Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Mac 101
Mac 101: system-wide thesaurus at the touch of a hotkey
As a Mac switcher, my Mac's built-in spelling and grammar checking has been a huge productivity boon for me. I'm someone who often gets stuck on a word, and since nothing's ever good enough for me, I've often wished that Leopard also included a built-in thesaurus. While that's not currently in the cards, there is an alternative. How many ways are there to say "Whoops?" Of course, Leopard does include a built-in thesaurus via Dictionary.app. See the continuation of this post for a screenshot. Thanks to everyone in the comments for keeping me honest.
If the Apple offering isn't to your liking, Nisus Thesaurus, a free app from Nisus Software, works as a standalone application and a system service. This means that it installs in the Services sub-menu of your Mac and is accessible from any program you use that is able to interact with the Services sub-menu. These applications include Mail, TextEdit, Safari, MacJournal, and countless others.
Once installed, using your new thesaurus is as simple as highlighting a word that you would like to look up, and pressing the Nisus Thesaurus Services sub-menu hotkey (Command -<). This will pop up the Nisus Thesaurus window with your word options only a click away. Select the word you would like to use as a replacement, press Command->, and voila; your new choice has replaced the original word.
Here's the Leopard version of the Oxford thesaurus in Dictionary.app for comparison:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5cents said 12:05PM on 5-10-2008
Pretty nifty. I've always wondered: Quicksilver has a dictionary and thesaurus and it's what I use to look up words. Is it tied into OSX's dict and thes apps or using its own?
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Tom said 12:32PM on 5-10-2008
I use the dictionary dashboard widget for my thesaurus - it's built in and quick to access!
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JohnTheMacGeek said 12:32PM on 5-10-2008
Leopard has both a build in dictionary and thesaurus built into the system.
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Matt said 1:14PM on 5-10-2008
"I'm someone who often gets stuck on a word, and since nothing's ever good enough for me, I've often wished that Leopard also included a built-in thesaurus. While that's not currently on the cards, there is an alternative."
Applications/Dictionary, click on the Thesaurus tab. No need for third-party software.
Robby said 12:34PM on 5-10-2008
There's a thesaurus feature on the Dictionary widget in Dashboard! ^_^
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Mary said 12:43PM on 5-10-2008
Apple's built-in thesaurus even appears in the contextual menu. Highlight the word, select "Look up in Dictionary" and at the bottom left of the popup window you'll have the option to choose Thesaurus - fast and nifty.
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Mary said 12:48PM on 5-10-2008
PS - However, the automatic replace feature of the Nisus Thesaurus sounds neat, and it is not possible with Apple's built-in Thesaurus or Dictionary.
Michael Sternberg said 1:04PM on 5-10-2008
Mac OS X has a lot more in the cards than seen at first blush. As noted above, the builtin Dictionary has a Thesaurus, and is easy to summon by a variety of methods. One is the following:
Press Ctrl-Cmd-D with the mouse hovering over a word. A popup appears with the dictionary entry. You can then select the Thesaurus from a list at the bottom, or launch the full Dictionary.app (which takes a bit longer) with the "More" button.
While holding down the hotkeys, you can move the mouse around, with the popup following and updating.
SPower said 1:01PM on 5-10-2008
Jason, my good man. Clearly your switch is not fully complete. OS X has a built in Oxford Thesaurus that is available wherever you can access the built in dictionary. Personally I prefer the contextual menu access as described by Mary above.
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SPower said 1:09PM on 5-10-2008
I will add that you can access the built in dictionary and thesaurus in many places in OS X, including contextual menus in all good apps (which excludes Word), the standalone Dictionary app, and the Apple widget. This, to many, is well known, but given that you apparently didn't know the Thesaurus existed, perhaps you don't. If you had opened the standalone Dictionary app, it hard to see how you missed the big interface button that says "Thesaurus".
Syd said 1:46PM on 5-10-2008
Leopard does have a Thesauraus, Dictionary & the ability to use Wikipedia built right in to the system.
Check again.
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Xman said 1:54PM on 5-10-2008
You can even use spotlight to look up a word and access the dictionary/thesaurus that way.
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Todd Sieling said 2:05PM on 5-10-2008
Michael's comment (#8) sums up exactly what I was going to say, only better. No extra software is needed to look up words in dictionary or thesaurus. Note that Spotlight only looks up entries in Leopard.
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krisjones1963 said 2:09PM on 5-10-2008
You don't need to resort to the Dashboard, as Dictionary.app is sitting there right in the Applications folder. It's one of the things I keep in my Dock to avoid the distractions of Dashboard. The Leopard version also features Wikipedia. You can set it to look up 'Dictionary', 'Apple', 'Wikipedia' or 'All'.
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M T said 5:22PM on 5-10-2008
Here's a way stupid question ... How do you trim the list of services from the "services" menu? I've got way more than I'll ever need, some are just plain dumb. If I could trim the list to a few that I need, it would be a lot more useful.
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mark said 8:31PM on 5-10-2008
http://manytricks.com/servicescrubber/
Donny said 9:34PM on 5-10-2008
Leopard has a thesaurus tab built into the dictionary app.
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Vopat said 10:44PM on 5-10-2008
I am trying to look up a word using control-command-d while the arrow is hovering over a word with no succes. ANy sugestions?
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Unregistered said 5:37AM on 5-11-2008
Are any of those keys mapped to some other functions? On a windows keyboard, I hold down the windows key, the left ctrl key, and the letter D then mouse over any word. Check your Dictionary app preferences? If it still doesn't work, perhaps you'd have to check with some forums. :)
Unregistered said 11:24PM on 5-10-2008
Vopat: I think it doesn't work in all apps. Try it on Safari, TextEdit, etc
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