Spelling Sentry Contents

Procedures:

How to check a disk file

How to check the clipboard

How to check a single word

How to respond to spelling errors

How to edit a lexicon

How to set preferences

How to exit Spelling Sentry

Commands:

File menu commands

Check menu commands

Options menu commands

Lexicon menu commands

Help Menu commands

Main window:

Buttons and controls


How to check a file

Spelling Sentry can check the spelling of ASCII text files and Microsoft Write files.

You can check files using two methods: by invoking a menu command, or by dragging a file from the File Manager.

To check a file using the menu:

1.	From the Check menu, select File.

2.	Spelling Sentry displays an Open File dialog. Locate and select the file you wish to check, then select the OK button.

3.	Spelling Sentry checks the words in the file.

4.	Spelling Sentry pauses when it detects a misspelled word so you can correct it.

5.	When checking is complete, Spelling Sentry saves any replacements made to disk. It also displays some statistics.

To check a file from the File Manager:

1.	Locate the file you wish to check in File Manager's window.

2.	Drag the file from File Manager's window onto Spelling Sentry's window or icon ("drag" means click and hold the left mouse button, move the mouse, then release the button). Note: You can drag a file to Spelling Sentry's icon only if Spelling Sentry is "minimized" at the bottom of the screen.

3.	Spelling Sentry checks the words in the file.

4.	Spelling Sentry pauses when it detects a misspelled word so you can correct it.

5.	When checking is complete, Spelling Sentry saves any replacements made to disk. It also displays some statistics.

Notes:

You can cancel a spell-checking session by selecting the Stop Checking button.

Spelling Sentry can check files produced by the Windows Write program and ASCII text files. If the file you select doesn't appear to be of either type, Spelling Sentry will display a warning message asking if you want to check the file anyway. Spelling Sentry will attempt to identify words in the file, but bear in mind that it may become confused by formatting codes, etc. Replacing misspelled words in these files is not recommended.

See also

How to check the clipboard

How to set preferences

How to respond to spelling errors

Statistics


How to check the clipboard

You can check the spelling of words in the Windows clipboard.

1.	In another application, select the text you want to check, then copy it to the clipboard. You can do this in most applications by selecting the Copy item from the Edit menu.

2.	In Spelling Sentry, select the Clipboard item from the Check menu.

3.	Spelling Sentry checks the words in the clipboard.

4.	When Spelling Sentry detects a misspelled word, it pauses so you can correct the word.

5.	When Spelling Sentry is finished checking, it copies any replacements made to the clipboard. You can paste the corrected text back into your other application's document. You can do this in most applications by selecting the Paste item from the Edit menu. Spelling Sentry also displays some statistics when it has finished checking the clipboard contents.

Note:

You can cancel a spell-checking session by selecting the Stop Checking button.

See also

How to check a file

How to set preferences

How to respond to spelling errors

Statistics


How to check a single word

1.	Select the Word item from the Check menu.

2.	Spelling Sentry displays a form which prompts you to enter a word. Type in the word you want to check, then select the OK button.

3.	Spelling Sentry displays a message which tells you whether the word is correctly spelled or not.

See also

How to check a file

How to check the clipboard


How to respond to spelling errors

When Spelling Sentry detects a misspelled word while checking a file or the clipboard, it pauses to give you a chance to respond.

The word which Spelling Sentry considers to be misspelled appears in the Misspelled Word field in the main window.

If you have selected the Always Suggest option, Spelling Sentry searches for alternative spellings for the misspelled word, and displays any suggested words in the list box. If you have not selected Always Suggest, you can select the Suggest button. This will cause Spelling Sentry to search for alternative words. If the correct spelling doesn't appear in the list, try selecting the Suggest button again. Each time you select the Suggest button, Spelling Sentry searches its lexicons a little deeper.

Select one of the following actions:

If the word in the Misspelled Word field is correctly spelled and probably doesn't occur again in the file or clipboard, select the Ignore button.

If the word is correctly spelled and probably occurs again in the file or clipboard, select the Ignore All button. If the word appears again, Spelling Sentry will ignore it.

If the word is correctly spelled and is a word you use often (for example, your family name), select the Add to Lex button. Spelling Sentry will remember the word in the user lexicon.

If the word is misspelled and the correct spelling appears in the list box, select the correct spelling from the list box.

The words surrounding the misspelled word (usually the sentence in which the word appears) are shown in the area near the top of Spelling Sentry's window.

In some rare cases, Spelling Sentry cannot locate the correct spelling for a misspelled word. If this happens, you can edit the word in the Correction field manually. To verify that the word in the Correction field is correctly spelled, click on the Recheck button. Spelling Sentry will display a message telling you if the word is correctly spelled or not.

