solved Search for a Word in a PDF Dictionary

[Yajee]

Hello folks,

 

I need to be able to search the text of a specific dictionary PDF file for the definition of words, after typing a word I need the definition of in the Alfred search bar, is there a way where it could open up the particular PDF file and then search that PDF for the word?

 

I have no idea how to create a workflow.

 

Thank you.

[vitor]

PDFs don’t make good good dictionaries to search in programmatically. It’s impossible to say for sure without looking at the PDF in question, but it is highly unlikely it is organised in a way one could reliably extract the definitions. Either way, the Workflow’s search format would never be the PDF directly because it’s not a good format for the task. To use it like you want, you first need it in an appropriate file type. macOS’ Dictionary app can import external dictionaries, and those can be accessed in Alfred.

[Yajee]

Thanks for your response @vitor. Here is the PDF that I would like to be able to search, it's an Arabic-English dictionary, not sure if this gives you a better idea of whether it is achievable or not?

[vitor]

Yeah, about what I suspected. You should try to find a proper macOS dictionary. Dictionary.app comes with the Oxford Arabic Dictionary (Arabic-English). If you activate that, you can see results from within Alfred (Alfred Preferences → Features → Dictionary).

[Yajee]

Cool! Thanks for your help.