New to Scrivener after years (decades) using MS Word. I have difficulties finding synonyms to selected words. I have been able to ctrl-click on a word and select the Dictionary and Thesaurus from the Writing Tools menu, but there are no synonyms there. It was so easy in Word. How does one finds good lists of synonyms in Scrivener, please?
Thanks!
Carlos
Hi, Carlos,
I have a similar situation. When I’m writing in English, the writing tools work and take me to the corresponding lookup page in thesaurus.com/
Unfortunately, when I use another language (I mostly use Spanish), I have to take an additional step to select the proper language afterwards directly into the browser to get the results. I have not been able to automate this so far.
Perhaps the support team might enlighten us.
Mac also has a built-in dictionary that you could potentially map a keybinding to. So if you select a word or phrase and {right|ctrl}-click, you’ll see ‘look up in dictionary’ somewhere near the bottom. From there, you can then switch to the thesaurus for synonyms and antonyms.
It may be possible (I’ve never tried this) to map a keyboard shortcut, either within Scrivener or across the whole operating system, to this context menu item, so that you can select a word and bring the dictionary up straight away.
This might be about the best you can hope for, short of Lit&Lat implementing some internal dictionary and thesaurus engine.
Short version: 3-finger tap* or Ctrl-Cmd-D (if you prefer to keep your fingers on the keyboard)
Long version: 3-finger tap (or or Ctrl-Cmd-D), then tap on thesaurus to see multiple synonyms. You can also, via the Dictionary app preferences, set it so only the thesaurus is visible, or as many dictionaries and thesauri (and wikipedia as well) as you wish.
*Note: if three finger tap doesn’t work either (a) you don’t have a trackpad; (b) you don’t have Lion or above; or © “Look up” in system preferences for trackpad is not checked.
EDIT: I don’t know how to add specific dictionaries & thesauri. I’m sure I’ve done it, but I can’t remember how. I’ve just checked, and I can’t do it from within either System Preferences or Dictionary’s preferences (although you can uncheck specific sources from within the Dictionary app preferences so they are not displayed).
+1 for Nom’s post.
Just to add, Nom’s tip works in all Cocoa based OS X apps, not just Scrivener.
Safari, Mail, Pages, etc.
To add extra dictionaries from within the app or from external sources…
makeuseof.com/tag/easily-exp … -mac-only/