On 28/02/08 8:27 PM, "Ryan Homer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I've read this post > (http://lists.apple.com/archives/accessibility-dev/2006/Aug/msg00007.html > ) about using the accessibility options to read the text under the > cursor. However, this requires that the user enable access for > assistive devices in System Preferences. The application must > therefore check for that. It also seems quite complicated; I don't > want to have to deal with glyphs and the like - I only want the text > under the cursor, full stop. > > The Dictionary application is able to read a word under the cursor > without enabling access for assistive devices. > > Does anyone therefore know of an alternative way to do this? > > Thanks in advance. > The Dictionary panel is a special kind of input method component: /System/Library/Components/DictionaryService.component It uses various techniques to obtain the text from the application (Text Service Manager and TSM Document Access CarbonEvents, along with Accessibility APIs). If Accessibility is off, and your app isn't a trusted one, TSM (and presumably the Leopard IMKit equivalents) is the only reliable way to get the text at any screen location. Many apps support this, there are still quite a few that don't. There are some that support one, but not the other. Best to try TSM first, then if no luck try AX. If you take a close look, the Dictionary panel will also try to get the font and style information, and display the word(s) being defined with their actual attributes. Again, some apps support this via TSM, AX, or even both, the majority of apps don't. All the Mac OS X editing views (NSTextView, MLTE/HITextView, editable WebKit views) support both - perhaps not perfectly, but well enough. If your requirements are that this must work anywhere, with any app, forget it. Try to get the Dictionary popup to do anything in MS Word, for example... Hope that helps, Evan Gross -- Evan Gross, President, Rainmaker Research Inc. Developers of Macintosh and Windows Software Spell Catcher for Mac OS and Windows http://www.rainmakerinc.com/ _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
