TEA Tutorial

2.4 Looking up selected text in a definition window

The lookup method described in Step 3 works fine for complete words or underlined phrases. If you want to look up part of a word, or a phrase that isn't underlined, you must first indicate the text to be looked up by selecting it.

You can select text using the mouse or the keyboard:

to select text using the mouse, press and hold down the left mouse button at the start of the text. Then drag the mouse to the end of the text and release the left mouse button
to select text using the keyboard, use the arrow keys to move the cursor (the flashing vertical line) to the start of the text, then hold down the shift key, move the cursor to the end of the text, and release the shift key

At the end of the previous step, the definition window was showing the first meaning of proof:

Step 4 initial image

Suppose you wanted to look up the word actual (as opposed to factual). Because it is not a complete word, you have to select it first:

Step 4 intermediate image

Using either the keyboard or mouse technique, select actual. Make sure the f of factual isn't selected. When you have the correct selection, the definition window should appear as above.

To look up this word, you can either click on the button or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Enter. You should see the definition change to show the first meaning of actual:

Step 4 final image

In the next step, we'll learn how to do a web search from the definition window.

Relevant Help Sections

Navigating between Definitions