As a non native English reader, I often feel looking up words manually in dictionary or websites are not fast enough. Fortunately, there are some better ways to do this and I?ll share it for you guys! I have 2 ways.
1. The built-in ?cmd-ctrl-D? shortcut
This handy built-in system wide OS X shortcut is very handy. Just press it and the definitions will pop right on your face. It seems to show all the languages in your normal Dictionary app.
Mac OS X Built-in dictionary popup
2. Set your own shortcut for Dictionary app
This one I personally prefer because it has a larger text compared to the first option (lol). But you?ll need to set it up manually.
- Open System Preferences app, go to Keyboard section
- Click Shortcuts tab
- On the left side, click Services
- On the right side, click Searching > Look Up in Dictionary
- Assign your preferred shortcut key (I personally use Command-Shift-X)
Assigning shortcut key for ?Look Up in Dictionary? service in System Preferences in OS X El Capitan
Hit your assigned shortcut, and Dictionary app fires up!
Bonus! You can manually add more dictionary sets to the Dictionary app. You can download a good English-Thai dictionary from here.
That?s it. Hope this will boost up your learning productivity as it did for me. If there?s a faster way, you MUST let me know! Thanks!
