View Dictionary app images

18 February 2013, 09:00

Here’s a nice quick trick that you can fill a few minutes or hours with…

The Dictionary app in OS X includes images within some of its articles, a little like a unambitious encyclopaedia. You can browse through these images, sans their articles, by opening Finder, hitting Shift+Command+G, and typing into the dialog box /Library/Dictionaries. Then right-click New Oxford American Dictionary (or Oxford Dictionary of English — it doesn’t matter), then select Show Package Contents. Then open the Contents folder, and look in the Images folder for the booty. Use Quick Look to view an image (select one and hit Space), then use the cursor keys to quickly move through the images. Each image is named after its relevant entry in the Dictionary app if you want to cross-reference and find out more.

Warning: This is quite a fascinating endeavour and one that can eat a lot of your time…

Know better?

 
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