Adding dictionaries to the built-in Dictionary Application in OS X
The Dictionary Application (Dict App for short) is really helpful at times when you are reading an eBook or web page. You can even easily look up meanings of highlighted words with a finger tap in Mountain Lion.
...but there is just one little problem - the Dict App only comes with a few built-in dictionaries. For instance if I want to know the Chinese meaning of a particular word, I’ll need to search online or use something else. It would be great if I can add more dictionaries and make it the “one stop” app that I’ll ever need.
Well, it turns out that with the help of DictUnifier, you can add all kinds of dictionaries to the built-in Dictionary Application.
Step 1: Go to StarDict and download the dictionaries that you will need. There are other dictionaries (like French / German / Chinese etc) on the web site too, so take your time and find the ones you need. Also, remember to rename your downloads so that it makes sense to you later on. For example, you can rename stardict-longman-2.4.2.tar.bz2 to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.tar.bz2 (don’t remove the .tar.bz2 extension!) ...you will probably need the full name later on.
Step 2: Next, download DictUnifier to your desktop, open the .dmg and put the app into your utilities or applications folder (whichever suits).
Step 3: Launch the app and choose the dictionaries you have downloaded and type the same name into id as the name of the file (it doesn't really matter).
Step 4: Now press convert and it will add it to your built in OS X dictionary list.
If the dictionary decides to use a different name, proceed to step 5: Step 5: Navigate to the Library in your home folder and from there to the folder Dictionaries, in which you will find your custom dictionaries which you can rename to whatever you want.
Step 6: Now open the contents of the dictionary and open the info.plist
Step 7: Change CFBundleDisplayName and CFBundleName to the same name you've been using.
