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ShareSpell v3.1
ASCII Text File Spelling Checker
Copyright 1989-1996, Acropolis Software
Acropolis Software
P.O. Box 5037
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
USA
THE LEGAL STUFF
ShareSpell is provided on an "as is" basis without warranty of any
kind, expressed or implied. In no event will Acropolis Software, its
assigns, employees or pets be liable to you for any damages, including
any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential
damages arising out of the use or inability to use the program, even
if Acropolis Software, including their employees and/or assigns have
been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by
any other party. Some restrictions may apply in other states,
countries, territories and civilizations.
INTRODUCTION
ShareSpell version 3.1 is a "stand-alone" spelling checker for checking
the spelling of ASCII text files. It is completely interactive and
displays the text of the file as it goes, checking for spelling errors.
At each "suspect" word, you have the option of:
Replacing the word from a list of suggested correct spellings
Manually correcting the word
Adding the word to the dictionary
Marking the word for later correction
Ignoring that word throughout the rest of the document
ShareSpell uses a common usage dictionary of nearly 80,000 words.
You have the option of adding words to the dictionary that you use
often such as your name and words specific to your field of writing.
FILE LIST
SS.EXE The ShareSpell program
ACROP.DCT The main dictionary (US or UK English)
SS.DOC This manual on-a-disk in ASCII text format
DM.EXE Dictionary Manager program
UPDATE.EXE Program to convert dictionary from pre-3.0 ShareSpell
INSTALL.EXE Program to install ShareSpell 3.0
REGISTER.DOC Registration form
REQUIREMENTS
The minimum system requirements to run ShareSpell are:
256K of RAM
1 Floppy disk drive
MSDOS/PCDOS version 2.1 or higher
A hard drive and/or two floppy drives are recommended. A single drive
system leaves very little room for storage of the file to be checked
and for a temporary copy of the file.
INSTALLATION
Before going any further, please make a backup copy of your ShareSpell
disk. Put the original disk away in a safe place and use the backup
disk from here forward; it will now be referred to as your "original".
INSTALL PROGRAM
The easiest way to install ShareSpell is to use the INSTALL program.
It will prompt you for the ShareSpell installation location and prompt
you to change floppies back and forth if you only have one floppy drive.
MANUAL INSTALLATION
To install ShareSpell manually, follow the directions below depending
upon your hardware setup:
ONE FLOPPY DRIVE
Format a floppy disk to place ShareSpell on. Put your original copy
of ShareSpell back in the disk drive and use the following command:
COPY A:SS.EXE B:SS.EXE
DOS will prompt you to insert a disk in B:. Since you do not have a
B: drive, it actually means A:. Place your original ShareSpell disk
back in the A: drive and use the command:
COPY A:ACROP.DCT B:ACROP.DCT
You will again be prompted to insert a disk in drive B:. Use drive
A:. Do the same with the command:
COPY A:DM.EXE B:DM.EXE.
Now you have a working copy of ShareSpell to use.
TWO FLOPPY DRIVES
Place your original copy of ShareSpell in drive A: and place a
formatted disk in drive B: and use the following commands:
COPY A:SS.EXE B:
COPY A:ACROP.DCT B:
COPY A:DM.EXE B:
If you are currently using an older version of ShareSpell and will
want to move the words you've added to the old dictionary over to the
new dictionary also use the following command:
COPY A:UPDATE.EXE B:
HARD DRIVE
Create a directory for ShareSpell on your hard drive. Alternately,
you could place the ShareSpell files in your MSDOS external command
directory (where your FORMAT.EXE, DISKCOPY.EXE, etc. files are). Most
people call that directory something like DOS, MSDOS or BIN. If you
place ShareSpell and its dictionary with your MSDOS external commands,
you will be able to use ShareSpell from any directory without having
to place the ShareSpell directory in your AUTOEXEC's PATH= statement.
If you do not want to place ShareSpell with your external commands,
then you must create a directory for it. SS is the example directory
name used below. You would use the following command to create the
directory:
MD \SS
Now switch to that directory with the CD command:
CD \SS
Copy the files from the floppy to the new directory:
COPY A:SS.EXE
COPY A:ACROP.DCT
COPY A:DM.EXE
COPY A:UPDATE.EXE
Now you can use ShareSpell by changing to the SS directory and typing
SS. Alternately, if you want to use ShareSpell while in any directory
on your hard drive, you should add the directory to the PATH= statement
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Find a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file that
looks something like:
PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\WHATEVER
Add to the end of it ";C:\SS". It would now look like:
PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\WHATEVER;C:\SS
UPDATING FROM EARLIER VERSIONS
If you are currently using an earlier version of ShareSpell and wish
to move the words that you've added into the new dictionary, you can
use the UPDATE.EXE program. The format is:
UPDATE olddictionaryfilename newdictionaryfilename
If you are using ShareSpell on a hard drive and have placed the new
version in the same directory as you had the old version you would use
the command:
UPDATE ACROP.DIC ACROP.DCT
If you are using a two floppy drive system you would place the new
ShareSpell disk in drive A: and the disk with the old dictionary in
drive B: and use the command:
UPDATE B:ACROP.DIC ACROP.DCT
If you are using ShareSpell on a system with only one floppy drive you
must have a drive type with more storage than a low density 5.25" floppy.
