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1990-12-17
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ShareSpell v2.0
Text File Spelling Checker
Copyright 1989, 1990, Acropolis Software
Robert Bequette
Acropolis Software
4620 Hazel Ave.
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
THE LEGAL STUFF
ShareSpell is provided on an "as is" basis without warranty of
any kind expressed or implied. In no event will Acropolis
Software be liable to you for any damages, including any lost
profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential
damages arising out of the use of or inability to use the
program, even if Acropolis Software has been advised of the
possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party.
ShareSpell is copyrighted by Acropolis Software. You are
encouraged to give copies to your friends and upload it to
bulletin boards, however sale of the program for profit by
anyone except Acropolis Software is strictly prohibited. With
the exception of a small fee for duplication. That fee does not
register you as a user of ShareSpell. If you like ShareSpell
and find it useful you are asked to register as a users with
Acropolis Software. (See "REGISTRATION" at the bottom of this
document for information on how to register).
INDEX
Introduction ...................................... 1
File list ...................................... 1
Requirements ...................................... 1
Installation
One Drive System ...................................... 2
Two Drive System ...................................... 3
Hard Drive System ...................................... 3
How to use to ShareSpell ...................................... 4
Quick Reference ...................................... 6
Questions or Comments ....................................... 7
Registration ....................................... 8
Page 1
INTRODUCTION
ShareSpell version 2.0 is a "stand-alone" spelling checker. With it
you can check the spelling of text files that you have written. It
is completely interactive. It will display the text of the file as
it goes through the file checking for spelling errors. At each word
that it thinks is misspelled, you'll be given the option of replacing
the word from a list of suggested correct spellings, manually
correcting the word, adding the word to the dictionary, marking the
word for later correction, or ignoring the word throughout the rest
of the document. Currently ShareSpell has a 112,000+ word word
dictionary and you have the option of adding words that you use all
the time such as your name and words specific to your area of writing.
ShareSpell is a shareware product. It is not "freeware" or public
domain. If you use ShareSpell you are expected to pay for it just
like any other program. In return for the $20 registration fee you
will receive the latest version of the program and the newest
dictionary on either a 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" disk (whichever you prefer).
FILE LIST
ShareSpell comes with the following files:
SS.EXE The ShareSpell Program.
SS.DOC This manual.
ACROP.DIC The dictionary containing all the words.
SS20.NEW New features / bug fixes for ShareSpell.
DICMAN.EXE Dictionary Manager utility.
DICMAN.DOC Documentation for Dictionary Manager.
DICMAN11.NEW New features / bug fixes for Dictionary Manager.
It you give copies of this program away you MUST include all seven
files in their original form. Distribution with one or more of
the files missing or altered in anyway is strictly prohibited.
REQUIREMENTS
The minimum system requirements to run ShareSpell are:
256K of RAM
1 Floppy disk drive
MSDOS/PCDOS version 2.1 or higher
A hard drive or two floppy drives are recommended. A single drive
system leaves very little room for storage of the file to be checked
and its backup.
If using a 256K RAM system MSDOS/PCDOS version 2.1 is recommended
It allows more memory so that ShareSpell can check the spelling of
larger documents.
Page 2
INSTALLATION
Single Disk Drive System Installation
It is possible to use ShareSpell on a single drive system though
it will require a little more work from you and it limits the
size of the file that you can check. Additionally you will not
be able to use Dictionary Manager to alter your dictionary since
a single drive system has too limited an amount of disk space.
Format a floppy disk and copy the files SS.EXE and ACROP.DIC to
it, that will be your working ShareSpell disk.
Have a blank disk ready and start up your computer with a DOS
disk in the disk drive. Type the following:
FORMAT A:
When asked to insert a blank disk in drive A: take out your DOS
disk and insert the blank disk that will be you ShareSpell working
disk. When the formatting is done place your master ShareSpell
disk in drive A: and type the following:
COPY SS.EXE B:
When asked to insert the disk in drive B: take the master ShareSpell
disk out of disk drive A: and insert the ShareSpell working disk.
If asked to insert the disk in drive A: take out the ShareSpell
working disk and insert the ShareSpell master disk. Continue doing
so until your are returned to the A> prompt. Now with your
ShareSpell master disk in drive A: type:
COPY ACROP.DIC B:
Follow the same procedure outlined above inserting your ShareSpell
working disk in to the A: when asked to insert the disk in drive
B: and inserting your ShareSpell master disk in to drive A: when
asked. You now have a ShareSpell working disk. Put your master
ShareSpell disk away in a safe place so that if something happens
to your working disk you can make a new copy by following the steps
outlined above.
