On this page you'll find information on how to configure our spelling engine for use with your application. With this you'll be able to setup your dictionaries, edit them, and create additional dictionaries.
The first thing to know is that there are two dictionary types used with the spelling engine:
A number of these dictionaries can be downloaded for use with your application.
We also provide a Dictionary Wizard application that enables easy dictionary creation and the ability to edit existing dictionaries to your liking. With it you can create a supplemental dictionary for your business or job specialty, merge multiple dictionaries together to make a specialized dictionary for your project, and much more.
Selecting dictionaries within the spelling checker's configuration dialog is straightforward. First you need to bring up the spelling checker configuration. Typically your application will make this available to you from a menu item. If not, a simple way to open it is to perform a spelling check and within the spelling check dialog press the 'Options...' button.
Clicking on the 'Language' tab of the configuration dialog should show a dialog similar to what you see on the right.
The first option you see is the drop-down in the 'Language Settings' box. This controls which language is the primary language being used for checking documents. Set this to the language your documents are typically written in.
If this option doesn't contain your preferred language you can download and install other dictionaries.
The second option you see is the 'Additional dictionaries' list. This list contains all additional dictionaries that were found on your computer. Place a checkbox beside any dictionary you want to supplement your preferred language.
The 'Locate Dictionaries...' button can be used to browse for a folder containing dictionary files. This is useful for pointing the spelling engine at downloaded dictionaries. Once you've selected a folder of dictionaries they should then show up in the 'Additional dictionaries' list.
As mentioned earlier, language dictionaries are fixed lists of words that are considered correctly spelled. Custom dictionaries, on the other hand are smaller, dynamic lists that serve as the destination for words that you add to a dictionary during a spelling check. You can control and review previous additions to your custom dictionary by using the 'Custom Dictionary' tab of the spelling configuration dialog.
The first option you see is the drop down controlling the target custom dictionary for words you 'Add' to a dictionary
during a spelling check.
Below the custom dictionary selection you have the ability to edit the contents of the custom dictionary.
Editing is split into three sections of interest:
Adds - These are words that have been added to the custom dictionary during a spelling check.
Whenever the spelling engine encounters these words they will be considered correctly spelled.
Auto-Corrections - These are pairs of words that have been added to the custom dictionary during a spelling check whenever the 'Auto-Correct' button is pressed. They represent a misspelled word and the correctly spelled version of the word.
Whenever the spelling engine encounters the misspelled word it will be automatically replaced with the correctly spelled version of the word.
Exclusions - These are words that will always be considered misspelled, regardless of the context. Words aren't added to this list during a spelling check - they are added through this dialog as needed.
Whenever the spelling engine encounters a word in this list it will always be considered misspelled, even if it is present in another dictionary. This mechanism can be used to outlaw terms that are acceptable in the language as a whole, but are not acceptable for certain applications.
Note that only custom dictionaries can be edited through the spelling options dialog. A separate Dictionary Wizard is available that allows creation and editing of language dictionaries and more detailed handling of custom dictionaries.
Please note that your application uses our Addict spelling engine product to provide spelling check functionality. As a result we can offer information on downloading additional dictionaries or using our Dictionary Wizard product to create or edit dictionaries.
We cannot, however, provide support for using our spelling checker within the context of your application. Many, many applications use our spelling engine in a wide variety of ways. Please see the help file or support staff for the application you are using our spelling checker within. Thanks!