Spell Checker

The Spell Checker command provides access to the built-in spell checking facility. Boxer's spell checker provides several options to control the scope of the spell check operation, and some unique options which permit spell checking to be performed within program source code files.

For information about Boxer's on-the-fly spell checking feature, which checks text as you type, see the Active Spell Checking command.

Use this option to constrain the spell check to the selected text. When text is not selected, this option will be disabled.

Use this option to limit the scope of the spell check to those files within the active project.

When an HTML file is being edited, this option can be used to tell the Spell Checker to ignore HTML markup tags, thereby avoiding the false errors which would occur if the entire file were checked.

When editing a file for which Boxer has Syntax Highlighting information, this option can be used to tell the Spell Checker to check only that text which matches a designated syntax. This makes it possible to spell check program code without getting false hits for reserved words, variable names, and other text which naturally cannot appear within a dictionary. When this box is checked, the options below become available for selection.

Use this option to spell check only that text which appears in String context. Boxer uses its Syntax Highlighting information to determine the syntax of the text being checked.

Use this option to spell check only that text which appears in Comment context. Both block comment text and end-of-line comment text will be checked. Boxer uses its Syntax Highlighting information to determine the syntax of the text being checked.

Use this option to spell check only that text which appears in either String or Comment context. Both block comment text and end-of-line comment text will be checked. Boxer uses its Syntax Highlighting information to determine the syntax of the text being checked.

Use this option to select the dictionary to be used by the Spell Checker. Dictionaries are available for the following languages: American English, British English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Czech and Spanish. Three specialty dictionaries are also available: Legal, Medical and 'Moby', an extra large American English dictionary. If Boxer was not supplied with the dictionary you prefer to use, please visit our website at www.boxersoftware.com to obtain our other dictionaries. The dictionaries are located in the Downloads area.

The More Options button provides a quick way to summon the Configure | Preferences | Other dialog page, which contains additional Spell Checker options.

After specifying the scope and other options, the Spell Check operation begins. When a word is encountered which is not found in the dictionary, a popup dialog box is presented:

The position of the popup box is selected so as not to overlap the offending word within the editor window. The word that was not found is displayed in bold, and is also highlighted in the editor window to show its context. Several options are available:

The Change to edit box displays a suggested word which the offending word might be replaced with. The text in this box can be edited as may be needed.

To ensure that special characters are displayed in the Change to box as they will appear when inserted into the editor, the Change to box uses the same font as is used in the editor itself.

The Suggestions listbox displays a list of other words which might be used to replace the offending word. Click on a word to select it and move it into the Change to edit box.

Use the Change button to replace the offending word with the word in the Change to box.

Use the Change All button to replace the offending word with the word in the Change to box, and to indicate that all future occurrences of the word should also be changed.

Use the Ignore button to skip the offending word. Future occurrences of the word will be presented when they occur.

Use the Ignore All button to skip the offending word, and to indicate that all future occurrences should also be ignored.

Use the Add button to add the offending word to the dictionary. Words which are added to the dictionary are saved within the file userdict.txt in Boxer's home directory. This file can also be edited within Boxer to add other words, or to remove words which may have been added mistakenly.

Words which are added to the user dictionary will be accepted as correctly spelled words in any case configuration in which they may occur. For example, if the word ebay is added to the dictionary, it will be accepted in any of the following forms: eBay, ebAy, and ebaY. This liberal processing was necessary because the third-party dictionary that Boxer uses is not processed in a case sensitive manner. Before this handling was put in place, the word eBay would always be reported as misspelled, even when eBay (or any variant) had been added to the user dictionary.

Use the Mark Word button to surround the offending word with pound signs (###). This makes it easy to locate the word later on to make manual adjustments. When the Spell Check operation is complete, the cursor will be placed on the first marked word.

Once a change has been made to the word in the Change to box, the Suggest button can be used to fill the Suggestions listbox with other words which may be related to the word.

Use the Reset Ignored button to clear the list of ignored words which has been built during the current edit session.

Use the Next File button to skip the rest of the current file and move to the next file to be checked.

By default, Boxer is configured to use the American English dictionary. Dictionaries are also available for British English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Czech and Spanish. Three specialty dictionaries are also available: Legal, Medical and 'Moby', an extra large American English dictionary. The active dictionary can be set on the dialog that appears when the Spell Checker is first run. If Boxer was not supplied with the dictionary you prefer to use, please visit our website at www.boxersoftware.com to obtain our other dictionaries. The dictionaries are located in the Downloads area.

Several options which can be used to further control the Spell Checking process are available on the Configure | Preferences | Other options page.