I hate the new Dictionary widget!

[Zwhaler]

I'm pretty sure that back in Tiger, the Dictionary widget only had two options: Dictionary and Thesaurus, and that you could just click which one you wanted. In Leopard, you have to click a stupid drop down menu to get whichever one you want (I think they made this chance because they added the useless "Apple" category... they don't even have iPod nano in there!)

I realize this likely sounds aburd, but it would be really nice if I could have the old one. Why, you may ask? Basically, I am in a situation where I have to rely in the widget, and I switch between the Dictionary and Thesaurus very frequently, and it is annoying to have to use the trackpad every 2 seconds to do so. So I'm just wondering if anyone here knows where I can download the old widget. I google'd it and found nothing. Thanks, and sorry for bothering you guys with such a dumb thing.

 

[karenflower]

What about using the Dictionary in the Applications folder? It has tab-like buttons to switch between the two instead of a drop down menu.

 

[Tallest Skil]

I LOATHE the fact that when you do a search for a word and the window expands, it DOES NOT contract back down when you delete the word from the field. You have to delete the widget and put it back to get it back into bar form. I keep mine right above another widget, so this is exorbitantly annoying.

 

[MacFanBoyIIe]

What about using the Dictionary in the Applications folder? It has tab-like buttons to switch between the two instead of a drop down menu.

Agree. No need to use a widget. Just drag the REAL app to your dock and launch from there. Quick and easy.

 

[Zwhaler]

What about using the Dictionary in the Applications folder? It has tab-like buttons to switch between the two instead of a drop down menu.

Agree. No need to use a widget. Just drag the REAL app to your dock and launch from there. Quick and easy.

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to start doing that now.

I LOATHE the fact that when you do a search for a word and the window expands, it DOES NOT contract back down when you delete the word from the field. You have to delete the widget and put it back to get it back into bar form. I keep mine right above another widget, so this is exorbitantly annoying.

I felt the exact same way, until I discovered the extremely useful Cmd+R keyboard command that you can use in dashboard. It "refreshes" the widget (with a cool effect too), and essentially solves the problem that you are having. Just click anywhere on the widget (so the computer knows that that is the one you want to refresh) and do Cmd+R. Hope that helps ya out! 🙂

 

[ergdegdeg]

I LOATHE the fact that when you do a search for a word and the window expands, it DOES NOT contract back down when you delete the word from the field. You have to delete the widget and put it back to get it back into bar form. I keep mine right above another widget, so this is exorbitantly annoying.

Why don't you just click the little "x" that appears next to the word you entered? It makes the widget contract back down.

 

[redsteven]

Why don't you just click the little "x" that appears next to the word you entered? It makes the widget contract back down.

If the X works, then hitting escape will probably work also, since it erases the whole word in 10.4

I'm still using tiger, and the dictionary widget is by FAR the one I use the most.

When I'm writing a paper or reading something, I use the dictionary and thesaurus constantly, and regardless of what anybody else in this thread says, if I have 4 applications open, dashboard hotkey works a lot better for getting to the dictionary than using command+tab and checking if I need to hit tab 1, 2, or 3 times to get to dictionary...

I know command+tab automatically selects your LAST used application, but there are plenty of times I'm switching between many applications, such as Safari, Word, Excel, iChat... and i'm also using the dictionary widget.

I wish there was actually a keyboard shortcut to switch between dictionary and thesaurus... like cmd+1 or cmd+2 when you have the dictionary widget active in the dashboard.

When I get Leopard I'll have to see whether the menu in dictionary is gonna piss me off or not lol.

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On a different note... something that bothered me when I installed TIGER (a couple of years ago).
They changed the address book widget from 10.3.
In 10.3, there was a red button at the bottom of the address book widget... click on that and it opens the address book application... and I believe it would automatically select in the application whatever address card you were looking at in the widget. This meant that if I was looking at somebody's info in the widget and then needed to change/add something, I could just click on the button.
NOW (since 10.4,) if I want to add something to their card after seeing it in the widget, I have to open up address book manually and then find that specific card.

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And while we're at it... I have a suggestion (that I'll send to apple... i actually may have sent it once already).
As you may or not know, if you want to use a widget on the desktop (without dashboard open), you can.
Simply open dashboard and click on the "+" to open the widget tray, drag a widget out of the tray (keep holding, don't let go), and then close the dashboard.
Now, your widget is magically on the desktop.

2 problems with this though.
a. If you open up the dashboard again (lets say you want to use a different widget for a minute, like the.... oh, i don't know... DICTIONARY widget lol), then the widget you had on the desktop now gets absorbed back into the dashboard; close the dashboard and your widget is no longer on your desktop.

If I pull a widget onto the desktop, I usually want it to STAY on the desktop, even if I use another widget.

b. You can only bring a widget onto the desktop if you open up a NEW instance of the widget... I don't see why they don't let you simply use any open widget (i.e. click and hold on the active widget and then close dashboard).