Options

The "Options" tab sheet shows you a lot of variables that you can check. You can either select or deselect an option. Below you will find an explanation of all the options:

spellcheck document in batchmode

There are two ways to spell-check a document:

1. Checking words on-the fly. If a word isn't found in the dictionaries a, suggestions for replacements will be shown.
2. All words in the file are checked for presence in the dictionary. When the whole document is read all unknown words are presented, and suggestions for replacements are given. This is called "batch mode".

Method 2 works probably best for large documents. It may take quite a long time before all the words are checked and during that time you could do other things (Windows is a multi-tasking system). The first method is used by most spell-checkers in word processors (MS-Word, Wordperfect, etc.). Just choose the method you prefer.

Show line and column numbers in status line

Showing line and column numbers in the left part of the statusbar may be useful as an progress indicator during spell-checking. However, keeping track of the line, column, and displaying it takes time. By switching it off you gain some speed.

Use color highlighting with spell-checking

Displaying words in a specific color (indicating the action that was performed on it) is useful as a debugging tool, but it also takes time to "colorize" the words. By switching the color highlighting off you gain some speed.

Skip spell-check within comments

You can specify which character (or word) is used to indicate that the rest of the line has to be treated as a comment (in TeX the percent sign % is used). With this switch you can decide whether or not the words that appear in a comment should be checked.

Skip spell-check within parameters

TeX and other formats often use macros with parameters (in LaTeX and ConTeXt parameters are often specified within square brackets []). You may find that it's not sensible to spell-check them. This option can be used to skip spell-checking within parameters (or more precisely: between the beginparameter and endparameter character).

Autocorrect lower/uppercase errors

4Spell is lower and uppercase sensitive. Changing lower/uppercase letters within a word will cause 4Spell to interprete the word as a misspelled word and offering you suggestions. Often changing lower/uppercase within a word is the result of typing errors (using the SHIFT key too late or too long) and often you want these type of mistakes automatically being corrected. For instance words as "tHis" and "THis" can be changed automatically in "This". When this 4Spell option is checked, 4Spell will automatically change the words used in this example by "This".

Do not check capitals in user/autofix/replace lists

The AUTOFIX, USER and REPLACE list can contain words that are case sensitive. E.g. the word "Netherlands" should always be written with a capital "N". This option will force 4Spell to accept only words that match exactly a word from the dictionary. Languages such as German could benifit fromt his option.

Play attention sound (.WAV)

Depending on the size of the file, your computer's speed and the number of misspelled words in the document, it can take some time before the first misspelled word is found. To draw attention to this event, you can select a sound file to be played when that happens.

use scaled fonts for 4Spell screens

You can resize any of the 4Spell screens. 4Spell will store the size of the screens in the 4TEX.INI file and will remember your settings the next time 4Spell is called. By default the font size of the screens aren't changed when you resize a window. When checked, this option will also resize the fonts when you resize the screens.

do use AUTOFIX list

When checking words, 4Spell uses an AUTOFIX list to automatically correct common typing errors. For instance if you frequently type "adn" instead of "and", you can add this to the AUTOFIX list and these typos will be corrected without user intervention. Note that the AUTOFIX list is language dependent. Some people prefer to switch this option off and let the spell-checker ask whether or not a word should be changed.

' is part of word

Some people prefer the apostrophe to be part of a word. E.g. the words "does" and "not" are often written as "doesn't". When spell-checking without treating the apostrophe as part of the word, "doesn't" would be treated as two words: "doesn" and "t".

Make log file

If this option is checked 4Spell will write a log file when spell-checking the document. The log file lists in detail what 4Spell did while spell-checking a document. You can view the logfile when clicking on the "Log file" button in the "File" tab sheet.

Generate wordlist

4Spell can generate of a list of all different words it found in the document while spell-checking. You can view the wordlist by clicking on the "Wordlist" button in the "File" tab sheet.

Show statistics

After spell-checking 4Spell will summarize its actions. It will show how many words were read, replaced, ignored etc. This information is also written to the log file (if any).

Save with accents

Before spell-checking is started, 4Spell will read the accents file, which contains codes that should be translated into ANSI characters. E.g. for TeX "\'e" is used to write the character "‚". Note that the list of accents is format dependent.

Minimum wordsize

Not all (sub)words are checked. Only words that are longer than a minimal size are checked. Here you can specify the minimal wordsize. This option is e.g. useful when you typing initials, abbreviations etc.

Maximum number of suggestion

When a word isn't found in the dictionaries, 4Spell will look for alternative words. You can set the maximum number of alternatives it will generate. Note that you will not always get the maximum number of alternatives, because the dissimilarity of any correct word may be too high.

Maximum number of undo operations

When spellchecking your document you can replace a word by mistake, or add a wrong word to the userlist. This is not a problem: with the Undo button the last replace/add operation can be rolled back. Here you can set the maximum number of undo operations that are stored in an undo list.