Using the spellcheck function

Using the spellcheck function


OverviewThe Transtool application provides a spellchecker function based on dictionaries arranged by languages.

The spellcheck settings allow the user to pick both Hunspell and Office. If both are selected, then spellcheck will stop only if the word is missing from both dictionaries. Suggestions from both spellcheckers will be presented (Office before Hunspell).

Information about installing and using Spellcheck for external users is available at https://transtool.cbg.com/ as text and Video Tutorials.

See also How to install the spellchecker.

 

HunspellHunspell is the new dictionary system (starting on 2013-07-11).

Advantages over the old system (Aspell):

  • The software (Hunspell) is much more modern and supports more complex languages (like Hungarian – hence the name).
  • Since it is used in many programs, like Apache OpenOffice, Google Chrome, Adobe InDesign, Mozilla Firefox and even SDL Trados, there are a lot more dictionaries available for Hunspell.
  • The installation of the spell-checker and the required dictionaries has been built into Transtool. Translators do not need to download and unzip anything (apart from Transtool itself).

We currently have support for 58 different languages + variants (like US/GB/AU English), although a few of the dictionaries (like Oriya, Vietnamese and Kannada) are really small and might not be good enough to actually use.

Japanese, Thai and Chinese are NOT supported.

The new spell-checker will import any words that were added by the translator using the old spell-checker.

 

SpellcheckingTo start spellcheck, go to the menu “Spellcheck” > “Spellcheck”. The check starts automatically from the current paragraph. A word found by spellcheck can be changed, ignored, or added to dictionary.

The option “Check spelling as you type” is available and can be enabled by ticking the “Spellcheck” > “Settings” > “Check spelling as you type” checkbox. The words unrecognized by the dictionary will be written in red and underlined.

 

Add terms to the loaded dictionary (spellchecker)The function "Add to dictionary" which appears in the context menu on words within the translation window (the context menu is: Spell\Add to dictionary"):

This option allows adding a term in the current loaded dictionary, so that term will be known and the spellchecker will accept it.

The terms are added to a file named "xx-XX.custom" under the folder "hunspell\dict" which is located in the Transtool's installation path. Note xx-XX stands for the language code, e.g. "sv-SE.custom" for Swedish.

Updating the version does not update neither the existing dictionaries nor the custom terms

For updating/deleting those custom terms, a manual edition of that file will be needed.

 

Skip upper-case wordsThere is a spellcheck option in Transtool called "Skip UPPERCASE words (in lowercase contexts)". When the option is selected, uppercase words will not be checked.
Go to Spellcheck > Spellcheck settings and tick the option Skip UPPERCASE words (in lowecase contexts).

There are two exceptions:

  1. When the whole paragraph is uppercase, all words are still checked.
  2. If the first word of a sentence is one letter and uppercase, it will still be spellchecked.

As for other specific options they are self-explanatory.

 

Microsoft Office spellcheckerIt is also possible to select the Microsoft Office spellchecker with the same options available as Hunspell.

 

Supported versionsThis feature has been tested on Microsoft Office 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016. Earlier versions may work but we cannot guarantee it.

 

Supported languagesThe following languages are known NOT to be supported:

  • Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Thai
  • Burmese
  • Lao
  • Khmer
  • Javanese
  • Tibetan

This is because Transtool is unable to divide these languages into words to send to the Office API.

Microsoft Office proofing tools have to be installed for the default language and the language you are spellchecking. In order for the Microsoft Office spellchecker to work in Transtool the proofing tools for the system default language have to be installed. In other words if the default language of the PC is set to English and the proofing tools for English are not installed it is not possible to spellcheck other languages either. Even if the proofing tools for the other languages are installed. This can be fixed by installing the proofing tools for the default language or by changing the default language to the language you are trying to spellcheck.

As per the current functionality winword.exe will close when you close Transtool app. When you open tt file in app and do spell check , winword.exe is opened. If you open another tt file on same app, and do spellcheck another winword.exe process is opened and the previous winword.exe process doesn't close... winword.exe is closed only when we close Transtool app.

 

Add terms to the loaded Microsoft Office spellchecker dictionaryThe function "Add this word" can be used as with Hunspell.

The added words are saved in the ttw10.exe installation folder under officespellcheck\localexxxx.custom.