MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Does Tool Exist to Spellcheck/Grammarcheck by Category?

BetterRed · 09-16-2018, 08:56 PM

Short answer is No.

Some notes on my usage of Word 2016’s spell checker.

Because I dodge in and out of it a lot, I have the Proofing Options panel in the Quick Access toolbar; Alt 9 opens it.

Early on in my workflow (after EpubTools S&R), I do a pass with "Check grammar with spelling" unset. It's not perfect, punctuation ‘errors’ (e.g. missing comma’s etc), which I regard as grammatical/stylistic issues, will pop up; but if you have strict Grammar and Refinements [1] settings most of those are excluded.

In an ideal world there would be discrete Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar, and Style checkers.

There is a Change all option for spelling. But for me it's deficient, in that it doesn't do the corrections en-masse, it does them progressively. So, if you don't continue checking through to end of document, the 'unseen' corrections aren't made.

It also has an Ignore all, if I decide I need to review the context in which a misspelt word is used I select this option. Then after the first spelling only pass, I tap Recheck Document:

Press Alt+Numpad+ to go to 1st misspelt word, which should be something I previously ignored en-masse.

I copy/paste the word to the Navigation panel search box (I wish there was context menu option or kb short to do that). The Results tab will show the context for all occurrences of the misspelling. By stepping through the Results items, I can deal with each instance - Change, Ignore or Retype.

Tap Ctrl+Home and Alt+Numpad+ to find the next misspelt word.

In earlier versions of Word if you typed over a misspelt word, what you typed would be offered at the top of the Suggested list for subsequent occurrences of the misspelt word. That feature fell off the back of the truck sometime between 2010 and 2016. If anyone knows how to restore the feature in Word 2016, perhaps they'd let me know - either in here or in a PM.

I use Exclusion lists to exclude some spellings in some documents. FX in some texts I might prefer a word on loan from the French to be spelt with the appropriate diacritics.[2] This can result in many 'misspelt' words, the correction, via Find and Replace, involves selecting the appropriate language from the Language option in the "Formats" drop-down button.

I too quite like the Sigil and Calibre spell checkers in terms of the UI. Toxaris went some way towards doing something similar for Word in ePubTools. But I found it to be quite slow, and I didn't like having to use the hunspell dictionaries in the MS Office environment. Maybe it'll be better in version 2.0. Ideally it would have the same functionality as the native spell checker, or more, and it would use the Office dictionaries.

I'll try to come back on Grammar and Style.

BR

[1] Where did this Refinements word come from! Why replace a 5 letter 1 syllable word with an established usage: Style, with the 11 letter 3 syllable word: Refinements! Has MS been infected by the penchant for prolix that is endemic within the realms of US officialdom.

[2] Come Brexit, will the Anglosphere have to return the words it 'borrowed' from the EU languages; IIRC cravat was nicked from the Croats :-).

09-16-2018, 08:56 PM	#2
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 20,590 Karma: 26954694 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	Short answer is No. Some notes on my usage of Word 2016’s spell checker. Because I dodge in and out of it a lot, I have the Proofing Options panel in the Quick Access toolbar; Alt 9 opens it. Early on in my workflow (after EpubTools S&R), I do a pass with "Check grammar with spelling" unset. It's not perfect, punctuation ‘errors’ (e.g. missing comma’s etc), which I regard as grammatical/stylistic issues, will pop up; but if you have strict Grammar and Refinements [1] settings most of those are excluded. In an ideal world there would be discrete Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar, and Style checkers. There is a Change all option for spelling. But for me it's deficient, in that it doesn't do the corrections en-masse, it does them progressively. So, if you don't continue checking through to end of document, the 'unseen' corrections aren't made. It also has an Ignore all, if I decide I need to review the context in which a misspelt word is used I select this option. Then after the first spelling only pass, I tap Recheck Document: Press Alt+Numpad+ to go to 1st misspelt word, which should be something I previously ignored en-masse. I copy/paste the word to the Navigation panel search box (I wish there was context menu option or kb short to do that). The Results tab will show the context for all occurrences of the misspelling. By stepping through the Results items, I can deal with each instance - Change, Ignore or Retype. Tap Ctrl+Home and Alt+Numpad+ to find the next misspelt word. In earlier versions of Word if you typed over a misspelt word, what you typed would be offered at the top of the Suggested list for subsequent occurrences of the misspelt word. That feature fell off the back of the truck sometime between 2010 and 2016. If anyone knows how to restore the feature in Word 2016, perhaps they'd let me know - either in here or in a PM. I use Exclusion lists to exclude some spellings in some documents. FX in some texts I might prefer a word on loan from the French to be spelt with the appropriate diacritics.[2] This can result in many 'misspelt' words, the correction, via Find and Replace, involves selecting the appropriate language from the Language option in the "Formats" drop-down button. I too quite like the Sigil and Calibre spell checkers in terms of the UI. Toxaris went some way towards doing something similar for Word in ePubTools. But I found it to be quite slow, and I didn't like having to use the hunspell dictionaries in the MS Office environment. Maybe it'll be better in version 2.0. Ideally it would have the same functionality as the native spell checker, or more, and it would use the Office dictionaries. I'll try to come back on Grammar and Style. BR [1] Where did this Refinements word come from! Why replace a 5 letter 1 syllable word with an established usage: Style, with the 11 letter 3 syllable word: Refinements! Has MS been infected by the penchant for prolix that is endemic within the realms of US officialdom. [2] Come Brexit, will the Anglosphere have to return the words it 'borrowed' from the EU languages; IIRC cravat was nicked from the Croats :-). Last edited by BetterRed; 09-16-2018 at 09:38 PM.