Copyright: Copyright ® 1998 Wintertree Software Inc.


Contents

Spelling Checker

Check-Spelling Dialog

Dictionaries Dialog

Options Dialog

New Dictionary Dialog


Check-Spelling Dialog

The Check-Spelling Dialog appears if a word requiring your attention is detected. You can use the dialog to specify whether the word should be ignored or replaced.

Note that the labels of some buttons and text boxes in the dialog change according to the context.

Add button: Causes the reported word to be added to the dictionary selected in the Add Words To list. Use the add button if a correctly spelled word you use often is reported as a misspelling (e.g., your family name). If the word is not used frequently, you may want to select the Ignore or Ignore All buttons instead. This button is enabled only if a user dictionary has been selected in the Add Words To list.

Add Words To list: Indicates which user dictionary words will be added to when you select the Add button. The Add Words To list shows all user dictionaries currently open. You can open or close other dictionaries via the  Dictionaries Dialog, which is accessible by selecting the Dictionaries button.

Cancel button: Stops the current spelling check.

Capitalization box: Contains an uncapitalized word that exists in the dictionaries in capitalized form only. You can edit the word in this box or select a suggestion from the list, then click the Change button to correct the word, or press the Ignore button to skip the word.

Change button: Causes the reported word to be replaced. If the problem word was edited, the edited word is used as the replacement. Otherwise, the selected suggestion is used as the replacement. Only this occurrence of the reported word is replaced. If you want this and all following occurrences of the word replaced, select the Change All button.

Change All button: Causes this and all following occurrences of the reported word to be replaced. If the problem word was edited, the edited word is used as the replacement. Otherwise, the selected suggestion is used as the replacement. If you want only this occurrence of the word to be replaced, use the Change button. If the reported word is one you frequently misspell, you might consider adding it to a user dictionary via the  Dictionaries Dialog. You can display the Dictionaries dialog by selecting the Dictionaries button.

Consider Changing box: Contains a word which may be misspelled or otherwise incorrect, and is presented with a candidate replacement word. You can change the word by selecting the Change button, or skip it by selecting the Ignore button.

Delete button: Removes the word from the text. This button appears when a doubled word has been detected, or when the contents of the problem-word box are deleted.

Dictionaries button: Causes the Dictionaries Dialog to be displayed. You can use the Dictionaries dialog to open or close user dictionaries, and to edit the contents of user dictionaries.

Ignore button: Causes this occurrence of a misspelled word to be skipped. If the same misspelled word appears later, it will be reported again.

Ignore All button: Causes this and all further occurrences of a misspelled word to be skipped. You might use this button if the word reported as a misspelling is actually spelled correctly. If the word is one you use frequently, you may wish to ignore it permanently by selecting the Add button.

Not in dictionary box: Indicates that a misspelled word was detected. The word is considered misspelled because it could not be located in any open dictionaries, or was marked with an exclude action.  You can edit the word in this box or select a suggestion from the list, then click the Change button to correct the word, or press the Ignore button to skip the word.

Options button: Displays the  Options Dialog. You can use the Options dialog to set spelling-checker options.

Suggest button: Search more thoroughly for suggested replacements for the current misspelled word. Each time you press the Suggest button, a "deeper" search is made. The Suggest button is disabled once all possible suggestions have been located.

Suggestions list: Contains a list of suggested replacements for the word reported as misspelled. Subsequent presses of the Suggest button may yield more suggestions. The word selected in the Suggestions list will be used as the replacement when the Change or Change All buttons are pressed, unless the word in the problem box was edited.

Undo button: Removes the last change made. The Undo button can be pressed several times to remove the last several changes.

Undo Edit button: Remove any changes made to the text in the problem box. This button appears only if the text in the problem box has been changed.


Dictionaries Dialog

The Dictionaries Dialog allows you to open and close user dictionaries, and to edit the contents of an open user dictionary. The contents of dictionaries are saved in disk files. You can open some or all of your user dictionary files at any time. Only open dictionaries are searched during a spelling check.

