Document 706

External lookups

Version: 5.5 - Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, & Scientific Notebook

With the user-configurable External Lookup tool, you can launch external applications from within SWP, SW, SNB, and the Viewer.

With external lookups, you can search for definitions of selected words in a dictionary or find synonyms in a thesaurus. You can invoke a search engine or encyclopedia to find selected keywords. You can submit selected phrases to grammar checking applications or to language translation software. These resources can be on your system or network or on the Internet.

You can define as many as ten external lookups. The lookups are available from the Tools menu and the Context menu.

For each lookup you define, you specify the application, any input it might require, the way the lookup appears on the menus, and its associated accelerator key. You can also specify the character set to be used for encoding any information you provide to the application and whether or not the application is to run in the background.

Here's how to invoke an external lookup.

1. Define the lookup.

2. If the lookup requires a selected word or phrase as input, make the selection in your document.

3. From the Tools or Context menu, choose the lookup you want.

   or

   Type ALT+L and then type the accelerator you have designated for the lookup.
   
   

   The program activates the corresponding application. If no application has been specified, the program calls your system to activate the software corresponding most closely to the specified input. SWP, SW, SNB, and the Viewer remain open.

Added 09/02/05