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Spelling and How To Use the Right Mouse Button

By Rosemary Bell

Note: Any spelling mistakes in this article are intentional!

It amazes me how many people do not do a simple proofread of their article and/or comments to check for spelling mistakes.

I've put this together rather quickly to get people thinking about how much their computer can do for them. Each computer is different depending on so many factors - including the browser they're using, the program they're using or even the web site they're on. But I'm hoping this will at least get people to do a little more exploring on how much more their computer can do to make spell check easier.

It's easy to do. Plenty of web sites will let you know when you misspell a word by placing a red squiggly line underneath it. When it does this, it's letting you know that by pressing the right mouse button, it will open a small dialogue box usually giving you different spelling options. It offers more than just spelling options but this article is about spelling.

Some options given to you in that dialogue box:

spelling suggestions
add to dictionary
Languages - click on this and another box opens listing your dictionary with an option to
Add Dictionary - I'm using Firefox so clicking on this takes me to the website add-on page

And if you're a Canadian like me eh, you add the Canadian dictionary so words like colour and favourites, where we like using our 'u' don't get flagged as mistakes. Since I've already added this dictionary, it shows up in my Language dialogue box.

This is a great tool for anyone writing articles in a different language or trying to direct some articles to a particular country.

One of the things it won't tell you though, is if you've used the proper word. Some examples:

there - their - they're

your - you're

to - too - two

hear - here

Those are just some of the common words that are misspelled, there are plenty more.

Here is a word I often see misspelled:
recepies - when it should be recipes.

Unfortunately, the dialogue box doesn't give you the right spelling for this word.

There are plenty of good articles that have been added to this site with some great tips and resources in them. Just search the articles for spell check, spelling or any other variation you can think of to find them and check them out.

Don't be afraid to use the right mouse button and find out what other options are available to you. You might be surprised at how much you can do with it!

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Check out the add-on page for Firefox to see all the different Dictionaries and Language Tools available to you.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/language-tools/

Check out this images page from Google Search:

http://www.google.ca/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&c...

Test your skills - Spelling Quiz

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/improvingyourgrammar/a/spelling.htm

http://grammar.about.com/od/spelling/a/25misspelledwords.htm

Want more of a challenge - this one has 507 words

http://www.esldesk.com/spelling/misspelled-words

Another interesting list:
http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html

Contributor's Note

This was supposed to be a short article, I guess I got carried away - there are so many resources available!

I use FireFox exclusively but I'm pretty sure these fairly common options are available in Internet Explorer or the browser of your choosing.

Just another of my computer tips that I like sharing.

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Never use spell checker meself, but then again I know how to spell colourful and optimise. I hate the grammar police because my lack of edukashun shows thru. I at least know the difference between there and their, I also know that the apostrophe is a bastard when it makes no sense. qondio's spell checker is oviaasly set to yank because my real english spelling is all underlined. But see if I care.

Oh, I know how to spell, it's the typos I want it to catch.

Thank you for sharing this keyboard tip, Rosemary. I use the mouse, because I find it more convienent and reliable then the pad.
This short intel, will take some time to digest, but it'll be worth it.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Well, it started out short, but I kept thinking of more things to add. You know how one thing leads to another.

Plus I've also received feedback on some of more short tips, which I think were basically complete, that I should elaborate on them more.

Thanks for another great computer tip Rosemary! This one should be used more often I guess!

Thanks Barb. I realize that not everyone is a good speller but I just can't understand how some people post their articles when they see all those red squiggly lines that lets them know those words are misspelled.

There are so many free online resources available if they don't have a full word processing program on their computer to do the spell check for them.

Hey, I usually have the built in dictionary which underlines words in red that are misspelled and then use the "right-click" to change them. I do over look some words for some reason, even when I read something 3 times, it is wierd. Stuff like the word "your". I sometimes read it as "you" when proof reading. Must be my mind playing tricks.

I miss the odd one sometimes. That's why it's important if you can to have someone else do it or at least save it, leave it for a while and proofread it again. I find going back to it works because you have had a rest and it seems fresh again.

That's when you spot the 'you' when you meant 'your'. Anyhow, those ones are usually typos, not spelling mistakes.

You'll notice that I usually spell neighbour .. neighbor, colour ..color. Even though I'm Canadian, in my youth we lived 7 miles from the USA border and many of the friends I got to know and write to were Americans. I figured, if I couldn't lick 'em, I'd join 'em. I draw the line at night being spelled nite.

Thanks Laraine,

I do know that my tips are helpful to some and I'm glad they appreciate them.

I'm stubborn and a proud Canadian.

Rosemary

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