This is a simple guide for automating dictionary lookups in Mac OS X. I constantly find myself looking up the definition of a word, or trying to find a synonym with the Dictionary app in OS X. But wouldn’t it be great if I could do this really easily from anywhere? Well you can!
Many people have long forgotton about the Services menu in OS X, which will take the currently selected text in any application – and do stuff with it. We’re going to be taking advantage of the Look Up in Dictionary action.
First, open up your Keyboard & Mouse preferences, and select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.
Next you’re going to click the little plus button, to add your own keyboard shortcut. A dialog will appear; leave Application set to All Applications, set the Menu Title to Look Up in Dictionary (note: make sure it’s exactly that), and I set my Keyboard Shortcut to Control + Shift + Command + D.
That’s it! You’re done! Now from any application you can just select/hi-light a word and hit your shortcut, and it will automatically find it in the dictionary for you.
(Note: I am aware that there is already a “Look up in dictionary” shortcut in the system, however this shortcut does not work, for me at least.)
