Apple's Mac OS X sports a useful feature called "Dictionary". The application can be used to look up words in the New Oxford American Dictionary, the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus, the Apple Dictionary and, more recently, Wikipedia. Following the tips below, we hope you will be able to use Dictionary's features to their fullest.

Dictionary offers several reference sources, such as dictionaries (in English and Japanese), a dictionary of Apple terms, a thesaurus, and Wikipedia (when you're connected to the Internet). However, in some cases, Dictionary is not able to find a word...

If Dictionary can't find a word

When you search for a word, Dictionary checks spelling automatically and may suggest alternatives for a word it cannot find. If the word is spelled correctly but no results are found, the word may not be in the available sources, or the administrator of your computer may have used Parental Controls to limit the scope of available content. Only an administrator can set and remove parental controls for a user account.


Setting parental controls

The administrator of your computer can set parental controls for Dictionary to exclude words that may be considered inappropriate for some users. When Dictionary's parental controls are set, most inappropriate terms won't be displayed and a user won't be able to look up certain terms, such as slang or colorful expletives.

To set parental controls for Dictionary

1- Log in as an admin user.
2- Open System Preferences, click Parental Controls, and enter your administrator password.
3- Open Parental Controls preferences
4- Select the user whose access you want to limit, and then click Content.
5- Select the checkbox next to Dictionary.



Looking up words in other applications

You can use Dictionary to look up words while working in other applications, such as TextEdit or Safari.


To look up words while working in other applications

1- Select a word, then hold down the Control key as you click it. Choose "Look Up in Dictionary" from the shortcut menu to display the word in the Dictionary application or in a small panel that appears next to the word.

2- Place the pointer over the word you want to look up, and press Control-Command-D to display the Dictionary panel. To view the complete entry, click More. To change the source, click the pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of the panel.

3- Use Dictionary preferences to specify whether words are displayed in Dictionary or the Dictionary panel when you choose "Look Up in Dictionary".


Seeing words you have looked up before

To see previously viewed words

1- Use the Back and Forward buttons to move through recently viewed words.

2- To skip to a specific word, hold down the Back or Forward button to see a menu of recent words, and then choose one from the list.

3- When you quit the Dictionary application, information about recently viewed words or recent searches is erased.


Choosing options for your sources

You can choose options for some of the sources Dictionary uses, such as how it displays the pronunciation of words in dictionaries, or the version of Wikipedia it searches. To choose these options simply open Dictionary, go to its preferences, and then select a source, such as a dictionary or Wikipedia. Select pronunciation or language options, if available.

Whenever the first three sources don't do you any good, Wikipedia is there to fill in the gaps. You can conduct Wikipedia searches from within any OS X Leopard application that supports Dictionary, including TextEdit, Mail, and Pages.