Spelling errors – no excuse
Short quick post here on this one. I had recently swapped out drives on my desktop computer at home. In the process I basically re-installed the O/S (and going out on a limb I went and upgraded to Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3). Anyway, it is with regret that I just now am realizing that I failed to re-install my generic system wide spell checker.
The one I use is called ASpell and the Windows 2000/XP (and maybe Vista) version is available at that link. That is a little tool I discovered over on my Linux (specially Ubuntu Dapper Dan) side of things back a while ago. Very nice tool because it works in memory all the time, as a fairly low overhead, has support for multiple languages and personalized words lists, and is generally speaking VERY good.
What does that all mean? Basically if you are composing in WordPad or on in some window on the web, such as I am doing now with this blog post, it is constantly analyzing what I type. I soon as I hit the space bar it immediately flags misspelled words with a red dotted underline. I have not really used much beyond that, as most of the time my words that highlight are either just typos or words that use regularly that are maybe not in the dictionary (like blog and farrier) that I know are spelled correctly. However, when I see something I am not sure about I just look it up otherwise – as I have been too lazy to read the manuals. But just catching things is, like the Master Card commercials say, priceless – which is just what the cost of ASpell is – GNU/GPL licensing makes the cost-free.
Now that I have it re-installed here I realize I need to spend the next thirty or forty minutes re-checking all my recent posts for spelling errors. What a joyful way to spend some time – NOT!
Spell Checking News Update: I use both Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 2.? as web browsers. IE does not let the ASpell tool work through it as near as I can tell. In the short-term, there is an IEspell that does seem to work in a limited way. Text in a box can be spell checked by clicking the appropriate link under Tools in IE. It very easily that gives you a list of possible words (something ASpell does as well I believe though I have not delved deep enough to find the how too as of yet (this after using it for over 2 years).
Breaking Spell Check News Update #2: I have just completed checking previous post over the last several weeks and no spelling errors. I am personally in awe that is the case and my hats off to my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs Baker – somewhere deep down things stuck despite the number of times I forgot them in 5th grade through college. Now, if they would only develop an on the fly where ever focus is grammar checking tool I would be set.
