Mac OS X Dictionary Add-On
A Firefox Add-On

The Mac OS X Dictionary Add-On is a Firefox extension (add-on) that allows Mac OS X users to use the built-in Dictionary Application to look up definitions.

Thanks to everyone for all the feedback, feature requests and especially problem reports! The application works with Leopard (OS X 10.5.X) and Tiger (OS X 10.4.X). Please let me know if you encounter any problems using Mac OS X Dictionary Add-On by sending feedback.

This is free software. However, if you find this add-on useful, please consider making a contribution by clicking the "Donate" button.

Requirements

Firefox

Requires Mac OS X v. 10.4.X or later.

If this extension works on an earlier version, please let me know.

Dictionary

Background

The Mac OS X Dictionary Add-On is a Firefox extension (add-on), which uses the built-in Mac OS X Dictionary application to perform the dictionary look ups. It uses the Dictionary's dict:///[word] URL to display the word.

I experimented with some of the existing Firefox add-ons from doing dictionary look ups and, while they were good, I wanted something which was more integrated into Mac OS X. Additionally, none of the add-ons I tried allow me to look up a word without highlighting it. Highlighting takes me too much time, especially when the word you want to highlight is part of a link.

This add-on automatically determines the word located under your mouse or looks up the highlighted (a.k.a. selected) word. Thanks to rikaichan for ideas on how to determine the text under the mouse cursor.

Usage

By default, the plugin operates in the following manner:

1. Right-Click (or <CTRL> + Left-Click) in the browser document area to show the usual popup menu.
   • If a word is highlighted, that word is looked up. In the following image, the highlighted word is "built-in". The menu item says: Look Up "built-in" in Dictionary.
     
   • If no word is highlighted, the word under your mouse cursor is looked up. In the following image, the word "encounter" was under the mouse cursor when the popup menu was brought up. The menu item says: Look Up "encounter" in Dictionary.
     
   • Otherwise no special look up menu item is shown in the popup menu.
2. Select the menu item from the popup menu to perform the lookup. See the quirks for some known look up problems in Mac OS X.

A status bar icon () is displayed by default. If you Left-Click on the status bar icon, you will see the following popup menu.

• Options...
  The Options... menu item will open up the following options dialog. The Display status bar icon checkbox toggles the display of the status bar icon. When turned off, you can still access the options (a.k.a. Preferences) by using Firefox's Tools->Add-ons menu item.
  
  The Auto-select word under mouse cursor checkbox toggles the ability of the extension to determine the word under the mouse cursor. When turned off, you will need to highlight the word you want to look up.
• Help...
  Opens up a new browser window on this URL.
• About Mac OS X Dictionary
  Opens up a dialog showing standard about box information about this add-on.

Quirks

Unfortunately, there are some quirks with word look up mechanism on Mac OS X 10.4.X. If the word is misspelled or not in the dictionary, the Dictionary Application will not display any results for the look up.

License

Mozilla Public License (MPL)

Mac OS X Dictionary Add-On Version 1.0.0 [February 17, 2008]

This is free software. However, if you find this add-on useful, please consider making a contribution by clicking the "Donate" button.