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I ran into this problem with FrameMaker, also. The product includes a very
extensive medical spell-checking program, but unfortunately, I was working
for an engineering publisher rather than a medical one.
The editors kept a list of memorable, absurd, WRONG suggestions the
spellchecker would propose.
I called Frame to see if there was any way to delete the words that were
causing the most errors, but there wasn't.
In this case, the spellchecker was an active hindrance to getting the work
done, so we just didn't use it. All spellchecking was by proofreading.
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-28189 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-28189 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Guy K. Haas
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 4:21 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Was "Spelling & Grammarchecker Use Survey"
joanne grey wrote:
>
> Brad Mehlenbacher wrote:
>
> > *This survey is for Microsoft Word users*
>
> Going back a few years, but here is one of my favorite silly stories.
. . .
> In writing a User's Guide for a wonderful piece of (now obsolete)
> software, I was defining all the customization options available. These
> were accessed via a series of property sheets. Unfortunately, that day
> my brain was faster than my fingers, and I typed "property sheep"
> instead.
>
> Since "sheep" is a legitimate word, the spell checker sailed right past
> it. So did the three reviewers.
>
> Thank goodness the final reviewer caught it and was quite curious about
> how you would open one of "them thar property sheeps".
>
> It was after that that I began using spell checkers as just one tool and
> not relying on them too much. I also took "form" and "from" out of the
> dictionary, so that it can't find them and checks with me for those,
> too.
Word at least provides that ability. Last I heard, there was no way
to remove a word from the base dictionary provided with FrameMaker.
In object-oriented programming, there is a concept of names being
private or public (among others), and the spell checker would never
notice if you type "pubic" in place of "public."
--Guy K. Haas
Senior Technical Writer
Selectica, Inc.
E-Mail: ghaas -at- selectica -dot- com
Internet: www.selectica.com
Phone: (408) 545-2514 Fax: (408) 570-2167
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