Not working: Define selected text in Dictionary

[c6y]

Nothing happens when the Hotkey is pressed. Why?

 

[Ritashugisha]

Nothing happens when the Hotkey is pressed. Why?

 

Instead of using the Alfred browse feature, I would recommend using the run script feature using the following osascript:

tell application "Alfred 2"
	search "define " & "{query}"
end tell

Edited January 4, 2014 by Ritashugisha

[c6y]

Thanks @Ritashugisha, unfortunately I couldn't make it work either. Basically I want to create a script that diplays the OSX Thesaurus for the selected text. Trying to get the Dictionary to open is just the first step.

[Ritashugisha]

Thanks @Ritashugisha, unfortunately I couldn't make it work either. Basically I want to create a script that diplays the OSX Thesaurus for the selected text. Trying to get the Dictionary to open is just the first step.

 

See if this script will work for you:

tell application "Dictionary"
	activate
end tell
open location "dict://" & "{query}"
tell application "System Events"
	tell process "Dictionary"
		tell menu bar 1
			tell menu bar item "Search"
				tell menu "Search"
					click menu item "Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus"
				end tell
			end tell
		end tell
	end tell
end tell

[c6y]

Thanks again! Unfortunately it is passing the selected text if set to "pass through to workflow". I've played 

Here's a link to the workflow as of now.

[rice.shawn]

On Mavericks, the "all" tab that is open immediately helps. You could actually just use the URI scheme by running it as a bash script that uses the command:

 

"open dict://{query}"

 

Or you could use the "run command in terminal" action. Either way, it's pretty simple.

[c6y]

Thanks Shawn!

 

I added a killall Terminal command which quits the Terminal application after opening the dictionary. Not sure it if this is the most elegant way, but it works.

open dict://{query}
killall Terminal

[rice.shawn]

This is funny: I open Alfred2 in order to make a quick example for a more elegant way for you to do this, and I realized that I had been writing something similar several months ago and hadn't finished it. Well, mine was querying the dictionary file itself with a python library, but if I ever finish it, then I'll post that, but, here's is a more elegant solution for you:

 

 

 

As you can see, you can run terminal commands just as a "bash script"

 

So, this workflow just consists of a keyword that links to a bash script with only one line:

open dict://{query}

And that should do it.

[c6y]

Perfect! Thanks Shawn.