To check the spelling of a file you must copy the file to the
ShareSpell working disk first. Example you want to check the
spelling of a file named LETTER.TXT. First place the disk with
the LETTER.TXT file on it in disk drive A:, then type:
COPY A:LETTER.TXT B:
Don't worry that you do not have a B: drive, MSDOS will read the
file in to memory and ask you to insert the destination disk in
drive B:. Take the disk with your file on it out of drive A: and
place the ShareSpell working disk in the A: drive and press the
RETURN key. LETTER.TXT will be copied to the ShareSpell disk.
Now you can type SS to start ShareSpell and check the spelling of
your document.
Page 3
There are three things to think about when using ShareSpell on a
single disk drive system. The first is that you will have to copy
the corrected document back to the disk that you copied it from.
Second, the amount of space on the ShareSpell disk is limited, you
must delete the files that you have been checking when you are
finished with them or you will run out of room on the ShareSpell
work disk. Third, since ShareSpell places a backup copy of the
checked file on the disk you can only check files that are half
the size of the amount of free space on your ShareSpell disk.
Two Disk Drive System Installation
Setting up ShareSpell on a two disk drive system is easy. Start
up you computer with a DOS disk in drive A:. Now place a blank
disk in drive B: and type:
FORMAT B:
When the formatting is finished type the following commands:
COPY SS.EXE B:
COPY ACROP.DIC B:
COPY DICMAN.EXE B:
You now have a ShareSpell working disk. Put your master ShareSpell
disk away in a safe place so that if something happens to your
working disk you can make a new copy by following the steps outlined
above. To run ShareSpell place the ShareSpell working disk in drive
A: and place the disk with the document you want to check the
spelling of in disk drive B: type SS to start ShareSpell. When asked
for the name of the file to check type B: and the name of the file
you wish to correct. An example would be B:LETTER.TXT.
Hard Drive System Installation
To install ShareSpell on your hard drive you can do one of two things.
Install it into the subdirectory that holds your MSDOS/PCDOS external
commands or install it into it's own subdirectory. Installing it in
the MSDOS command directory is the easiest and most convenient.
Most people with hard drives have a subdirectory called DOS, MSDOS,
PCDOS, BIN, UTILITY, or something similar that they use to store
the external commands for DOS (i.e. FORMAT, DISKCOPY, CHKDSK and so
on). It usually already has the PATH set up to search it. If that
is how you have your hard drive set up just copy the following files
into your directory and ShareSpell is ready to use.
Copy -> SS.EXE
ACROP.DIC
DICMAN.EXE
If you do not have your external commands in the path or you do not
wish to add ShareSpell into your DOS directory you can make a
subdirectory just for ShareSpell, call it whatever you like it doesn't
matter to ShareSpell.
Page 4
You can either change to the directory that ShareSpell is in to use
it or you can add/change the PATH command in you AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
By doing so you can use ShareSpell from any where (i.e. in your word
processor's subdirectory, from a floppy...). Using a text editor add
the following line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
PATH=C:\SPELL
That is assuming you called the subdirectory that you copied
ShareSpell into SPELL on you C: drive. It you call the directory
something else or place it on a different hard drive change the name
of the drive and subdirectory accordingly. If you already had a
PATH command in your subdirectory add the ShareSpell directory by
separating it from the other directories with a semicolon:
PATH=C:\MSDOS;C:\TURBO;C:\SPELL
Once you have rebooted the system so that the ShareSpell subdirectory
is added to the path you can use both ShareSpell and the Dictionary
Manager from any subdirectory.
HOW TO USE SHARESPELL
To use ShareSpell all you need is the file that you created with
your word processor or text editor that you want to check the spelling
of and of course the ShareSpell program and dictionary. Type SS than
press the <RETURN> key. ShareSpell will start up and display it's
opening screen. Press any key and you will be asked for the name of
the file to check. Type in the name and press the <RETURN> key. If
the file could not be found you will be ask to specify a different
name. If you decide not to check a document just press the <ESC> key
and you will be exited from ShareSpell.
ShareSpell now scans your document file looking for all of the unique
words and then checks the list of words to see if there are any
misspelled words. If there are any misspellings ShareSpell will
start displaying your file stopping to show you the incorrect words.
When ShareSpell finds a word that it does not like it will stop and
search the dictionary to find a list of words that it thinks you might
have wanted to use instead of the current word. On the lower right
hand side of the screen it will display the list of suggested correctly
spelled words. To the left of that you will see the list of available
commands and just above that you will see the word that it does not
like. After the list is displayed you can use the following keys to
make changes to the word. Before the list of suggestions is display
you can also use any of these commands and ShareSpell will quit the
search for suggestions and display the list of alternate words that
is has found so far.
Page 5
At this point you can use the up and down arrow keys to move through
the list of suggested spellings. Use them to select the one that you
wish to replace it with. Pressing the <RETURN> key will replace the
currently misspelled word with the highlighted word. The empty word
at the top is a special location; If the highlight bar is on it when
you press the <RETURN> key, the current word will be skipped and not
replaced in addition is will also skip all other occurrences of that
word in the document file.
