Dictionary.app not working in my user account

chemistry_geek

chemistry_geek

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The Dictionary.app is not working properly in my user account. The application launches but simply will not provide any definitions when words are typed in the search box. The Dictionary Widget still works fine in my user account. I've deleted the 'com.apple.Dictionary.plist' file, assuming it was a corrupt preferences file, however, the behavior persists. When I switch to other user accounts, Dictionary.app works fine. Is there another file Dictionary.app uses besides 'com.apple.Dictionary.plist' that may be corrupt? Could this be an issue with permissions? I have never changed permissions on my system. Any suggestions?
 

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Try deleting the 'DictionaryCache.plist' in User/Caches/com.apple.DictionaryManager/DictionaryCache.plist
 
With 1252 posts, you don't know how to Repair Permissions :(

Open Disk Utility in your Utility folder and then Repair Permissions.
 
OK, just figured out how to repair permissions... in Disk Utility. That still hasn't resolved the problem. I wonder if something may be interfering with it... software incompatibility somewhere?
 
This happened to me months ago, too. After a week or so, it just fixed itself. I have no idea what triggered the problem or what triggered the fix. The best I can figure is that it was some bad cache file that got automatically scrapped....but we both tried deleting the obvious cache files, to no effect.

All I can say is: Don't bother pulling the original Dictionary files from your Tiger DVD or Mac OS update files. It won't work.

My best suggestion (which I didn't think to try when I had the problem) is to use a utility like Onyx to clean all sorts of temporary files like caches and logs. If there's something that's ambiguously named we wouldn't catch it, but maybe Onyx would.


Edit: Wait a second. I just took a closer look at the attached picture, and it looks like the problem is a lot simpler. You have both fields collapsed. Click the little arrows on the left of the divider lines to expand them.
 
Thank you both, bobw and Mikuro. The problem was just that simple, those arrows on the left side were collapsed, all I did was click on them to expand them. Is there a keyboard shortcut that could have done this in the firt place? The reason I ask is that my cat, gets on my desk all the time, and lays between me and the keyboard, constantly hitting the control, option, command keys, and space bar.

Once again, I thank you for your help. I can't believe it was so simple, and I'm computer-savvy.
 
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