Xfce4 Dictionary

This program allows you to search different kinds of dictionary services for words or phrases and shows you the result. Currently you can query a Dict server(RFC 2229), any online dictionary service by opening a web browser or search for words using the aspell/ispell program.

xfce4-dict contains a stand-alone application called “xfce4-dict” and a panel plugin for the Xfce panel.

If the panel plugin is loaded, the xfce4-dict command just opens the already loaded main window of the panel plugin (replacement for the former xfce4-popup-dict command). If the panel plugin is not loaded, xfce4-dict opens the application normally.

xfce4-dict understand a few command line options, for details read its manpage or call: xfce4-dict –help.

It can also be used to bind the dict plugin actions to a keyboard shortcut. You can add a new keyboard command with the Keyboard settings plugin in Xfce’s settings manager and assign xfce4-dict as the action command.

With the panel plugin enabled, you can also easily select a word in an email or on a webpage and drag it onto the dict icon in your panel, then the plugin begins to search and shows you the results.

The plugin also provides a text field within the panel to directly enter text to search for. To start the search simply press the Enter key in the text field.

You can query a dictionary server(see RFC 2229) to search for the translation or explanation of a word. You can also choose a dictionary offered by the server to improve your search results.
There are two special dictionaries:
* - use this dictionary to search in all available dictionaries on the server
! - use this dictionary to search in all available dictionaries on the server but stop searching after the first match.

This program was mainly tested with the server dict.org but should work with any other servers which implement the DICT protocol defined in RFC 2229.

Searching web-based dictionary services like dict.leo.org or other ones is also supported by passing the search word as a URL argument and opening the URL in your web browser. The URL can be configured in the preferences dialog.

A note on the started web browser: xfce4-dict will open the configured URL with the exo-open command which will open the configured default browser. If that doesn’t work other known browsers are tried. But it’s better to set a default browser using “Preferred Applications” in the Xfce settings manager.

It is also possible to verify the spelling of word using aspell (or its predecessor ispell). To get this working you need to have the aspell or ispell binary in your binary search path and at least one dictionary working. If you have multiple aspell dictionaries installed, you can select the one to use in the preferences dialog.

xfce4-dict-0.4.0 (GPG Sig)
xfce4-dict-plugin-0.3.0
xfce4-dict-plugin-0.2.1
xfce4-dict-plugin-0.2.0
xfce4-dict-plugin-0.1.1
xfce4-dict-plugin-0.1.0

You can also check out the latest bleeding-edge code from the Goodies Subversion Repository using the following command:

svn co http://svn.xfce.org/svn/goodies/xfce4-dict/trunk xfce4-dict

You can view the SVN source tree online as well.

• Xfce4-panel 4.4.0 (4.4.0)
• Libxfcegui4 4.4.0 (4.4.0)