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OS X dictionary integration. Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
The Dictionary.app service doesn't appear to have anything to do with the little popup.

My home folder is set properly in NetInfo and there's also a symlink in /Users (just to make certain scripts more portable).
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by afb
The Dictionary.app service doesn't appear to have anything to do with the little popup.

My home folder is set properly in NetInfo and there's also a symlink in /Users (just to make certain scripts more portable).

Sorry, I thought you were referring to the previous post mentioning the keyboard shortcut to look-up in the Dictionary, not the contextual menu itself.
For what's it's worth, I also see the command in the contextual menu in editable (and editable only) text areas in OW and I also host my user account on a separate Volume.



Since your setup and mine seem extremely similar, I wonder why you don;t have it :-\ Is OW itself on the main Volume ??
 
Cortig, in case you didn't get notified about the PM, I asked if you'd like to discuss this by IM.

I'm not talking about the contextual item but the ⌃⌘D popup; in my user account, it only shows up in editable text fields.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by afb
Cortig, in case you didn't get notified about the PM, I asked if you'd like to discuss this by IM.

I'm not talking about the contextual item but the ⌃⌘D popup; in my user account, it only shows up in editable text fields.


I made more tests:
Through the Service menu:
- I can look up selected words in editable and non-editable fields

Through the shortcut (that I had to reassign since ⌃⌘D was already in use):
- I can look up selected words in editable and non-editable fields (and I can do the same using the Dictioanry embedded in SpellCatcher)

Through the contextual menu (control-click)
- I can only lookup selected words in editable fields. Selected woirds in the middle of a page cannot be looked-up since the command doesn't show up in the contextual menu,

What puzzles me is what you call "⌃⌘D popup". On my Mac, the shortcut (not ⌃⌘D in my specific case) launches Dictionary which immediately starts looking for the selected word, but there is no "popup" per se... Same thing in Safari for instance. Am-I missing something?? It could be that I don't understand the bug because I've never actually seen the normal behaviour... I'll try to find a Mac with a different (more "classic") setup around here to test that.
 
If you open Dictionary preferences, there is an option to Open Dictionary panel. When you use your shortcut, rather than opening the application, a little definition window will appear next to the word you are performing the search on. I believe this is what afb is referring to.



afb - what happens if you change the shortcut to something else? Mine is Command-F8 to avoid a conflict with something else that is using control-command-D. Does it still not work or does it start working properly?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKT
If you open Dictionary preferences, there is an option to Open Dictionary panel. When you use your shortcut, rather than opening the application, a little definition window will appear next to the word you are performing the search on. I believe this is what afb is referring to.

Cool!!! I never played with the prefs in Dictionary and wasn't aware of this option.
I tried it and it just works on my Mac. Even on non-editable sections of web pages, whenever I press the shortcut, I see the Dictionary pane coming up for whatever word is under my cursor.

Corentin
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cortig
I can look up selected words in editable and non-editable fields (and I can do the same using the Dictioanry embedded in SpellCatcher).
Well, it seems like you're not having the problem I am. Oh well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JKT
When you use your shortcut, rather than opening the application, a little definition window will appear next to the word you are performing the search on. I believe this is what afb is referring to.
[…]
If you open Dictionary preferences, there is an option to Open Dictionary panel. When you use your shortcut, rather than opening the application, a little definition window will appear next to the word you are performing the search on. I believe this is what afb is referring to.
I didn't know about this pref; it's set to open in the panel. On my desktop (where the problem is) and on my laptop (which doesn't have the problem), ⌃⌘D brings up the "panel" regardless of the setting. (Incidentally, I realized that you can't take a screenshot of it with the system shortcut.)

I hadn't thought about trying out the contextual menu item, since it doesn't appear in OW. It does in Safari, though, and while the shortcut doesn't bring up the panel, the menu item does. I then tried out Mail, where the menu item does appear, and though it is an editable text field, the shortcut doesn't work but the menu does.

Quote:
afb - what happens if you change the shortcut to something else? Mine is Command-F8 to avoid a conflict with something else that is using control-command-D. Does it still not work or does it start working properly?
Changing the shortcut does nothing to change the behavior. I realized this shortcut is stored in the universal access prefs; tried trashing them, and still the same thing.

Any other ideas?

(I'm Alex, by the way; thanks for trying to help. I've been on the OW mailing list for some time; I recognize Jonathan's mac.com account from the pic; hi.)

Oh, I forgot to add that I went through the prefs folder and removed segments of prefs files, hoping to find the offending one, but I kept getting the same problem. For some reason this little problem is really starting to bug me.

Last edited by afb; 2006-05-09 at 09:23 PM..
 
The only thing I can think of to try next would be disabling your haxies and any SIMBL or InputManager items to see if they are the cause. Anything that might interfere with text input (or maybe windowing if you have WindowShade X installed), basically. If it is working properly in other accounts on the same machine, then it has to be related to a user specific conflict or preference.
 
Now I really think I've solved this. Yay!

After spending two hours going through various things installed in /Library and ~/Library, particularly prefs, as I was fairly sure no third-party software was causing this, I narrowed it down to the lack of a preference.

In ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.HIToolbox.[hex string from ip?].plist, I found that the dictionary was not enabled entirely (?). If you take a look in this plist, you'll find other prefs set to enable the dictionary. For some reason, I was missing this one (in bold), that the system automatically added when creating the plist from scratch.

Code:
	<key>AppleEnabledInputMethodsOfClass</key>
	<dict>
		<key>cplt</key>
		<array>
			[…]
		</array>
		<key>dict</key>
		<array>
			<string>Dictionary Service</string>
		</array>
		<key>inpm</key>
		<array>
			[…]
		</array>
	</dict>
I have no idea why I was able to recreate the problem on the same computer but in a different account, but I found that removing this from the prefs causes it. The fact that this is in a "ByHost" pref file explains why my laptop didn't have the problem even though prefs were copied directly to it; this file simply didn't load on it.

This appears to be a hidden pref that can't be set in the GUI, so I wonder if the fact that running Dictionary.app doesn't set it might be worth reporting to Apple.

Well, I'm glad I got this little thing sorted out; now I can get back to do real, important work.
 
I'm glad you found the solution :-)

Corentin
 
 


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