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is there really no simple #NVDA addon to get the dictionary definition of the word under your cursor?
I used to use text information for this but it pops off to the web and sometimes just times out more than it works.
I'm more than happy to cobble something together if nobody else has, because i really like the feature.
#nvda

David Goldfield reshared this.

in reply to Sean Randall

James Scholes
James Scholes
• •

The days when whichever flaky API Text Information relies on stops working are some of my least productive. Sadly, it seems to be down more than it's up these days, and is often missing perfectly reasonable definitions even when it's working.

TL;DR: I would use the shit out of an alternative, and have been thinking about building one for some time that just uses local data.

in reply to James Scholes

James Scholes
James Scholes
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I should probably clarify that I don't primarily care about the definitions. I use it mainly to check my spelling when I'm unsure about a word, but the definitions do come in handy to make sure I'm not confusing similar terms. When it stops working, it's web searches for words all day long, or pasting everything I write into Microsoft Word. I'm aware there are probably better ways to solve this problem.
in reply to James Scholes

Andre Louis
Andre Louis
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@jscholes I'd happily use something like this if someone built it. Also a tiny spell replacement because there are days when it inserts the word, and days when it doesn't, and I cannot for the life of me work out when it will or won't.
@James Scholes
in reply to Andre Louis

Florian
Florian
• •
@FreakyFwoof @jscholes seemingly has to do with a checkbox in NVDA's keyboard settings, Handle Keys from other applications. Toggling this off seems to help TinySpell and other word replacement apps, but also messes things up, most notably NVDA Remote
@James Scholes @Andre Louis
in reply to Florian

Andre Louis
Andre Louis
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@zersiax @jscholes Right, which is exactly why I cannot use that. I use remote on a daily basis.
@James Scholes @Florian
in reply to Andre Louis

James Scholes
James Scholes
• •
@FreakyFwoof I also just... don't want a system-wide app checking my spelling as I write. I type so many things that it wouldn't understand, and so I'd probably spend the next two years teaching it. I know which words I struggle with, so I'm very happy to opt in to manually checking only when needed. TinySpell is a nice idea, but I personally found it irritating. @zersiax @cachondo
@Florian @Sean Randall @Andre Louis
in reply to James Scholes

Sean Randall
Sean Randall
• •
@jscholes @FreakyFwoof @zersiax I gave up on it when I was add more acceptions than I was using it in, to be honest. Handy when I was actually studying, though.
@James Scholes @Florian @Andre Louis
in reply to Andre Louis

Mikołaj Hołysz
Mikołaj Hołysz
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@FreakyFwoof @zersiax @jscholes This is a very stupid way to do it, but dns.toys gives you a dictionary (among other things) over DNS, and most systems have a client for that.

I have a Bash alias as follows:

dy() {
dig +short $1 @dns.toys
}

And then I can just type `dy foo.dict` and it's going to do the right thing.

Figuring out a Windows version of this is left as an exercise for the reader.

@James Scholes @Florian @Andre Louis
in reply to Andre Louis

aaron
aaron
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@FreakyFwoof @jscholes I just tell it not to at this point in settings. Just put it on the clipboard.
@James Scholes @Andre Louis
in reply to Sean Randall

NV Access
NV Access
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Does it need to be an NVDA add-on? I know there are / used to be several dictionary programs which would do this, and I recall the one I used to use was very popular and accessible (and I can't for the life of me recall what it was called now). I'd be surprised if there isn't something out there still
in reply to NV Access

James Scholes
James Scholes
• •
@NVAccess For me, the advantage of an NVDA add-on is in how many controls it can obtain the selected text from for a lookup. Sure, there are dictionary apps that can extract text out of standard Win32 text inputs. But they can't give me a definition for the word I just selected on a webpage in Chrome, or the output of a command line app, or a Kindle book. NVDA can read all of those.
@NV Access

Sean Randall reshared this.

in reply to James Scholes

aaron
aaron
• •
@jscholes @NVAccess I wisht someone would make tiny spell an NVDA add-on and let you do systemwide text correction and replacement properly
@NV Access @James Scholes
in reply to aaron

NV Access
NV Access
• •
@fireborn @jscholes Is TinySpell accessible? I am sure I have tried it in the past, but can't recall either way - I think this is the one isn't it? tinyspell.com/

tinySpell

A spell-checker for Windows. Checks text in clipboard and/or on the fly in any Windows program. Small and easy to use. Resides in the taskbar notification area. Free download.
tinySpell
@aaron @James Scholes
in reply to NV Access

x0
x0
• •
@NVAccess @fireborn @jscholes Someone did try and make a spellcheck add-on, but it appears to have died given all the other things that particular dev has to work on plus the war. github.com/blindpandas/spellch…

GitHub - blindpandas/spellcheck: A multilingual spellchecker for NVDA

A multilingual spellchecker for NVDA. Contribute to blindpandas/spellcheck development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
@aaron @NV Access @James Scholes
in reply to x0

NV Access
NV Access
• •
@x0 @fireborn @jscholes I did try TinySpell just now. It seems to work and beeps at me when I misspell something - though I couldn't get the suggested words list to appear, even changing the keystroke, although I just had a quick look and didn't, for instance, restart after installing like I encourage everyone else to do with NVDA :)
@aaron @James Scholes @x0
in reply to NV Access

James Scholes
James Scholes
• •
@NVAccess I think you need to disable an NVDA preference: Keyboard -> Handle keys from other applications. @x0 @fireborn @cachondo
@aaron @NV Access @x0 @Sean Randall
in reply to Patrick Perdue

NV Access
NV Access
• •
@BorrisInABox @jscholes @x0 @fireborn Thanks - I just had a quick look so far, I'll have to play with it in more detail later. Though as indicated, likely not a perfect solution for all cases even so.
@aaron @James Scholes @x0 @Patrick Perdue
in reply to NV Access

Andre Louis
Andre Louis
• •
@NVAccess @BorrisInABox @jscholes @x0 @fireborn I would use this option myself but I am connected to a remote system every day for at least part of the day. Disabling that option would severely break stuff.
@aaron @NV Access @James Scholes @x0 @Patrick Perdue
in reply to James Scholes

Sean Randall
Sean Randall
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@jscholes @NVAccess there's a big debate about just where the screen reader should stop, of course.
Addons extend this, though; they are totally optional. James's point about being able to grab specific text from a multiplicity of places is spot on for a dictionary.
@NV Access @James Scholes
in reply to Sean Randall

NV Access
NV Access
• •
@jscholes To be clear, I wasn't arguing there SHOULDN'T be such an add-on, just asking if something like TinySpell exists externally, and does the job, does that meet the need. James brought up cases where it may not, and that may be a valid argument (I still haven't tried TinySpell again, I'm going to have to now!)
@James Scholes
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