Spelling Checker

You can get help on the following topics:

Check-Spelling Dialog

Options Dialog

Dictionaries Dialog

New-Dictionary Dialog

Sentry Spelling-Checker Engine, Copyright 1994-1997 by Wintertree Software Inc.


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.

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.

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 spell-checking operation.

Change button: Causes the reported word to be replaced with the word in the Change To box. 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. If the Change To box is empty, the Change button changes to Delete.

Change All button: Causes this and all following occurrences of the reported word to be replaced with the word in the Change To box. 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.

Change To box: Contains a word which will replace a misspelled word when you select the Change or Change All buttons. You can enter a word in the Change To box by typing, or you can select one of the suggested replacements from the Suggestions list.

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. Note that the label of this box changes to “Not in dictionary” when a misspelled word is detected.

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.

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.

Lock Pos. check-box: Locks the position of the Check-Spelling dialog in place. Normally the Check-Spelling dialog attempts to position itself to avoid the window containing the text being checked. When the Lock check-box is checked, the Check-Spelling dialog will always appear at the last place you positioned it.

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. Note that the label of this box changes to “Consider changing” when a word and a suggested replacement are displayed.

Options button: Causes the Options dialog to be displayed. 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. This list is filled in automatically when a misspelled word is detected. Subsequent presses of the Suggest button may yield more suggestions. A word selected in this list will be automatically copied to the Change To box, where it can be substituted for the misspelled word by pressing the Change button.

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


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 checked during a spell-checking operation.

Action list: Used to select an action which 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.

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.

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 on the basis of 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 on the basis of 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.

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 which 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 new dictionary's contents. 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 "Other."

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