If you have any type of 3.5" drive or a high density 5.25" drive you
can copy the old dictionary onto the floppy with the new version of
ShareSpell. Then copy the UPDATE.EXE file to the floppy (see the section
on installing ShareSpell in a system with one drive).
Once the old dictionary is copied to the disk, use the command:
UPDATE ACROP.DIC ACROP.DCT
Once it has run you should delete the old dictionary and the UPDATE
program to free up space on the floppy. If you only have a low density
5.25" floppy (360K) you will have to have someone with either two floppy
drives or a hard drive move the words to the new dictionary for you.
NETWORK INSTALLATION AND CONSIDERATIONS
If you are installing ShareSpell on a network there are a few things
to know that will make ShareSpell easier to use: ShareSpell opens the
ACROP.DCT in full shared mode so that everyone on the network can access
the file at the same time. Since the file is never written to, you
shouldn't run into any shared access problems. However, ShareSpell opens
the user added word dictionaries (ACROP1.USR, ACROP2.USR and so on) in
compatibility mode that can cause problems if more than one person tries
to use the files. To prevent problems when you install ShareSpell on a
networked computer, you should start ShareSpell and use the [F5] key at
the "file selection" screen to go to the configuration screen and set
the path for the user's dictionaries to somewhere that only that user
has access. Not only will this prevent problems with sharing the user
dictionaries, but it will also give each person their own list of user
added words.
If you are installing ShareSpell on many machines and have them set up
so that everyone has a local directory with the same name, you can set
the path once and then copy the SS.CON file that is created to all the
machines. Another useful bit is that ShareSpell will also check for an
environment variable called SS and look there for its dictionary. If
you don't want to add the ShareSpell directory to the PATH statement,
you can use the command SET SS=whatever. This also comes in handy if you
are shelling to ShareSpell from within another program. You can have it
SET the SS variable before executing ShareSpell so it will not
permanently take up environment space.
COMMAND LINE
The command line options for starting ShareSpell are fairly simple.
Starting ShareSpell with the name of a file you wish to check will
cause it to check that file for spelling errors. Once the checking is
complete ShareSpell will quit and return you to the DOS prompt.
An Example would be something like:
SS TEST.TXT
In addition to checking one file, you can give ShareSpell a list of
files to check. There are two ways of doing this: either list each file
individually:
SS TEST1.TXT TEST2.TXT TEST3.TXT COVER1.TXT COVER2.TXT
or you can give it an MSDOS wildcard specification just like you would
use with the DIR command:
SS TEST*.TXT
SS COVER*.TXT
You can also combine the methods and give ShareSpell a list of wildcard
specifications:
SS TEST*.TXT COVER*.TXT
In all three examples ShareSpell would check the list of files:
TEST1.TXT, TEST2.TXT, TEST3.TXT, COVER1.TXT, and COVER2.TXT provided
that the wildcard specifications do not find any other files that match
the patterns.
STARTING WITH NO PARAMETERS
Starting ShareSpell without parameters will cause it to bring up a
screen listing the files in the current directory. You can use the
cursor keys to move around the screen and select the file you wish to
check. Once you have the file highlighted, press [ENTER] to start spell
checking. After checking you will be returned to the screen to select
another file or you may quit by using the [F10] key.
The other options available in the file selection screen allow you to
configure the screen colors and behavior of ShareSpell with the [F5] key
and to change to a different drive with the [F1] key. You can navigate
to different directories by using the cursor keys to select a directory
and pressing [ENTER] to select that directory.
USING SHARESPELL
Once you have selected a file to spell check - either from the
command line or the file selection screen - ShareSpell will start
scanning the file and building a list of unique words. While scanning
the file, ShareSpell will also be counting the number of unusual
control characters in the file. This is to help prevent you from
accidentally checking a file that is not an ASCII text file, such as
a file produced by a word processor. ShareSpell is designed to check
only ASCII documents. Due to the large number of different word
processor file formats there is no practical way to support all of
them. Also, most major word processors contain their own spelling
checkers. If ShareSpell thinks you may be checking a non-ASCII
document, you will be prompted with a warning asking if you wish to
continue; this allows you to check an ASCII file that contains
control codes. After the first scan of the file, ShareSpell will
check the list to find misspelled words. If there were no
misspellings in the file, ShareSpell will tell you so then quit or
return you to the file selection screen. If there were some words in
the file that ShareSpell believes to be misspelled, it will start to
list the file on the screen stopping at each misspelled word.
