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Quickly Define or Spell-check Words on a Mac

by Jon Chase on November 26, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Among the many "secret" keyboard shortcuts on a Mac are a couple that are a boon to the spelling-challenged. To quickly spell-check a word you're typing, begin typing the word and then hit Option+Esc. A list of words will pop up, a la your cell phone's predictive text function. Although it works in most Mac apps, it sadly doesn't in either Office or Firefox. To find the definition of a word, click on it with the cursor (or highlight it) and then hit Control+Command (the Apple key)+D. A built-in dictionary will pop up and define the word; while continuing to hold down the keys, you can move the cursor over any other word to get a pop-up definition.

Tags: dictionary, keyboard shortcuts, KeyboardShortcuts, mac, spellchecker, techtip, top

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