Dictionary in Leopard Rocks!
You probably all know about the Control-Command-D (or if you prefer ^⌘-D or ^-D)trick thats been around for the last few years on Mac OS X. A quick recap, if you hold down the Control & Command keys then press the "D" while your cursor is over a word and you get a little panel from the built-in dictionary with the definition of the word. Like this:
If you keep the keys held down you can also move the cursor over other words and the Dictionary panel will follow the cursor and update as required. The only Caveat with this great feature is that the software needs to use the Cocoa text system. That means Microsoft Office products won't work as they are based in the Carbon, this applies to Adobe applications as well, unfortunately it doesn't stop there. There's also highly useful applications like Firefox that don't currently work...
The good news is that Adium, iWork and iLife applications all work perfectly - in fact most of the applications that are written for Mac work. So, next time you're not sure of the exact meaning of check it before you send it off in a document or email or chat. Could be embarrassing if you don't!
In Leopard the Dictionary has gone 2.0 and is accessible in more places than ever, including Spotlight's -Space interface. After the obligatory "Show All" and "Top Hit" entries you find a new one "Definition" assuming the word is in the dictionary.
On top of that it now look's in Wikipedia for matching articles and you can see it in the combined view frame! (Not to mention the Thesaurus and a new "Apple" terms dictionary). Included but not turned on, are a couple of dictionaries for Japanese and Japanese to English Translation. These additions are indicators of that fact that Dictionary 2.0 has morphed into a Librarian and can be extended with additional reference works - expect to see more languages added is my bet! Anyone up for Elvish?
