Activate the floating dictionary
Written by: Caroline Merchiers on Wednesday May 14th 2008, 12:46 am
Filed under: Applications, Finder, Little Smokies, OS X 10.4, OS X 10.5
Here’s a useful little tip. OS X actually has a separate dictionary program, other than Dictionary.app, that will quickly give you the definition of a word without leaving the application you are currently working in. Most modern applications support this in OS X, though some older applications may not be able to take advantage of the pop up dictionary. Some of you may be aware of this little gem, and others will probably be pleasantly surprised, just as I was when I found out about it.
Simply press Command+Control+D while hovering your mouse over any word, and a little window pops up with the definition. No need to hold down the keys, as it has already been activated. However, if you do continue to hold the keys, you can move your mouse over another word to see its definition as well.
As I mentioned before, this is a separate application than the Dictionary App, and works on most applications in OS X, however not all. Older applications, most from the OS 9 era, were developed with a technology called Carbon. Newer applications use a technology called Cocoa. The pop up dictionary should work in all Cocoa applications such as Safari, Mail, iChat and TextEdit, but it will fall short in a few like iTunes and Word. I find it to be a lot quicker than copying and pasting the word in question into the Dictionary.app to look it up. Hope you all like it as much as I do.
Thanks a lot! I love it. It’s great and fun to use.
It’s a pity Apple doesn’t really tell users about things like these…
Why keep them hidden, I wonder.
Didn’t do anything for me in Firefox but turn off hiding in the Dock.
Comment by rolltimer 05.14.08 @ 3:31 amThis keystroke combination doesn’t work for me. I tried it in Safari and Mail. I am running Leopard. Any suggestions?
Comment by Deborah 05.14.08 @ 4:49 amFound the problem. I went to System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts and checked “Look up in Dictionary”. Now the hint works fine.
Comment by Deborah 05.14.08 @ 5:05 amFantastic! I’ve just shown everyone in the office.
What a great tip.
Thx!!
Nex.
Great Tip! Glad to see you are back. Please keep the insights coming. Thanx-J.P.
Comment by jp 05.14.08 @ 12:59 pm@Deborah, glad you figured it out. The keyboard commands are very close to the auto hide show dock, just make sure you get the correct Command+Control+D combo, and you should be ok.
Comment by Scott Haneda 05.14.08 @ 3:02 pmThanks for reminding me of this feature. It’s really slick.
Any ideas why this won’t work with Camino? Rolltimer’s comment re: Firefox makes me wonder if it would work with *any* Mozilla-based browser.
Comment by EricM 05.14.08 @ 4:12 pm@rolltimer and EricM. This feature doesn’t work in any Mozilla based browser. These include Camino and Flock. I’m not sure whether these are coded in Carbon or Cocoa but I would assume Carbon, so I’m not sure if it can be implemented. It would be great if it could though as I use Flock to do some personal blogging. Having that feature would be great. Still a great tip Scott.
Comment by MikeP 05.14.08 @ 5:14 pmEven easier than needing to remember the keystroke combo:
http://www.macobserver.com/tip/2008/05/19.1.shtml
Comment by DCJ001 05.19.08 @ 12:17 pmThanks for your tip! Especially useful for multiple lookups.
A quick way to use the Dictionary.app if you have a mighty mouse: double click on a word to select it; right click and select “Look up in Dictionary”. Of course, you get the Thesaurus and Wikipedia as well then.
Comment by raine 05.24.08 @ 4:38 pmOr you can activate Spotlight (Command-Spacebar) and type the word in the search field. Or copy and paste. I use that method when I have a word not on the screen, i.e. newspaper or book.
Comment by mjh 05.28.08 @ 10:42 pmany idea how to change (globally) the dictionary to an uk english one?
thanks
@namchampa, I am not aware of any way to make the change. You can do it on a per application basis, as far as spell checking is concerned, but the dictionary I believe is tied to the language you chose when installing OS X. Sorry I could not be of more help.
Comment by Scott Haneda 06.03.08 @ 4:49 amJust have to say again~this is a terrific feature, I use it everyday! [Safari; I’ve not tried it on anything else]
Comment by MrJim 06.04.08 @ 1:49 pmHi, Scott.
Just wondering why no updates recently? I thought perhaps my RSS wasn’t working. 
Judie
Comment by Judie 06.14.08 @ 11:39 amWOWWWW I am so excited about this shortcut, and I don’t really even know why. Amazing, thanks!
Comment by Jake Bathman 06.17.08 @ 10:50 amThis doesn’t work for me. I’ve verified settings in System Preferences (look up in dictionary is checked), and while I can “right-click” on a word and select dictionary, the floating definition described isn’t happening. I’m using a Macbook running OSX Leopard. Any ideas?
Comment by Di 06.21.08 @ 3:23 pmDi: this is the best way to do it:
http://www.macobserver.com/tip/2008/05/19.1.shtml
Comment by DCJ001 06.22.08 @ 3:45 pm@ Di - sometimes seeing it works better than reading about it.
try looking here.
http://www.apple.com/business/theater/#tutorial=perfectword
anybody have any insight on what happened to Scott & the site?
Comment by jim 06.24.08 @ 9:50 pmI just wrote Scott today to ask if he was ok. He’s ok and has some posts in the works, but he’s been busy. I just wanted to let anyone who was wondering know that he is still alive and kicking.
Judie
Comment by Judie 07.07.08 @ 8:48 pm@Judie,
Thanks~I check in regularly to see if there is any news.
Jim
How did you populate my Mac window with my book buying data from Amazon? I just reset Safari, but you were still able to target your advertisement to my buying habits. Is there a new feature in Safari that let you do that?
Comment by noyb 07.24.08 @ 6:16 pm@noyb, Amazon pulls content based on the data we have on our page, as well as data based on your past visits to them. We have no control over how amazon generates the ads on our site.
Comment by Scott Haneda 07.27.08 @ 10:22 pmGooday-
I’ve enabled ’stealth mode’..I assume this closes any open ports and emulates a router so my imac is cloaked. But…I am not sure of the potential downsides. Will this lock out ‘friendlies’?
Thx,
JP
Thanks a lot
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