You can replace the misspelled word with the word in the Correction field by selecting one of the following actions:

If the misspelled word doesn't occur again in the document, select the Replace button.

If the word occurs again in the document, select the Replace All button. Spelling Sentry will replace this occurrence and each subsequent occurrence of the misspelled word with the word in the Correction field.

Note: By selecting the Undo Last button, you can undo the last single replacement made to the document.

See also

Buttons and Controls


How to edit a lexicon

You can edit the words in the user lexicon, supplemental lexicon, or exclusion lexicon. However, you cannot edit the words in Spelling Sentry's main lexicon.

1.	Select the item in the Lexicon menu for the lexicon you wish to edit (User, Supplemental, or Exclusion).

2.	The lexicon-editor dialog appears. Select one of the following topics for more information:

How to add a word to a lexicon

How to delete a word from a lexicon

How to merge two lexicons

How to clear a lexicon

How to save a lexicon to disk

How to open a different lexicon file

3.	To close the lexicon-editor dialog, select the Close button.

See also

Lexicon menu


How to add a word to a lexicon

1.	Select the Add button from the lexicon-editor dialog.

2.	A dialog appears, prompting you to enter a word. Enter the word you wish to add. The word may contain alphabetic characters and apostrophes only; no other symbols or digits are allowed. Note: Make sure the word is correctly spelled!

3.	Select the OK button. Spelling Sentry adds the word to the lexicon.

See also

How to edit a lexicon


How to delete a word from a lexicon

1.	In the list box in the lexicon-editor dialog, select the word you wish to delete.

2.	Select the Delete button. Spelling Sentry removes the selected word from the lexicon.

See also

How to edit a lexicon


How to merge two lexicons

You can merge words from one lexicon into another lexicon. You can even merge any set of words into a lexicon, provided the words are stored in a disk file, one word per line. You can use this feature to merge the user lexicon (sometimes called the "user dictionary," "personal dictionary," "custom dictionary," etc.) into one of Spelling Sentry's lexicons.

1.	Select the Merge button in the lexicon-editor dialog.

2.	A file-open dialog appears. Locate and select the file containing the words you wish to merge into the current lexicon, then select the OK button.

3.	The words in the disk file are merged into the current lexicon.

See also

How to edit a lexicon


How to clear a lexicon

1.	Select the New button from the lexicon-editor dialog. Spelling Sentry may display a dialog asking if you want to save the current lexicon. If you select the Yes button, Spelling Sentry will save the lexicon to disk.

2.	All the words in the current lexicon will be deleted.

See also

How to edit a lexicon


How to save a lexicon to disk

1.	Select the Save button in the lexicon-editor dialog.

2.	Spelling Sentry copies the word in the lexicon to a disk file.

See also

How to edit a lexicon


How to open a different lexicon
How to open a different lexicon file

Spelling Sentry saves the user, supplemental, and exclusion lexicons in disk files. Each lexicon uses the following default file name:

User lexicon: USERLEX.TXT

Supplemental lexicon: SUPPLEX.TXT

Exclusion lexicon: EXCLLEX.TXT

You can create different lexicon files if you wish. You can also have several sets of lexicon files, each for a different purpose; open the lexicon file you want to use via the following procedure:

1.	Select the Open button from the lexicon-editor dialog.

2.	Spelling Sentry may display a dialog asking if you wish to save the current lexicon. Select the Yes button to save the lexicon to a disk file.

3.	Spelling Sentry displays a file-open dialog. Locate and select the file containing the lexicon you wish to open, then select the OK button.

4.	Spelling Sentry displays the new lexicon in the lexicon-editor dialog.

See also

How to edit a lexicon


How to set preferences

You can change the way Spelling Sentry operates to suit your personal preference.

1.	Select the Preferences item in the Options menu.

2.	The Preferences dialog appears. Select the check boxes in the dialog to enable or disable preferences.

Ignore capitalized words: Spelling Sentry will skip any words which start with a capital letter, unless the word is the first word in a sentence. This option is useful if your document contains many proper names.

Ignore words with numbers/symbols: Spelling Sentry will skip any words which contain embedded numbers or other non-alphabetic symbols Examples: K2J, X11, DOS6.

Report mixed-case words: Spelling Sentry will report as misspelled words which contain unusual combinations of upper- and lower-case letters, even if the words are otherwise spelled correctly. Examples: PrintScreen, hAppy, CodeHead.

Report doubled words: Spelling Sentry will report as misspelled any word which appears twice in a row, unless the first word appears at the end of a sentence. Example: the the.

