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Spell Checking Program?

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:57 am
by OneoftheLost
So I've written a few fan fictions in my time, and consider myself a halfway decent story slinger.

In my search for a decent free-form space game, Ive had a story brewing. I'm not sure that it's all that interesting to tell, but I have had a burning desire to type it. Recently discovering Oolite, Ive been having a blast playing, probably more fun than Freelancer, Darkster One, the entire X series, and Eve put together. (In my humble opinion anyway.) So naturally Ive worked my humble story into the Ooniverse. After reading Status Quo I really HAD to type it up. Now I'm well on my way into the first chapter, and am in dire need of a spelling program.

While I like word, I only have what comes with the computer. A trial. Not willing to pay, or deal with the obnoxious starting time, I was hoping that someone here had something else they used to check spelling and sentence fluency etc. Basically Word's spell checker without, well, Word.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. (Google hasn't been much help I might add.)

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:02 am
by drew
I use openoffice.

Utterly free, speller checker included and exports to PDF all in the same programme. 100% (+ or - a few bits :wink:) compatible with MS Office. Runs nicely on my nine year old Dell laptop.

Big download, but worth it - http://www.openoffice.org/

Looking forward to reading! Go for it. We NEED more members for the Anarlaquan Writers' Guild. We're all overworked and distinctly underpaid! :wink:

Cheers,

Drew.

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:07 am
by OneoftheLost
Well hot damn, thanks for the reply.

:)

*EDIT* Man, I love this program. Huge props for OpenOffice. Thanks for helping a newbie out.

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:30 pm
by CptnEcho
Even if you do a spelling check, the words may be correctly spelled while incorrectly used.

The sentence, "They're over there in their home." is an example using three words which sound alike, but have different meanings and spellings.

Using the correct word in the proper context, and making corrections during the proof-reading and editing process is something the members of this forum have frequently provided help with.

Be encouraged. 8)

Sincerely,
CptnEcho

P.S. I've got OpenOffice on my Debian Linux system and am pleased with it too.

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 3:59 pm
by DaddyHoggy
CptnEcho wrote:
Even if you do a spelling check, the words may be correctly spelled while incorrectly used.

The sentence, "They're over there in their home." is an example using three words which sound alike, but have different meanings and spellings.

Using the correct word in the proper context, and making corrections during the proof-reading and editing process is something the members of this forum have frequently provided help with.

Be encouraged. 8)

Sincerely,
CptnEcho

P.S. I've got OpenOffice on my Debian Linux system and am pleased with it too.
I love OpenOffice too - but yesterday it murdered the formatting on one of my student's dissertations which came to me as a .doc - I know OO can often do a better job of Word formatting than Word can, but this time I needed the formatting to be exactly the same and it wasn't - utter nightmare - had to dig out an old machine which had Office97 on it and fortunately the chosen Word Format was not too far advanced for this app to open as expected.

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 4:20 pm
by drew
CptnEcho wrote:
Even if you do a spelling check, the words may be correctly spelled while incorrectly used.

The sentence, "They're over there in their home." is an example using three words which sound alike, but have different meanings and spellings.

Using the correct word in the proper context, and making corrections during the proof-reading and editing process is something the members of this forum have frequently provided help with.

Be encouraged. 8)

Sincerely,
CptnEcho

P.S. I've got OpenOffice on my Debian Linux system and am pleased with it too.
This never happens to me of course... :oops: :lol:

Cheers,

Drew.

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 5:17 pm
by CptnEcho
drew wrote:
This never happens to me of course... :oops: :lol:

Cheers,

Drew.
Ahem. I think your words set-off my bovine excrement detection equipment. Was that purely coincidence? :wink: