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Control+Apple+D problems.

edcoche

edcoche

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 2, 2007
116
0
I was reading Lifehacker's top 10 things you forgot your mac can do and I saw that if you press Control+Apple+D the build-in dictionary will look up words for you. For some reason I cannot get this to work. I press cmd (the apple button right) + control + D and mouseover random words in safari--nothing happens. Am I doing this wrong? I wasn't aware of this feature until just today.

-Ed
 
You've got to have the word highlighted. It's just the same as right clicking on the word and choosing "Look Up in Dictionary"
 
The word doesn't have to be highlighted, but you do have to have the cursor over the word when you hit Ctrl-Command-D. You can't hit the key combo and then mouseover.
 
maybe you're not doing it quite right. the mouse should already be hovering over a word before pressing cmd-ctrl-d. if you keep holding the cmd-ctrl together, you can move the mouse around and get live definitions for each word you hover over. if you're still not getting it, then something's wrong.

*edit* wow, slow gunner today. :eek:
 
aaronw1986 said:
Incorrect...you can hit the combo and then mouseover.
Click to expand...

I can't get that to work. Works fine if the mouse is over the word when I hit the combo but no matter how fast I move the pointer after hitting it now lookup...

Edit to add: xUKHCx is correct: holding down the combo and mousing around is super cool :D
 
aaronw1986 said:
Incorrect...you can hit the combo and then mouseover.
Click to expand...

That's never worked for me. As siurpeeman says, I can hit the combo and then mouseover if I continue to hold down control and command. But if I hit and release the combo while over blank space, it doesn't work.
 
aaronw1986 said:
Incorrect...you can hit the combo and then mouseover.
Click to expand...

no, you can't. if the mouse isn't over a word and you press the key combo, moving the mouse to the word won't give you a definition unless you're still holding command and control together.

edit: i give up. i'm too slow today. :(
 
robbieduncan said:
Strange works for me in Safari.

Try:

1) Push Control, Command, D all together
2) Release D but not Control or Command
3) Move the pointer over a work and stop moving the pointer
Click to expand...

Hmmm.....nothing. This is odd. The only application that is running is Safari. I do have speed download enabled but I disabled it and that didn't do anything either. All of the other shortcut keys seem to work like cmd+space, cmd+c, cmd+v, cmd+z, cmd+tab, cmd+click (for a new tab), etc.
 
If you highlight a single word (double click on it) then right click the word can you do the dictionary lookup from the context menu?
 
robbieduncan said:
If you highlight a single word (double click on it) then right click the word can you do the dictionary lookup from the context menu?
Click to expand...
No, it loads up dictionary and shows it there. Which looks different than the example on Lifehacker's top 10 page. Do I need to enable something to get this working within Safari? I have Safari version 3.1.1

EDIT: So I went to Dictionary's preferences and I clicked open dictionary panel for the Contextual Menu setting. It now shows definitions in Safari but cmd+control+D is still not working.
 
edcoche said:
No, it loads up dictionary and shows it there. Which looks different than the example on Lifehacker's top 10 page. Do I need to enable something to get this working within Safari? I have Safari version 3.1.1

EDIT: So I went to Dictionary's preferences and I clicked open dictionary panel for the Contextual Menu setting. It now shows definitions in Safari but cmd+control+D is still not working.
Click to expand...

Was just about to post about the Dictionary preferences. Not sure exactly how the cmd+control+D thing is implemented as it's some sort of system service. You might need to restart Safari, or even the whole machine...
 
robbieduncan said:
Was just about to post about the Dictionary preferences. Not sure exactly how the cmd+control+D thing is implemented as it's some sort of system service. You might need to restart Safari, or even the whole machine...
Click to expand...

I am not sure it safari related. It should work in iChat and Mail too but it does not. Is there a place under the system preferences that lists all of the hotkeys for viewing and customizing?
 
So I went to my local :apple:apple:apple: store and the staff had no idea how to get this simple shortcut combo working. Some of them were not aware of the shortcut to begin with. Their only suggestion was that I re-install leopard--which seems like a drastic move for such a small problem. So I ask again, in case someone never saw my tread, any suggestions? :confused: Any sort of troubleshooting advice will be appreciated.

-Ed
 
i looked up an apple discussion page on google, and one person was able to get the functionality back through a re-installation. another user (the second to last post) was able to get the function back through some toggling in the system preferences. i don't know if it'll work, but you can read about it here.
 
siurpeeman said:
i looked up an apple discussion page on google, and one person was able to get the functionality back through a re-installation. another user (the second to last post) was able to get the function back through some toggling in the system preferences. i don't know if it'll work, but you can read about it here.
Click to expand...

Hey thanks! I'll see if this helps.
 
I don't use Safari, but a quick way is to press command-space to activate Quicklook, then type in the word you want. A definition will come up.

I use command-space all the time to launch apps / folders / docs. Pruning the Quicklook categories in System Preferences to remove the junk helps make it 10x more useful.

My personal favourite is to go to a Google searchbox (could be in Firefox or Safari) and type in define:<word>

That gives you a list of definitions, different viewpoints on the meaning of a word, and catches more obscure words and mis-speelings than anything else I've tried.

Google's spell checker often gives me the right spelling for words that Leopard's spellchecker just can't work out what I'm trying to spell.
 
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