One of your other options is to manually correct the word. When you
press either the left arrow, right arrow, or backspace you will see
the cursor move over to the suspected word window. Now you can use
the arrow keys to move around in the word and the <DEL> and
<BACKSPACE> key to correct the spelling manually. Once you press
<RETURN> the corrected word will replace the misspelling in the text.
Before doing the replacement however ShareSpell will check to see if
the word that results from your changes is in the dictionary. If it
is not it will ask you first if you really want to make the replacement.
If you answer <N>o you will be back to editing the word, a response of
<Y>es will cause the word to replace the one in the document file.
If you decide that you do not want to manually correct the word use
the up or down arrow to move back to the suggestion list. Alternately
you can press any of the other command keys to perform that command
instead of the manual correction.
Pressing the <F8> key will cause ShareSpell to add that word to its
dictionary. From that point on that word will not be flagged as
misspelled. If at a later date you decide that you did not want the
added word in the dictionary you can use the supplied Dictionary
Manager utility to remove it from the dictionary.
Pressing the <F7> key will cause ShareSpell to mark the word in the
file for you by placing a '@' character before it. In addition it
ignores any further occurrences of that word in the document. The
main use for this is for cases where you think the word may be spelled
correctly, but do not have a dictionary at hand to check it with.
Later you can use your word processor to find all the marked words
by having it search for the '@' character.
To quit ShareSpell just press the <F10> key. If you have made any
changes to the document it will ask if you want to save those changes
before quitting ShareSpell. If you answer <Y>es the updated file will
be written to disk in place of the old version. If you answer <N>o
the file will remain as it was before you started ShareSpell.
Page 6
QUICK REFERENCE
Starting ShareSpell:
At the DOS Prompt type one or the following:
SS or SS filename
Starting ShareSpell without a file name will make it prompt you
for the name of the file to spell check. Otherwise it will spell
check the file you specify. If the file does not exist you will
be told so and asked for a new file name. Pressing the <ESC> key
will exit you immediately from ShareSpell.
ShareSpell will scan through the file until it finds a word that it
thinks is misspelled. It will than give you a list of possible
correct spellings. At that point you can press one of the following
keys:
<RETURN>
To accept the word as is and continue and ignore it in the rest
of the document.
<ESC>
To ignore the word in the document. This is useful for words such
as proper names that you know are spelled correctly, but do not
want to add to the dictionary.
<F7>
Mark and ignore the word. Place a "@" in front of the word so
that you can find it later with your word processor.
<F8>
To add the current word to the dictionary. Good words to add are
things such as your name or other proper nouns that you use often.
<UP ARROW>
<DOWN ARROW>
To select one of the alternative spellings. When the word you want
to replace the misspelled word with is highlighted press the
<RETURN> key and it will be replaced.
<LEFT ARROW>
<RIGHT ARROW>
To manually correct the current word. After you press one of the
arrow keys you can use the <DEL>, <BACKSPACE>, and arrow keys to
edit the misspelling. When you have it corrected press the <RETURN>
key to replace it in the document. Otherwise pressing the up or
down arrow will bring you back to the list of suggestions.
<F10>
Quit ShareSpell. If you have made any changes ShareSpell will ask
if you want to save the changes made so far.
Use the selected keys until you have corrected all of the document and
ShareSpell ends or until you end ShareSpell with the <F10> key.
Page 7
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
If you have any questions or comments I can be reached through the
U.S. Mail at:
Acropolis Software
4620 Hazel Ave.
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
Or electronically:
On CompuServe by sending EasyPlex mail to 75146.3471
On Prodigy by sending mail to RBJN67A
Page 8
REGISTRATION
As the name implies it is a shareware product. This is not a demo or
crippled version of ShareSpell, but a full working version as all the
earlier releases have been. If you use ShareSpell, I ask you to send
$20 to Acropolis Software to register your copy in return you will
receive a disk containing the latest version of both the program and
the dictionary. When you register your copy of ShareSpell, please use
the order form below. If you do not use the form, please specify that
you are registering ShareSpell and indicate your preferred disk format
(5 1/4" or 3 1/2").
Purchases of 10 or more copies will receive a discount making each
copy of ShareSpell only $10.00 a piece.
The spell checking technology is also available for purchase. Contact
me for more information.
_______________________________________________________________________
Registration / Order Form
Name : __________________________
Company : __________________________
Address : __________________________
__________________________
City/State : __________________________
Zip Code : __________________________
(Optional)
Phone : __________________________
Basic registration (less than 10 copies) : $20 x ___ = $ ______
Site license registration (10 or more copies) : $10 x ___ = $ ______
Disk Format: 5 1/4" ___ 3 1/2" ___
The product being registered is ShareSpell v2.0.
You will receive the latest version of ShareSpell, its dictionary and
related utilities.
Send check or money order to:
Acropolis Software
4620 Hazel Ave.
Fair Oaks, CA
95628