Always suggest: Spelling Sentry will always suggest alternative words when a misspelled word is detected. If this option is disabled, you can obtain suggested words by selecting the Suggest button. Disabling this option will make Spelling Sentry run faster.

Make backup copy of changed files: Spelling Sentry will make a backup copy of any disk files changed using the Replace or Replace All buttons. The backup copy will have the same name as the original file, but it will end in .BAK. For example, if you replace words in a file called CHAP1.WRI, Spelling Sentry will leave the original contents in a file called CHAP1.BAK.

3.	Once you have made your option selections, select the OK button.

See also

Options menu

Suggest button

Replace button

Replace All button


How to exit Spelling Sentry

To exit Spelling Sentry, select the Exit item from the File menu.

See also

File menu


Misspelled Word

Spelling Sentry considers a misspelled word to be

1.	Any word appearing in the exclusion lexicon

2.	Any word not appearing in the user, supplemental, or main lexicons.


Always Suggest Option

The Always Suggest option determines whether Spelling Sentry automatically attempts to locate suggested alternative replacements for a misspelled word. Turning this option off may save time while checking.


User Lexicon

The User Lexicon is intended to contain words which are personal to you. Spelling Sentry's main lexicon contains many words, but it may not contain words you use every day such as your family name, the name of the street you live on, etc. You can add these words to the User Lexicon so Spelling Sentry can check that they are spelled correctly when you use them in your writing.


Supplemental Lexicon

The Supplemental Lexicon is intended to contain words which are particular to your business, your hobbies, etc. For example, if you are a doctor, you might add medical terms to your Supplemental lexicon so Spelling Sentry can check that they are spelled correctly when you use them in your writing.


Exclusion Lexicon

The Exclusion Lexicon contains words which you would like Spelling Sentry to treat as though they were misspelled. If Spelling Sentry detects a word which exists in the Exclusion Lexicon, it will report it as a misspelling even if it is correctly spelled (as defined by the user, supplemental, or main lexicons). You might add a word to the Exclusion Lexicon for three reasons:

1.	You frequently misstype a word which results in an obscure but valid word (e.g., typing "tan" instead of "than")

2.	You find the usage of some words confusing, and you want Spelling Sentry to draw your attention to them so you can double-check that they are used correctly (e.g., "its" and "it's")

3.	You want to be informed when you use certain words because they are unacceptable for some reason (e.g., sexist terms)


Main Lexicon

Spelling Sentry's main lexicon is a large body of common English-language words. The main lexicon contains about 80,000 words.


Lexicon

A lexicon is a collection of words. The word "dictionary" is interchangable with "lexicon."


Non-alphabetic Symbols

Non-alphabetic symbols are characters which cannot form part of a word. Spelling Sentry considers words to be collections of alphabetic characters and apostrophes; anything else is a non-alphabetic symbol.


File Menu

The File menu contains file-related commands.

See also:

Check item

Exit item


Check item (File menu)

The Check item causes Spelling Sentry to check the spelling of words in an ASCII text file or Windows Write file.

See also

File menu

How to check a disk file

How to check the clipboard


Exit item (File menu)

The Exit item causes Spelling Sentry to terminate.


Check menu

The Check menu contains entries which cause Spelling Sentry to check the spelling of files, the clipboard, or individual words.

See also

Check File item

Check Clipboard item

Check Word item


Check File (Check menu)

The Check File item causes Spelling Sentry to check the spelling of words in an ASCII text file or Windows Write file.

See also

Check menu

How to check a disk file

How to check the clipboard


Check Clipboard (Check Menu)

The Check Clipboard item causes Spelling Sentry to check the spelling of words contained in the Windows clipboard.

See also

Check menu

How to check a disk file

How to check the clipboard


Check Word (Check Menu)

The Check Word menu item causes Spelling Sentry to check the spelling of a single word.

See also

Check menu

How to check a single word


Options menu

The Options menu contains a single item, Preferences, which you can use to display a dialog to edit Spelling Sentry options.

See also

How to set preferences


Lexicon Menu

The Lexicon menu contains items you can select to edit the user lexicon, supplemental lexicon, or exclusion lexicon.

See also

User Lexicon item

Supplemental Lexicon item

Exclusion Lexicon item


Supplemental Lexicon (Lexicon Menu)

The Supplemental Lexicon item displays a dialog you can use to edit the supplemental lexicon.

See also:

Lexicon menu

How to edit a lexicon


User Lexicon (Lexicon Menu)

The User Lexicon item displays a dialog you can use to edit the user lexicon.

