Dictionary & thesaurus lookup tool for writers
Are you looking for tools to help you become a better writer? Nothing beats a dictionary or thesaurus for helping you to find words that better express what you are trying to communicate. But it takes time to look up words in a hard-copy dictionary or thesaurus, and quite often these lookups take the writer out of their “flow” and train-of-thinking.
For those of you who are connected to the web via a broadband connection (cable or DSL), http://www.dictionary.com/ provides great (and FREE) tools to help you quickly look up definitions and synonyms. Simply go to the web site, type in the word, click on either “Dictionary” or “Thesaurus”, and click “Look it up”.
But it’s the free “Cleverkeys” add-in that really makes dictionary and thesaurus lookups a snap. From any PC-based application (word processor, web browser, email application, etc.), I simply highlight the word that I’d like to look up and press control-L.
Microsoft Word does provide a built-in thesaurus that you can access by clicking Tools, Language, Thesaurus (or shift-F7). But you can only use that thesaurus in a handful of Microsoft-only applications, and you can’t quickly look up the exact definitions of the synonyms that you find. The www.dictionary.com/Cleverkeys combo is easier and faster to use, and available from any PC application. And it’s free!
To download CleverKeys, go to http://www.cleverkeys.com/.