New Mac Dictionary Plugin 查友

[muirm]

I know there are some other Mac users on the forums, so I thought I would share this free dictionary plugin I whipped up this weekend. It based on CC-CEDICT, and integrates into the OS similar to 小词典, but it does a few things better:

1. Entries look nicer (vertical list of definitions, bold pinyin, simplified and traditional displayed side-by-side when different)
   
2. No headwords when using the system-wide lookup (saves space since the headword is already visible - you just double-tapped on it)
   
3. Can look up based on traditional characters
   
4. Can look using pinyin
   
5. More common entries for the same character ordered first (so you don't get some obscure pronunciation/definition when you double-tap a 多音字)
   
6. Fold "surname" entries into the regular entry for that character as the final definition (again, to reduce the chance you double-tap a character and don't get the most common definition)
   
7. Pretty-pinyinifying pinyin contained in an entry's definitions (as well as the entry's pronunciation)
   
8. Normalizing measure word display as "Measure Word(s): ..." below the definitions
   
9. Other various formatting enhancements
   

In case you are not familiar with the dictionary integration in Lion, you can do a three-finger double-tap just about anywhere to look things up (or there is a hotkey which defaults to ctrl-command-d). Note that I have only tested this on Mac OS X 10.7.1, but it might work on earlier versions (but as the license says, there is no warranty so use at your own risk!).

You can download the dictionary here: http://public.muir.io/查友.zip

If you want to build it yourself see this: https://github.com/muirmanders/chayou

I have also attached a screenshot so you can see what it looks like.

[tooironic]

Thanks very much! I'm using it now, it's very handy to have an offline dictionary.

[hanxue]

Thanks! I only wish it worked in Firefox too, since I don't really use Safari... :/

[muirm]

Hmm, that is kind of surprising about Firefox, although I must admit I didn't test that particular application. What version are you using?

[hanxue]

I'm using the Fifefox 7 beta 5, but from what I remember the ctr+cmd+d always worked in Safari only...

[muirm]

Wow, stupid firefox. They must not be using the right kind of text field object to get the extra texty features (or maybe they can't for some reason).

This add-on at least allows you to right click and look up in the dictionary, but it's obviously way less convenient than a simple double-tap in Safari:

https://addons.mozil...ictionary-7261/

[tooironic]

I'm not sure why you two are talking about Firefox and Safari. If you're a Mac user you can just install it into the Dictionary application.

[muirm]

While it's true you can use Dictionary.app directly, we are referring to the system-wide integration where in other applications (like Safari - see my screenshot above), you can mouse over a word and do a three-finger double-tap (or command-control-d) to define the word in a little popup window (searching through all your system dictionaries). You often want to look things up while reading, so this functionality comes in very handy.

[hanxue]

Yeah, it's inconvenient to keep looking words up using the Dict app... And I already have a bunch of Chinese dictionaries in there thanks to this guy David (http://davidtse916.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/adding-dictionaries-to-the-built-in-dictionary-application-in-leopard/#comment-2110), but it would be a lot nicer if I could just click on the word directly and a little window would pop up.

Maybe I should file a bug over at Mozilla or something?

[muirm]

Yeah I was going to try a few other browsers and then file a bug if any non-apple browsers worked, but then I gave up because my connection sucks over here and it was taking forever to download.

[bebezkidz]

Hi Mac people,

I'm considering buying a Mac and want to make sure I can use a mouse-over dictionary program. For example, I usually use Kingsoft Powerword (or JinShan Ciba, I'm not sure which is the official name) on my PC, and really like the mouse-over function. Is there any way to change the click 3 times function described here to a scroll over function?

Or alternatively, is there another program for macs that has the mouse-over function? (I need the program to work in all programs [like Word], and not just in web browsers.)

Thanks

[tooironic]

Hey, the link to download 查友 no longer exists. Does anyone know where else it can be found?

[Baihao5]

It is still there. Take the period off at the end of the URL.

[muirm]

I updated the original post with a new link to download the dictionary (rebuilt off updated version of CC-CEDICT). The 现代汉语规范词典 in Mountain Lion has obseleted 查友 for me, so I haven't been giving it much love lately.

[muirm]

I added support for pinyin lookup (not sure why I didn't do this before) and uploaded a freshly built dictionary to the link in the first post.

[Saxondale]

thanks for the update!

[hanxue]

Here is the latest version of CC-CEDICT for anyone interested. Thanks again to Muir (muirm) for sharing his code for building up the dictionary!

 

Number of entries: 108083

Download link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/q5o2jb