Sometimes you know the exact word you're after and sometimes you just want to poke around for the right thing. You can find words by browsing or searching.
The word list makes it easy to browse. All of the words in the dictionary are in a single list. You can scroll from A to Z (and beyond) if you like. There are handy tabs on the right hand side for each beginning letter.
If you know what you're after, just type it into the search box. Searching works a little bit differently in this app. You might be used to a list of matching results appearing under the search box. Here, instead, you'll find that the word list scrolls to the first word matching your query.
There's a good reason for this. One of the most delightful things about using a physical dictionary is accidentally stumbling upon new words or old favorites. By showing all of the words near the one you're looking for, this experience is preserved.
Webster's Writer's Dictionary respects system-wide Dyamic Type settings. This is part of Apple's recommended accessibility practices, which I've tried to follow. Dynamic Type can be adjusted in the Settings app under Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Larger Text. These settings will apply system-wide and to any apps that follow Apple's guidelines, so hopefully you won't need to make adjustments in each individual app you use.
I have also tried to follow Apple's guidelines concerning VoiceOver support, so Webster's Writer's Dictionary should work well if you're using a screen reader.
I consider accessibility to be a first-class feature and any failure of the app to work correctly with Apple's accessibility technologies to be a bug. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you run into any trouble.
It looks simple, but there's a lot going on under the hood in this app, so I wanted to make it easy for you to take advantage of that power. If you'd like to use this dictionary with other apps that support opening URLs, you're in luck. You just need a little information about the URL scheme, which is right here.
You can “deep link” to a definition. When these links are opened, the app will appear and take you right to the definition in question.
These links look like pd-dictionary://words/sport. Just replace
“sport” with the word you'd like to see.
Some specialized apps use a cool thing called “x-callback-url” that lets them ask another app a question and get an answer back. Webster's Writer's Dictionary can answer these questions! In particular, you can have another app (if it supports it) ask for the definition of a word.
This is kind of whiz-bang stuff, but if you're into it, here's what you need.
pd-dictionary://x-callback-url/definition-for-word? word=sport& return-key=definition& x-success=foo://bar/baz
You can replace “sport” with the word you'd like a definition
for. x-success should be set to the URL that should be
“called back” with the answer. return-key is optional.
If you set it, the definition will be passed back as a parameter with that name
(“definition” in this example). If you don't set
return-key, the definition will come back as the
“definition” parameter.
Webster's Writer's Dictionary does not collect, store, or transmit your private information.
That's my policy.
Parks Digital LLC