Spell Check Panel

Related Information

Text Main Menu

Spell Submenu

Spelling - Interactive Spell Check Panel

This panel is used to interactively manage spell and grammar checking and correction.

The panel is accessed from the Spelling submenu found near the bottom of the Text main menu. The panel may be opened and used to initiate spell check actions, or a spell check menu action may present the panel during a spell check session.

Sometimes the Find Next button will seem not to operate properly. Click the top title bar of the Spelling panel to focus your key clicks on the panel, the title bar of the panel will darken and operation will proceed as expected.

The spell checking technology is a system wide resource. If other dictionaries are added to your system they are then available to EazyDraw. The panel may look different on your system, this will depend on the version of macOS and the possible use of third party plug-ins.

The top left text field is the key focus of spelling (grammar) correction. This field will show a suspect word, and your choice for the correction. Directly below this field a comment is provided from the system spell checker, explaining the issue. The list below the comment area will present suggestions for correction. Corrections need to be entered in the top text field, replacing the suspect version. You may type in a correction, or select from the suggestions list with a mouse click.

Ignore: if the suspect misspelling is acceptable for use in this document (drawing), click the Ignore button. The original spelling is then appended to the spelling dictionary, but only for this drawing. Ignored spellings are saved with the drawing, they will no longer appear as suspect or be highlighted during future spell checks for this drawing. Ignored words are not added to the spelling dictionary, they will be appear as suspect on other documents and drawings.

Find Next: will initiate a spell check session, or proceed to the next suspect spelling.

Learn: learn should be used carefully, click this button to append the suspect word to the current dictionary. The learned word will pass future spell checks for this and other drawings. The learned word may apply system wide and become an allowed spelling for other documents created and managed by other applications on your system.

Change: a click of this button will replace the highlighted suspect word or phrase of your drawing’s text with the contents of the top left text field. Care should be take to note the full range of text highlighted on the drawing and the current contents in the top left text field. Click this button after your correcting the contents of the top left text field.

The popup menu below the suggestions list shows the current dictionary. All dictionaries available on the system are found on this menu. Use it to select the appropriate dictionary for the task at hand.

Issues, Checked, and Words: these numeric text boxes indicate an approximate word count. The first tabulates the spelling issues found as a spell check session progresses. The Checked value indicates the word position for the current suspect spelling. The final "Words" value is a count of all words for the current spell check session.

Mark Spelling works with selected text, or if none is selected all text on the drawing. This action will highlight misspellings directly on the drawing. Interactive spell checking and correction is not invoked with this action.

Clear Marks: this will remove all spelling highlights from the selected text on the drawing.

Show Ignored will open a small drop down list of the misspelled words (as defined by the spelling dictionary in use) allowed for this drawing. These words are added to the list during interactive spell checking or they may be added using directly to the drop down list.

Reset: this is used to clear the state of an interactive spell checking session. It is useful when changing drawings with a spell check in progress, or perhaps after a major text editing step.

The bottom button and text field are used to remove "Learned" words from an addendum to the current dictionary. Type the spelling into the text box then click the "Unlearn" button. If the entered spelling is not an "learned" word, this will be noted on a pull down information panel.

Frequently you may click change before actually changing the suspect spelling - in that key top left text box. This results in replacing the misspelled word with itself. EazyDraw will alert you when this happens and let you do a "back-step" of the spell check session to immediately revisit the misspelling.

Notice the interrelation of the Ignore, Learn, and Find Next buttons. All allow the suspect spelling to remain, they just differ in the degree to which the suspect spelling will be over-looked or not for future spell checks.

The "Check Grammar" check box is often disabled. It only applies to temporary checks of an entered phrase. Primary control for checking grammar is done with the Check Grammar menu command found on the spelling sub-menu.

The word count elements provide feedback to indicate the state and results of a spell check. It is easy to think you have just spell checked your whole drawing when only a small text box was checked. The current word position number is useful for locating the misspelling highlight on large drawings or in a large text box.

It is sometimes confusing managing the spell check panel and your main drawing window. Notice that to get the full blue highlights on the suggested spelling lists that the spelling window need to be "in focus", click the title bar to go this state. When you type corrections directly into the drawing the spelling panel is not your main focus and the buttons and controls are presented slightly differently. Clicking the title bar of the spelling panel is often helpful during a spell check session.

Note that "Change" changes the selected text with the contents of the key top left text box of this spelling panel. If a different text selection is made on the drawing (perhaps even in a different text box) and the spelling panel is revisited, a click of the Change button may unintentionally replace text other than the misspelled word.

Note that "Unlearn" does not clear "Ignored" words. To remove an "Ignore" word, click the Show Ignored button and use the pull down panel to manage the ignored words for the individual drawing.