Action list: Used to select an action that is associated with words in the dictionary. The action tells the spelling checker what to do when it finds a word in the dictionary. The following actions can be selected:

Auto change (use case of checked word): This action allows you to automatically replace one word with another. For example, if you often type recieve instead of receive, you might enter the word recieve with receive as the other word and "Auto change (use case of checked word)" as the action. The spelling checker will automatically correct recieve wherever it appears. If recieve was capitalized (Recieve), the spelling checker would automatically replace it with Receive. Note that the replacement is made automatically only if the "Auto Change" option is enabled (see the Options Dialog for information on the Auto Change option).

Auto change (use case of other word): This action allows you to automatically replace one word with another, always with the same case pattern as the other word. This action is useful for automatically expanding abbreviations. For example, you could enter the word TBD with to be determined as the other word and "Auto change (use case of other word)" as the action. The spelling checker will automatically replace TBD with to be determined wherever it appears. Note that the replacement is made automatically only if the "Auto Change" option is enabled (see the Options Dialog for information on the Auto Change option).

Conditionally change (use case of checked word): This action allows you to optionally replace one word with another. For example, if you often type recieve instead of receive, you might enter the word recieve with receive as the other word and "Auto change (use case of checked word)" as the action. The spelling checker will ask if you want to replace recieve with receive. If recieve was capitalized (Recieve), the spelling checker would ask if you wanted to replace it with Receive.

Conditionally change (use case of other word): This action allows you to optionally replace one word with another, always with the same case pattern as the other word. This action is useful for optionally expanding abbreviations. For example, you could enter the word TBD with to be determined as the other word and "Conditionally change (use case of other word)" as the action. The spelling checker will ask if you want to replace TBD with to be determined.

Exclude (treat as misspelled): This action tells the spelling checker that the word is misspelled, even if it is listed in another dictionary. Words marked with this action will never be offered as suggestions for misspelled words, and they will be reported as misspellings when they are encountered by the spelling checker. Note that the spelling checker looks up words in user dictionaries in the order in which they appear in the Files list. If you want to exclude a word, make sure it doesn't appear in a previous user dictionary.

Ignore (skip): This action tells the spelling checker that the word is spelled correctly, and so can be skipped over. This is the most common action.

Add File button: Opens a user dictionary file. When you select the Add File button, a dialog appears which you can use to select the dictionary file to open. The set of open dictionary files is remembered, so once you add a dictionary file you don't need to add it again. If you need to create a new user dictionary, use the New button. You can open other applications' user dictionary files.

Add Word button: Causes the word entered in the edit area of the Words list to be added to the currently selected dictionary. The currently selected action and other word are associated with the word. You can use the Add Word button to change the action or other word associated with a word. Note that the Add Word button is enabled only when a new word is typed in the edit area of the Words list. The words you add may contain virtually any character, but only words which contain embedded periods should have trailing periods (e.g., U.S.A. is OK, but USA. is not).

Close button: Closes the Dictionaries dialog.

Delete Word button: Causes the word appearing in the edit area of the Words list to be removed from the currently selected dictionary. The associated action and other word are also removed.

Export button: Saves the contents of the currently selected dictionary to a text file. When you select the Export button, a dialog appears which you can use to select the name of the text file to which words in the dictionary will be exported. The words are written to the file one per line.

Files list: Contains the list of open dictionary files. When you select a file from the list, its contents are displayed in the Words list.

Import button: Adds the words contained within a text file to the currently selected dictionary. When you select the Import button, a dialog appears which you can use to select the text file to be imported. Each word in the selected file is loaded into the dictionary. Note that importing a large list of words may take some time.

Language: Displays the language (e.g., English or French) of the words in the currently selected dictionary.

New button: Creates a new user dictionary file. When you select the New button, a dialog appears which you can use to specify attributes of the new dictionary. See the New Dictionary Dialog for details.

Other Word box: Contains an alternate word associated with the currently selected word. The other word is used in the "Auto change" and "Conditionally change" actions to supply a replacement word. You can enter more than one word in the Other Word box, but the total length should be limited to 63 characters.

