How to disable the popup with Dictionary, Wikipedia and Apple Store

Question

How to disable the popup with Dictionary, Wikipedia and Apple Store

I am deeply troubled by a complicated problem I can hardly explain. When attempting to select text on my Macintosh computer, a popup appears that blocks which text is selected and prevents the selected text from being saved to the clipboard. Is there a way to change settings somewhere to put an end to this problem?

The pictures below are my best effort to show the problem in a way that makes it understandable.

Picture 1 shows and explains three examples of the problem

I have wrapped the popups I am trying to avoid in red. When they first appear, they are not wrapped in red. I added the red wrappers to make them easier to spot in the pictures.

Picture 2 shows Example 1 at a larger size, which I hope will be easier to read

I have wrapped the popup I am trying to avoid in red. When it first appeared, it was not wrapped in red. I added the red wrapper to make them easier to spot in the picture.

Picture 3 shows Example 2 at a larger size, which I hope will be easier to read

I have wrapped the popup I am trying to avoid in red. When it first appeared, it was not wrapped in red. I added the red wrapper to make them easier to spot in the picture.

Picture 4 shows Example 3 at a larger size, which I hope will be easier to read

I have wrapped the popup I am trying to avoid in red. When it first appeared, it was not wrapped in red. I added the red wrapper to make them easier to spot in the picture.

Mac Pro

Posted on Sep 10, 2023 12:16 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,144 points

Sep 10, 2023 1:00 PM in response to danallenhouston

When you position the cursor over a word and apply a three-finger tap to a track pad, or press ctrl+cmd+D, you will perform a lookup on that word resulting in the boxes you have shaded red. You can disable that three-finger tap in the Trackpad system settings panel if you prefer.

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Answer 2

Oct 7, 2023 8:18 AM in response to VikingOSX

It turned out the problem is isolated to an instance if High Sierra I was running until I could reinstall Catalina. As soon as Catalina was installed, the problem disappeared

Other than that, I don't know the cause of fix to the problem.

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Answer 3

Sep 10, 2023 8:16 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you for taking a look at this question and offering your expertise..

I never use three fingers on my track pad.

Whoops, I just noticed a few three fingers gestures, I don't know if I use them. Disabling them now.

Here are images showing the settings of gestures for my trackpad:

Here are the three finger gesturesI just noticed check on:

I have turned off those gestures involving three fingers

In this example, just encounted since turning off the three finger gestures, the selected texts was selected with only one finger. and here is the same popup I am trying to avoid.

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