This page discusses some miscellaneous actions that you can perform in a dictionary window.

• Quit. If the application whose dictionary you are looking at is running, you can make it quit. Use the Quit button in the dictionary window toolbar, or choose Dictionary > Quit XXX, where “XXX” is the name of the application.

If you do this in the Finder’s dictionary, you’ll get a warning dialog, since quitting the Finder is not something one usually wants to do. If you do quit the Finder, you can relaunch it by clicking the Launch button.

• Launch or Activate. You can start up the application whose dictionary you are looking at, or, if it’s already running, you can bring it to the front. Use the Launch or Activate button in the dictionary window toolbar (they are the same button), or choose Dictionary > Launch XXX or Dictionary > Activate XXX (they are the same menu item), where “XXX” is the name of the application.

• Paste Tell. You can insert a tell block into your script, targeting the application whose dictionary you are currently looking at. Use the Paste Tell button in the dictionary window toolbar, or choose Dictionary > Paste Tell. If you hold down the Option key, or if no script window is open, a new script window is created and the tell block is inserted. Otherwise, the tell block is inserted at the current insertion point or wrapping the selection in the frontmost script window. Your existing code will not be overwritten.

  If what you’re looking at in the dictionary is a command, a template for giving that command will be inserted as well. If what you’re looking at in the dictionary is an event, a template for an event handler for receiving that event will be inserted.

There are other ways to issue a Paste Tell command.

If you alter the contents of your ScriptingAdditions folder while you have the Scripting Additions dictionary window open — or if you’re a developer writing a scriptable application, and you alter that application’s dictionary while you have the application’s dictionary window open — a Caution icon () will appear in the dictionary window title bar. Click it, and you’ll get a dialog prompting you to reload the application’s dictionary.