MacFolket
A Swedish–English dictionary for macOS, integrated into Dictionary.app and system-wide look-up.
Usage
- Force-click (deep press) a word on the trackpad
- Select a word and press ⌃⌘D (Control+Command+D)
- Open Dictionary.app and search directly
Installation
The dictionary can live in one of two places:
| Location | Scope | Requires admin |
|---|---|---|
~/Library/Dictionaries |
Current user only | No |
/Library/Dictionaries |
All users on the Mac | Yes |
Homebrew (recommended)
brew tap hashier/tap
brew install --cask macfolket
Installs to ~/Library/Dictionaries (current user). Updatable via brew upgrade.
Installer package
Download the latest .pkg from the Releases page and open it.
Note: The pkg installer places the dictionary in
/Library/Dictionaries(system-wide, all users, requires root). If you only need it for yourself, use Homebrew or the manual zip instead.
If macOS blocks the installer because it’s from an unidentified developer, right-click (or Ctrl-click) the .pkg file and choose Open from the context menu.
Manual (zip)
Download the .zip from the Releases page, unzip it, and copy the Svensk-English.dictionary bundle into either location above.
After installing
Open Dictionary.app → Settings (Cmd+,) and enable the Svensk-English dictionary.
Building from source
git clone https://github.com/hashier/MacFolket.git
cd MacFolket
make # fetches dictionary data, converts, and builds
make install # copies to ~/Library/Dictionaries
Other useful targets:
| Target | Description |
|---|---|
make pkg |
Build a .pkg installer (requires Xcode CLI tools) |
make zip |
Build a .zip archive of the dictionary bundle |
make release |
Clean build, create pkg + zip, push a GitHub release, and update the Homebrew tap |
make validate |
Validate the XML against Apple’s schema (requires jing) |
make clean |
Remove build artifacts |
make pristine |
Remove build artifacts and downloaded dictionary data |
Caveats
- Only the first entry is displayed in pop-up mode instead of all (e.g. “boken” shows only “beech”) but you will see all of them in dictionary.app.
Thanks to
Philipp Brauner who build an English <-> German dictionary which I have used now for a couple of years. His plugin gave me the idea to build an English <-> Swedish one. You can find his English <-> German one here.