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Mac 101: spell check errors

by Dave Caolo Jul 10th 2008 at 4:00PM

There's a funny post at The Apple Blog today that points out a few typos that give Mac OS X Leopard's built-in spell checker a bit of trouble.

For instance, the error "instrucitons" suggests "isntrucitons" as well as "instructions", and "applicaticataion" when "applicatication" is typed instead of "application." There are a few more in their list.

I've noticed that my iPhone always suggests "he'll" when I want to type "hell" (yes, I type "hell" enough to have noticed this).

Of course, this is simple to fix. You can correct these errors for good by right-clicking (or Control-click) on the correct spelling and select "Learn spelling" from the contextual menu. Use this same method to add uncommon words, like surnames, etc.

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OS Tips and tricks Mac 101

There's a funny post at The Apple Blog today that points out a few typos that give Mac OS X Leopard's built-in spell checker a bit of...
 

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chris

I think a more important question is how do you UNDO improper spellings that you over wrote the real one with. the "add to dictionary button really should have a "are you sure" dialog (even though I hate those things on windows) I will be checking a word like "liek" and hit add to dictionary by accident, so now it won't check to see if that word is correct in the future, if I misspell it again. I've done this more than once and I wish I knew how to just reset the dictionary.

July 11 2008 at 12:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MJ

Okay, big kudos to anyone who can help me figure this out. I want to find a way to delete words from Word or Text Edit's dictionary, so it flags words for manual review, such as "your" and "you're" and "their" and "they're."
Perhaps there's another solution to accomplishing this as well, but the bottom line is I want to find a way to CHECK words that spell check passes over, because they are words located in its dictionary. And no, the Grammar function doesn't always catch these.
Any ideas?

July 10 2008 at 4:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to MJ's comment
Ethan

I don't know, but couldn't you just do a search for those words once you’d finished the document?

July 11 2008 at 5:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Hobbes

I'm running 10.5.4 and none of those words have the same result for me. It works fine here.

July 10 2008 at 4:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shawn

I wonder if htis works for my iphone. I type my daughters name alll the time...Nadia, and it so kindly wants to correct my spelling to Natzi which kinda ticks me off.

July 10 2008 at 4:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kev Orng

I don't suppose you have any hints on how I can make it recognize Canadian spelling?

July 10 2008 at 4:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Kev Orng's comment
James

Ah, yes, but is there any way to teach your iPhone a new word?

July 10 2008 at 4:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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