New Online Spelling and Grammar Checker
I was recently emailed by Dr Terry Nadasdi, who is co-developer of a free online spelling and grammar checker called Spellcheckplus. Dr Nadasdi asked if I would be willing to look at the site and offer any comments.
Well, I have done this, and was duly impressed. Because it is web-based, Spellcheckplus will work on any computer, PC or Mac. The Spellcheckplus website allows you to paste any amount of text into it, and it will then check this for possible spelling and grammatical mistakes.
When I tried this with some text I had written for an e-book, copying and pasting directly from Microsoft Word into the text box, it analyzed my writing and identified a couple of possible mistakes. One of these was a misunderstanding by the software, but the other was a grammatical point that I had to admit needed attention.
The checking process is quick and intuitive. Clear errors (e.g. typos) are highlighted in red, whilst items to check (e.g. possible grammatical mistakes) are shown in yellow. If you hover your cursor over a highlighted area of text, a box appears to the right with an explanation and/or suggested alternatives.
Unlike some commercial programs such as WhiteSmoke, Spellcheckplus does not make any changes for you - you have to go in and do this yourself. This is an intentional feature. SpellCheckPlus is aimed primarily at people who are learning English as a second language, so for pedagogical reasons it requires users to make all corrections themselves. Then, of course, they can re-check to see if all their errors have been put right.
The developers emphasise that Spellcheckplus can ONLY check for spelling and grammatical errors, however. It cannot detect whether a sentence makes sense or not, neither does it provide the "enrichment" suggestions offered by WhiteSmoke.
As mentioned above, Spellcheckplus is free, but there is also a premium version called SpellCheckPlus Pro which offers a few additional features (and no advertising). This costs just $15 Canadian a year.
Overall, I think Spellcheckplus is a very nifty application. If you're at all shaky on spelling or grammar, running your work through it before sending it for publication could save you some embarrassment. Ideally it would be nice if it offered the option for suggested corrections to be incorporated automatically by clicking on them - but even without that feature, Spellcheckplus offers an extremely useful free service. For people for whom English is not their first language, in particular, I would highly recommend it.
UPDATE 1 October 2008 - Check out my new, free contest to win a year's subscription to SpellCheckPlus Pro!
Well, I have done this, and was duly impressed. Because it is web-based, Spellcheckplus will work on any computer, PC or Mac. The Spellcheckplus website allows you to paste any amount of text into it, and it will then check this for possible spelling and grammatical mistakes.
When I tried this with some text I had written for an e-book, copying and pasting directly from Microsoft Word into the text box, it analyzed my writing and identified a couple of possible mistakes. One of these was a misunderstanding by the software, but the other was a grammatical point that I had to admit needed attention.
The checking process is quick and intuitive. Clear errors (e.g. typos) are highlighted in red, whilst items to check (e.g. possible grammatical mistakes) are shown in yellow. If you hover your cursor over a highlighted area of text, a box appears to the right with an explanation and/or suggested alternatives.
Unlike some commercial programs such as WhiteSmoke, Spellcheckplus does not make any changes for you - you have to go in and do this yourself. This is an intentional feature. SpellCheckPlus is aimed primarily at people who are learning English as a second language, so for pedagogical reasons it requires users to make all corrections themselves. Then, of course, they can re-check to see if all their errors have been put right.
The developers emphasise that Spellcheckplus can ONLY check for spelling and grammatical errors, however. It cannot detect whether a sentence makes sense or not, neither does it provide the "enrichment" suggestions offered by WhiteSmoke.
As mentioned above, Spellcheckplus is free, but there is also a premium version called SpellCheckPlus Pro which offers a few additional features (and no advertising). This costs just $15 Canadian a year.
Overall, I think Spellcheckplus is a very nifty application. If you're at all shaky on spelling or grammar, running your work through it before sending it for publication could save you some embarrassment. Ideally it would be nice if it offered the option for suggested corrections to be incorporated automatically by clicking on them - but even without that feature, Spellcheckplus offers an extremely useful free service. For people for whom English is not their first language, in particular, I would highly recommend it.
UPDATE 1 October 2008 - Check out my new, free contest to win a year's subscription to SpellCheckPlus Pro!
Nick at 3:39 PM
3 Comments:
Thats BS. I am trying to check a grmmar "test" using this program. The "test" sentences have obvious mistakes, but the program found none of them.
Don't waste your time or money.
I'll definitely check it out. thanks. John.
Mayor, SpellingCity.com
I totally agree with Anonymous below....IT SIMPLY DOES NOT WORK! I made several mistakes on purpose to see if it works and it only caught one of the words. Poor product!!
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