Filed under: Software
Amendment
Long time readers of TUAW are sure to back me up on this: I'm a horrible speller. It is no shock, given this fact, that I welcome any application that is designed to correct my mistakes before thousands of people read them. Enter Amendment which bills itself as 'Spell checking, reinvented.'This $16 app is available now for $12. It only works in Cocoa apps (though not in Mail or Pages) where it gives you a Quicksilver-esque interface for correcting spelling errors.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jack Williams said 4:34PM on 6-14-2006
No matter how many mistakes I make typing, I'd rather not pay anything to do what a little bit of patience gives me for nearly free. I'm sure it'll be more convenient for most people, but this is just not my type of program. Especially for $12... if it was $2 or $3, then maybe. Only maybe.
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Guillermo said 4:53PM on 6-14-2006
I thought it would be a good idea, but after trying it for a few minutes, I think that pop-up is more annoying and intrusive than it is useful.
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Michael Strck said 4:54PM on 6-14-2006
Nifty. However, "only works in Cocoa apps (though not in Mail or Pages)" for most people translates to "nowhere at all" …
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Brian Ashe said 5:02PM on 6-14-2006
I don't know how to hook into the systemwide dictionary in all apps, but the #1 place I use spellcheck is in text areas on web pages, like this one I'm typing in right now. Safari is awesome: Edit -> Spelling -> Check spelling as you type. I get a red underline under words I don't know and I can right-click on them to look at suggestions or I can choose 'Learn spelling' and add that word to my own personal dictionary. Also, I think there's a toolbar from Google that will check spelling in Firefox.
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tk2k said 5:04PM on 6-14-2006
doesnt safari give you a built in spellchecker? whats wrong with that?
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kuwan said 5:48PM on 6-14-2006
I'm the author of a simple, system-wide Spellchecker for Mac OS X called HyperSpell. HyperSpell lets you check spelling from any application, not just certain Cocoa applications. HyperSpell can be driven completely from the keyboard allowing you to quickly check spelling from any application.
If Amendment is something you might like then you should also check out HyperSpell, it's only $10:
http://kuwan.net/hyperspell
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Joe said 6:16PM on 6-14-2006
Can't let this pass without mentioning the granddaddy of all spellcheckers, Spellcatcher (Formerlly "Thunder"). Amendment might execute the pop-up a little differently, but Spellcatcher has been doing that for years. And the pop-up is a choice, I use the audible signal.
http://www.spellcatcher.com/
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Rahul Sinha said 6:30PM on 6-14-2006
It will work in Mail and Pages when the final version is released; they use webkit and not NSTextView or whatever, but that capability is currently being added.
c.f. their website
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tuqqer said 7:38PM on 6-14-2006
Another massive fan of Spell Catcher. Once you try it, there's always jaw-dropping moment when you realize how slick and well-integrated it is. For instance, if I misspell some word, such as ... mispell ... It actually automatically corrects the word the second I put that space afterwards. This is because it's a common word for me to misspell, so I entered that into my autocorrects (which is all done via keyboard shortcuts). Even better: if I misspell an odd word, like "industrous" ... Spell Catcher brings up a small window that has up to 10 possible corrections. Here's the kicker: aside each word is a number. Hit that number and Spell Catcher quickly replaces the bad word with the good one.
It doesn't stop there: it also has an optional Ghost Writer, which records every lettered keystroke in your choice of apps, in a dated basic text file. If you write a lot, and suddenly trash some doc you made last week that you were supposed to keep, no worries. It's there in a text doc. These text docs can be automatically deleted after XX amount of days, so you don't end up with thousands of files. Just a few weeks, or a couple months, whatever you want.
It's truly the first program I reinstall onto my new Macs when I first get them.
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Ryan said 8:00PM on 6-14-2006
Start typing a word in a cocoa app textfield and hit the esc key. You will see an autocomplete come up - much simpler!
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Fornya said 11:07PM on 6-14-2006
I'm with Brian Ashe. Anytime I'm typing anything anywhere with OS X, if something is misspelled it gets underlined in red. Select the questionable spelling, control-click on the selection, and you get a very convenient context-sensitve menu with known corrections, spelling controls, and a host of other very handy options. It's all you need!
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David said 12:12PM on 6-15-2006
Spell-checkers are useful, but they only catch misspellings that aren't other words. Due ewe no watt eye mean?
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steve Leckie said 12:15PM on 6-15-2006
CopyPaste does much of what Spell Catcher can do by the sounds of it, plus it's main feature of keeping track of the last 20 items that you copied, so that you can re-paste things. And it does auto-complete of long words.
http://www.copypaste-x.com/
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Carlos Alberto Pinto Peixoto Bastos Santos said 4:17AM on 6-16-2006
No doubts that SpellCatcher, as others mentioned here, is the most recommended app for this situation. It's integration w/the system, plus advanced capabilities has no contenders yet.
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