You can also switch to the thesaurus or bring up the full application. Another method is to select the word and choose “Look Up in Dictionary” from either the Services menu or the contextual menu (control-click).
But if you’re more of a keyboard person, there’s a third option. Jump to the location bar (command-L) and type “dict:///” followed by the word you want defined. So, for example, “dict:///loquacious”. If Dictionary.app is already open, it will display the definition. If not, Dictionary.app will open, but you’ll need to put the word in yourself. Handy for that lexiconic fix.
[via Mac OS X Hints]
If you go into System Preferences > Keyboard/Mouse and click on the Keyboard shortcuts tab you can change the short cut to an unused F button (like F6) and insted of having to hold down the keys command-control-d, you could just toggle it on or off with F6.
Yeah, I have mine set to F7, but unfortunately on the MacBook that means I need to hold down Fn-F7. A little less annoying, but oh well.
Hey, thanks for the tips! Though, from one word-geek to another, you should know that it's incorrect to say "a myriad of" anything. The correct (though admittedly less catchy) title would be "Myriad Lexicographical Tips."
Actually, both are correct, since "myriad" can be used as either a noun or an adjective.
Hey Dan, you DO know how to turn off the Fn key don't you?
You go to system preferences>keyboard and mouse.......click on the keyboard tab, and there you can see 'use the F1-F12 keys to control software features"
So that means I can use F9 (not Fn-F9) for exposé and F8 for Visor, etc etc...
And you don't need to have dictionary.app open for the ctrl-cmd-D to work
Yes, I could disable Fn in the manner you suggest, but then I'd still have to use it to control brightness and volume. Also, even though I have to use Fn for F1-F7, F8-F12 still function as normal fkeys. Thus, no need to hit Fn-F9 for Exposé; F9 will do it all by itself.
I really want to be able to do this, but I can't get the keyboard shortcut to work. I verified it is setup in "Keyboard and Mouse". I also have not found any information through Google for fixing it. Anyone have any tips or advice?