Using the Spell Checker

Topics:
Batch Mode Checking

Interactive Mode Checking

Spell Check Configuration

• Dictionaries
• Creating Your Own Word List Configs
• Tag Constraints
• Config Settings

Batch Mode Checking
This mode is available for spell checking directories, files, or the current file. It spell checks one or more documents and places the results in an error tab similar to the way validation errors are reported. The error report will list misspelled words in the order they are encountered in the document and provide a list of suggestions, if available, for each word. If a misspelled word occurs multiple times in a document, only the first occurrence will be reported. A summary at the end of the report notes the number or words checked and the number of spelling errors found. To invoke batch mode checking, select Validation | Check Spelling | (Directories, Files, or Current File).

Interactive Mode Checking
This mode is still under development.

Spell Check Configuration
The Spell Check Configuration dialog asks the user to select the filter to use when checking the document(s) and the dictionary files (under Word Lists) that will be combined to create the dictionary. A dictionary can be composed of one or more dictionary files. The items under Word List Configs allow users to select dictionary files with a single click. The filters are used to filter out comments, tags, and entities so that only data content is submitted to the spell checker. Users are required to select a filter and at least one dictionary file.

Dictionaries
A dictionary or word list file contains a list of words--one per line--and has a .dic extender. The application will search for dictionary files in two locations: install-path/SDValidator/dicts and home-path/SDValidator/dicts. You should place "official" dictionary releases in the dicts directory under the install-path and lists created by the user in the dicts directory under the home-path. Users might create lists for proper names or specialized terms not present in the generic dictionary files.

Creating Your Own Word List Configs
The Word List Configs enable users to select multiple dictionary files with a single click. Users can define their own config options by creating a file called dictconfig.properties and placing it in user's home directory/SDValidator. This directory will be created the first time the application is run. If you don't know where your home directory is located, select Help | About then select the User tab in the dialog that appears. The dictconfig.properties file must define the dictionary.configs property with a label to use for the config option and a list of one or more dictionary files to select. The format is: label|dictionaryFile,dictioanryFile. Note the pipe character separating the label from the dictionary files and the commas separating the dictionary files.

Sample properties files are listed below:

This example defines a single config.
dictionary.configs=\
MyConfig|color.dic,labeled.dic,center.dic,ize.dic,yze.dic,eng_com.dic,contractions.dic,mywords.dic

This example defines three configs.
dictionary.configs=\
MyConfig|color.dic,labeled.dic,center.dic,ize.dic,yze.dic,eng_com.dic,contractions.dic;\
ASecondConfig|english.0.dic,mywords.dic,mynames.dic;\
AnotherConfig|physicsterms.dic,scienceterms.dic,english.0.dic

Tag Constraints
Tag Constraints allow users to limit spell checking to one or more tags. If no tags are specified then all the data from a document will be checked. Consider the sample xml document below:

<document>
<title>Sample Document</title>
<author>Some Person</author>
<text>
<heading>A Heading</heading>
<p>Here is some data.</p>
<p>Here is some <i>more</i> data.</p>
</text>
</document>

If the user does not enter any tag constraints then data within all the tags that contain data (title, author, heading, i, and p) will be checked.

If the user enters title, heading, and p in the tag constraints list, then only the data in the following sections of the document will be checked.

<title>Sample Document</title>

<heading>A Heading</heading>
<p>Here is some data.</p>
<p>Here is some <i>more</i> data.</p>

Note that because the i tag is contained within the p tag, the contents of the i tag will be checked.

The Add, Edit, and Remove buttons are for managing the list of tags.

The Import button allows users to fill the list from one or more predefined lists of tags.

The predefined tag lists are drawn from the spelltagimport.properties file located in user's home directory/SDValidator. (This directory will be created the first time the application is run. If you don't know where your home directory is located, select Help | About then select the User tab in the dialog that appears.) The Import button will only be enabled if predefined lists have been defined. To define a list, create a text file named spelltagimport.properties. The spelltagimport.properties file must define the tag.imports.list property with a label to use for the tags list and a list of one or more tags. The format is: label|tag name,tag name. Note the pipe character separating the label from the tag names and the commas separating the tags.

Sample properties files are listed below:

This example defines a single tag list.
tag.imports.list=\
MyTagsToCheck|heading,p,title

This example defines three tag lists.
tag.imports.list=\
MyTagsToCheck|heading,p,title;\
ASecondList|para,title,header;\
AnotherList|para,item

Config Settings
The config settings allow users to further control the behavior of the spell checker. The settings are described in the table below.

Property Name	Description	Default Value
Ignore Words with Digits	Words that have digits in them are not spell checked, for example: mach5, 1024.	false
Ignore Mixed Case Words	Words that have mixed case are not spell checked, for example: SpellChecker.	false
Ignore Upper Case Words	Words that are all upper case are not spell checked, for example: IBM, FBI.	false
Ignore Digits	Words that are composed only of digits are not spell checked, for example: 1, 1024.	false
Ignore Single Letter Words	Words that are composed of a single letter are not spell checked, for example: a, I.	false