Look Up Words Instantly with a Trackpad or Mouse Gesture
Display Contextual Word Definitions Anywhere on the Mac
Instant Definitions with Look Up
One of the most useful features built right into your Mac is the ability to use your trackpad to reveal word definitions with an intuitive gesture. This is part of macOS for anyone using a MacBook or the Magic Trackpad attached to a desktop Mac. It is a long-lived setting, but one that many may not be aware of. The feature can be found from within System Settings > Trackpad:
Set the desired gesture behavior in the popup options menu for ‘Look up & data detecters’. I recommend the ‘Tap with Three Fingers’ option, but you can also use the default ‘Force Click with One Finger’:
If you have not been regularly using this feature with your trackpad, it will feel like a revelation. You can now hover your cursor over any text-based word on your Mac and use the chosen Trackpad gesture to reveal the Look up window with its definition and thesaurus entry:
Your displayed word information will be based on which options you have enabled in the Dictionary app’s Settings. You can click ‘more’ for greater detail or ‘Open in Dictionary’ at the bottom of the window to open the Dictionary app with the tapped on word displayed.
But, what if you don’t have a MacBook or a Magic Trackpad? That is where BetterTouchTool (BTT) comes to the rescue, which we will now cover.
Enable Look Up Definitions with the Magic Mouse
Unfortunately, you can’t use this feature by default with the Magic Mouse in System Settings nor with a third-party mouse. Instead, you will need to purchase BetterTouchTool. They tend to run specials around the Holidays, so look out for a lifetime license at 25% off the normal price of $22.
Let’s now set up BetterTouchTool to use the Look up feature with the Magic Mouse or a third-party one.
BetterTouchTool Trigger
Here is how to create a BetterTouchTool Trigger to enable the in-place dictionary Look up feature:
Open ‘Configuration’ from the BetterTouchTool menu bar item
Select ‘For All Apps’ at the top left of the window
Select ‘Magic Mouse’ or ‘Normal Mouse’ from the popup menu at the top
Click the plus (+) button at the bottom of the ‘Groups & Top Level Triggers’ column to create a new Trigger
Under ‘Select Trigger’ type ‘three’ in the Search field
Click Three Finger Tap
In the Action pane to the left, click the plus (+) button to assign an ‘Action’ to your Trigger
In the Search field type ‘lookup’ and click ‘Lookup Word Under Cursor’:
You have now created a Trigger in BetterTouchTool to enable the highly convenient Look up feature for the Magic Mouse! This is just one of an almost infinite number of triggers that can be created with BTT and activated by a simple gesture. Once you learn how to create them for your frequent tasks, you will wonder how you lived without this incredible tool.
Practical Application
Look up offers many practical applications to enhance your productive work. You can use the feature in a web browser, while researching, to enhance comprehension of the subject area and within any text application, while writing, to find that perfect word by quickly scanning both the Dictionary and Thesaurus entries in the word’s popup window. Hopefully, you will find the Look up feature as useful in your day-to-day work as I do and a valuable system-wide addition to your toolkit.
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Helpful References:
Magic Trackpad Guide
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-pro/magic-trackpad-apdea23385dd/mac
Magic Trackpad - White Multi-Touch Surface
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK2D3AM/A/magic-trackpad-white-multi-touch-surface
Magic Mouse Guide
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-mini/magic-mouse-apd292c14df0/mac
Magic Mouse - White Multi-Touch Surface
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK2E3AM/A/magic-mouse-white-multi-touch-surface