Remove File button: Closes the currently selected dictionary file. Closed dictionaries are not checked during a spelling check. Although the file is closed, it is not deleted. Closed dictionary files can be later reopened using the Add File button.

Words list: Contains the list of words in the currently selected user dictionary.


Options Dialog

You can use the Options Dialog to specify various spelling-checker options. These options affect the way the spelling checker operates.

Ignore Capitalized Words: When enabled, any words beginning with a capital letter are ignored (i.e., are skipped over without being checked). You might enable this option if the text being checked contains many proper names.

Ignore All-Caps Words: When enabled, any words containing all capital letters are ignored (i.e., are skipped without being checked). You might enable this option if the text being checked contains many acronyms.

Ignore Words with Numbers: When enabled, any words containing embedded digits are ignored (i.e., are skipped without being checked). Examples of such words include Win95 and Q4. You might enable this option if the text being checked contains many code words or other symbols containing digits.

Ignore Words with Mixed Case: When enabled, any words containing an unusual mixture of upper- and lower-case letters are ignored (i.e., are skipped without being checked). Examples of such words include MicroHouse and CapsLock. You might enable this option if the text being checked contains many variable names or other symbols which use case changes to distinguish words.

Ignore Domain Names: When enabled, any words that appear to be Internet domain names (such as wintertree-software.com) are ignored (i.e., are skipped without being checked).

Report Doubled Words: When enabled, any word appearing twice in a row is reported via the  Check-Spelling Dialog.

Case Sensitive: When enabled, a distinction is made between capitalized and non-capitalized words. For example, canada is considered different from Canada, so canada would be reported as a misspelling. When the option is disabled, canada and Canada are considered identical. Note that the performance of the spelling checker will be reduced if this option is disabled.

Phonetic Suggestions: When enabled, suggestions are made based on phonetic (sounds-like) similarity to the misspelled word. This option tends to improve suggestions for badly misspelled words. Enabling this option will increase the time required to locate suggestions. Note that either this option or the Typographical Suggestions option must be enabled or no suggestions will be offered.

Typographical Suggestions: When enabled, suggestions are made based on typographical (looks-like) similarity to the misspelled word. This option is appropriate for people who are generally good spellers. Note that either this option or the Phonetic Suggestions option must be enabled or no suggestions will be offered.

Suggest Split Words: When enabled, two separate words will be suggested as a replacement for a misspelling containing two joined words. For example, is the would be suggested as a replacement for isthe.

Auto Correct: When enabled, words marked with "Auto Change" actions will automatically be changed to their specified replacements. When disabled, you will be prompted before the words are changed.

Main Dictionary Language: This option allows you to set the language of the main dictionary used to check spelling. The list shows only languages for which dictionaries are installed on your system. To check spelling in a different language, select the language in the list.

Suggestions: Determines the speed and accuracy of the initial search for suggested replacements for misspelled words. When a misspelled word is detected, a search is automatically made for suggestions. This option controls the speed and accuracy of this automatic search. Pressing the Suggest button in the Check-Spelling Dialog causes an increasingly more accurate (but slower) search for suggestions.

OK button: Closes the Options Dialog, and saves any changes made to the option settings.

Cancel button: Closes the Options Dialog, and discards any changes made to the option settings.


New Dictionary Dialog

You can use the New Dictionary Dialog to specify the attributes of a new user dictionary.

Browse button: Displays a dialog that shows the names of other user dictionary files. You can use the dialog to view the names of existing dictionary files, and to enter the name of the new dictionary file.

Cancel button: Closes the New Dictionary Dialog without creating a new dictionary.

File Name box: Contains the name of the disk file used to hold the contents of the new dictionary. You can enter a name here or use the Browse button to display a dialog showing the names of other dictionary files.

Language list: Specifies the language (e.g., French, English) of the words the new user dictionary will contain. If the language you want to use is not listed, select "Any."

OK button: Closes the New Dictionary Dialog and creates the new dictionary.