See also

Lexicon menu

How to edit a lexicon


Exclusion Lexicon (Lexicon Menu)

The Exclusion Lexicon item displays a dialog you can use to edit the exclusion lexicon.

See also

Lexicon menu

How to edit a lexicon


Help Menu

Use the Help menu commands to get information about Spelling Sentry:

Index: Use this command to display the opening screen of Help. From the opening screen, you can jump to step-by-step instructions for using Spelling Sentry and various types of reference information.

About: Use this command to determine the Spelling Sentry version number, the Spelling Sentry DLL version number, and copyright information.


Buttons and Controls

Click on the area of interest in the following figure for more information:


Context Area

The Context Area shows the context in which a misspelled word is found. Usually, the context is the sentence containing the word. You can use the scroll bars at the right side of the Context Area to bring more of the context into view.


Misspelled Word Field

The Misspelled-Word field shows the word which Spelling Sentry considers to be misspelled.


Correction Field

The Correction field contains a replacement for the misspelled word. You can enter a correction word by typing it through the keyboard, pasting it from the clipboard (press Ctrl+V), or by selecting one of the suggested words in the Suggestions list box.

See also

Suggestion list box


Suggestion List Box

The Suggestions list box contains suggested alternative words which Spelling Sentry recommends as replacements for the misspelled word. When you select a word in the list box, it is automatically copied to the Correction field.

See also:

Correction field


Words Checked Field

The Words-Checked field displays the total number of words checked in a file or clipboard. The number to the right of this field shows what portion of the file or clipboard has been checked, expressed as a percentage.


Add to Lex Button

The Add to Lex button adds the word in the Misspelled Word field to the user lexicon. Use this button if the word which Spelling Sentry flagged as misspelled is actually correctly spelled, and is a word you use frequently.

See also

How to edit a lexicon


Recheck Button

The Recheck button causes Spelling Sentry to check the spelling of the word in the Correction field. Spelling Sentry displays a message indicating whether the word is correctly spelled or not. Use this button if you type in a word to replace the misspelled one, and want to double-check the spelling.

See also

How to respond to spelling errors


Suggest Button

The Suggest button causes Spelling Sentry to search for replacements for the word in the Misspelled Word field. Use the Suggest button if you want Spelling Sentry to look up the correct spelling for a misspelled word. Any suggested replacements found will be displayed in the Suggestions List Box. Pressing the Suggest button again may yield better suggested words. When the Suggestion button is disabled (grayed), no further suggestions can be located.

See also

How to respond to spelling errors


Ignore Button

The Ignore button causes Spelling Sentry to skip the current word in the Misspelled Word field.  If the word appears again, Spelling Sentry will regard it as misspelled. Use the Ignore button if the word is actually correctly spelled, but probably doesn't occur again in the file or clipboard.

See also

Ignore All button

How to respond to spelling errors


Replace Button

The Replace button causes Spelling Sentry to replace the misspelled word with the word in the Correction field. Only this occurrence of the word is replaced. Use the Replace button if the misspelled word isn't likely to appear again in the current file or clipboard.

See also

Replace All button

How to respond to spelling errors


Ignore All Button

The Ignore All button causes Spelling Sentry to ignore this and all further occurrences of the misspelled word in the current file or clipboard. Use the Ignore All button if the word in the Misspelled Word field is actually correctly spelled and probably occurs again in the file or clipboard.

See also

Ignore button

Replace All button

Add to lex button

How to respond to spelling errors


Replace All Button

The Replace All button causes Spelling Sentry to replace this and all further occurrences of the misspelled word with the word in the Correction field. Use the Replace All button when the misspelled word is likely to occur again in the same file or document.

See also

Replace button

Ignore All button

How to respond to spelling errors


Undo Last Button

The Undo Last button causes Spelling Sentry to restore the last single replacement made to a misspelled word. The Undo Last button is enabled only if the last replacement can be undone. Note that replacements made via the Replace All button cannot be undone.

See Also:

Replace button

Replace All button


Stop Checking Button

The Stop Checking button causes Spelling Sentry to cancel a file check or clipboard check in progress.  Any replacements made to the file or clipboard are lost.


Statistics

When Spelling Sentry has completed checking a file or the clipboard, it displays some statistics.

Words Checked: The total number of words in the file or clipboard.

Sentences: The approximate number of sentences in the file or clipboard. Spelling Sentry counts sentences by recognizing sentence-terminating punctuation (i.e., periods, question marks, and exclamation marks).

Flesch-Kincaid Readability Grade: A score indicating the readability of your writing, expressed as the approximate number of years of schooling needed to understand it.

Fog Index: Another readability score.