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appleobsessed

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Original poster
Jan 8, 2010
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It works in the widget mode, that is, when I press F3, the dictionary shows on the screen as usual, but it doesn't show up when I click on the dictionary icon under the applications menu. Help me out please!
 
Help me out please!

the dictionary icon under the applications menu

What are you referring to there? Perhaps it's a misunderstanding of terminology, but where are you when you see this?

Also, what OS do you have? That can make a big difference. It amazes me that so many people don't understand this. You're not the only one omitting that info. I've seen a dozen or so today.
 
What are you referring to there? Perhaps it's a misunderstanding of terminology, but where are you when you see this?

Also, what OS do you have? That can make a big difference. It amazes me that so many people don't understand this. You're not the only one omitting that info. I've seen a dozen or so today.

I am under Macintosh HD>Applications. When I click Dictionary, it doesn't pop up and it's driving me crazy.

I have MAC OSX 10.5.8 by the way.
 
It works in the widget mode, that is, when I press F3, the dictionary shows on the screen as usual, but it doesn't show up when I click on the dictionary icon under the applications menu. Help me out please!

I am under Macintosh HD>Applications. When I click Dictionary, it doesn't pop up and it's driving me crazy.

I have MAC OSX 10.5.8 by the way.

Ok, so do I. Apologies if you think this is too picky, but here's the reason for my initial uncertainty...

The underline I added above highlights the terminology question. I didn't understand "applications menu". The Menu is the bar at the top of the screen. After the second quote, I understand you to mean the Applications Folder. And, the bold highlight I added is actually quite close to the most common way to indicate that. Most magazines, etc. will indicate the path to a folder with / as separator. Ironically, they use > as a Menu item separator.

Now, back to your problem with Dictionary...
By default, Dictionary was loaded in my Dock. Do you have a Dictionary icon in your Dock as well? If so, does it also fail to open Dictionary?
 
Ok, so do I. Apologies if you think this is too picky, but here's the reason for my initial uncertainty...

The underline I added above highlights the terminology question. I didn't understand "applications menu". The Menu is the bar at the top of the screen. After the second quote, I understand you to mean the Applications Folder. And, the bold highlight I added is actually quite close to the most common way to indicate that. Most magazines, etc. will indicate the path to a folder with / as separator. Ironically, they use > as a Menu item separator.

Now, back to your problem with Dictionary...
By default, Dictionary was loaded in my Dock. Do you have a Dictionary icon in your Dock as well? If so, does it also fail to open Dictionary?

I see, so the path should be Macintosh HD/Applications/Dictionary instead of Macintosh HD>Applications>Dictionary, right?

And yes, I do have a Dictionary icon in my dock but it doesn't pop up neither when I double-click it. Also, for some reason, my Dictionary icon is not a red book, rather, it's showed as two pieces of paper with a ruler, a pencil, and a painting brush. If it helps, my Dictionary icon/logo looks somewhat like the third one in the first row in the picture.
 

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Ironically, they use > as a Menu item separator.
I think I see where using > to denote directories comes from though, if you're looking at the app in the Finder with column view, it has the arrow next to folders.

Also, for some reason, my Dictionary icon is not a red book, rather, it's showed as two pieces of paper with a ruler, a pencil, and a painting brush.
That's the generic app icon.

4njex


Sounds like your Dictionary.app got damaged somehow. You might be able to re-install it from your OS X discs, using Pacifist to look through the installer packages to find it, or maybe there's a simpler way... never had to do that myself.
 
Have a look through this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1390104

You could also try making a new user account and see if it launches in the new account.

Have you recently run any programs like Monolingual or OnyX to do any system maintenance?

You may need to reinstall OS X to make it work, as per this thread:

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-96304.html

If so do a time machine backup and the process should be painless.

Thank you so much.
I think my problem is similar to the one of the second link. I am still figuring how to use Pacifist to reinstall the application.
 
I think I see where using > to denote directories comes from though, if you're looking at the app in the Finder with column view, it has the arrow next to folders.


That's the generic app icon.

4njex


Sounds like your Dictionary.app got damaged somehow. You might be able to re-install it from your OS X discs, using Pacifist to look through the installer packages to find it, or maybe there's a simpler way... never had to do that myself.

Yeah using Pacifist to reinstall Dictionary seems like the only option right now. By googling, I found some helpful information about how to use Pacifist to fix the application but I am so afraid that I will ruin my Macbook if I do something wrong.

If anyone is interested, here is the link:
http://www.macworld.com/article/132243/2008/02/pacifist.html
 
Thanks everyone for replying. I reinstall the Dictionary by using Pacifist.
I did it according to the instructions from the website I posted above and my dictionary.app runs perfectly now.
 
You are double-clicking it right ; )
Yes I am double-clicking it.
And yes, I do have a Dictionary icon in my dock but it doesn't pop up neither when I double-click it.

By the way, if you're opening an app from the Dock or from the Applications folder on the Dock, you don't double-click it; you single-click it. You only double-click to launch an app from the Applications folder in Finder.
 
By the way, if you're opening an app from the Dock or from the Applications folder on the Dock, you don't double-click it; you single-click it. You only double-click to launch an app from the Applications folder in Finder.

True, but we were talking about the Application folder, and it wouldn't make a difference if you double-click the Dock as the second click falls as the app starts to bounce and wouldn't be registered.
 
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