When ShareSpell stops at a misspelling, it will highlight the word
and show you the text both before and after that word. You will then
be presented with a list of suggestions; at this point there are
several options:
[UP/DOWN] arrows allow you to move through the list of suggestions and
select the correct spelling if it is listed.
The blank selection at the top of the list is special; if you select
it, the word will not be replaced and will be skipped. After you have
selected the correct spelling press [ENTER].
[F7] will mark the word with an "@" character in the corrected file and
then ignore it through the rest of the document. This is allows you
to mark a word you are unsure of and then use your text editor's
search command to find it later and manually correct it.
[F8] will add the word to your user dictionary. From then on it will be
considered a valid word. If you add a word and later decide that you do
not want it in the dictionary, you can use the Dictionary Manager
program (explained later) to remove the word.
[ESC] will skip the word and all later occurrences of it in the current
document. This allows you to skip over words such as names and places
that you know are spelled correctly, but occur several times in the
document.
The [LEFT/RIGHT] arrows and [BACKSPACE] key allow you to correct the
spelling manually. The cursor will move over to the "Word in Question"
area and you can edit the word using the [BACKSPACE] key to delete
characters or type in new characters. Once you have corrected the word,
pressing [ENTER] will replace the misspelling with the correction.
If your correction is not found in the dictionary, ShareSpell will
prompt you and ask if you want to replace it anyway. If you answer NO
then you will be brought back to the editing option. If you have made
changes to the word, you can use the [F1] key to have ShareSpell create
a new list of suggested correct spellings based on the edited word.
[F1] will cause ShareSpell to change to a different method for finding
suggested correct spellings. Each time you press [F1] you will cycle
through the three methods of spell checking.
The three methods are:
Close Match looks for common typing errors
Phoneme suggestions are made on the basis of how the word sounds
OCR is a special version of "Close Match" for checking
scanned documents
[F10] will exit ShareSpell and return you to either the DOS command
prompt or the file selection screen, depending on how you started
ShareSpell.
ABOUT THE SUGGESTIONS
ShareSpell currently has three methods for making a list of
suggested replacement words. The three methods are:
CLOSE MATCH
The Close Match suggestions work best with misspellings that result
from "typo" errors. An example is missing the "M" key and typing
and "N" instead such as typing "NETHOD" when you wanted "METHOD."
It also catches most other common typing errors like transposing
letters in a word such as "SIAD" instead of "SAID." ShareSpell will
also check for two words that are run together. For example:
"THECAT" - one of the suggestions would be "THE CAT" assuming you
missed hitting the spacebar between the words.
OCR
The OCR matching checks the spelling in documents that have been
scanned and converted to ASCII text by OCR software. Since OCR errors
tend to be similar to typing errors the OCR suggestions are very
similar to the Close Match suggestions. The OCR mode does extra
checking for commonly found mis-identification scanning errors. Most
of the time it will give you the same suggestion list as Close Match,
but it will differ occasionally. As with Close Match, OCR suggestions
also check for a missing space between words.
PHONEME
The phoneme method breaks the words into their component sounds and
attempts to find matching words that sound similar to the misspelled
word. "Kat" would get suggestions like "Cat," "Cut," "Cot," and
so on. Occasionally a suggestion may look a little odd. That is
because it is considering the sound in the middle or end of the word
as well as the beginning sound.
CONFIGURATION
Starting ShareSpell without parameters will bring you to the file
selection screen. You can then press the [F5] key to enter the
configuration screen; this will allow you to set the screen colors
used by ShareSpell and to control its behavior.
The available options are:
[1] and [2] to change the normal text color and background color. As
you press one of the keys the colors will step through the selections
and show you what they look like both in normal usage and inverted use.
The normal text colors are used as the default screen and text colors.
The inverted form is used to highlight items on the file selection list.
[3] and [4] change the colors used to highlight the misspelled word as
ShareSpell displays the file for you to correct.
[5] and [6] select the colors used to highlight the selected word in the
suggested word list.
[7] tells ShareSpell if you want it to make backup copies of the files
you are checking. Pressing the 7 key toggles the option between Yes
and No.
[8] selects the default suggestion method. If you find that the Phoneme
suggestions work better for the type of errors you come across, you can
tell ShareSpell to use that as the primary method, or set it to Close
Match or OCR, which ever suits your needs the best.
[9] sets the default scan mode. In most cases it is best to leave it
set to ASCII. The OCR scan mode will work for ASCII documents, but it
also allows words to contain characters other than letters in ("+","!",
and digits) as these are common OCR scanning errors.
[P]ath allows you to set the directory where ShareSpell will store the
user dictionary containing any words you have added. Normally you
should leave it blank; ShareSpell will then store it with the normal
dictionary. The main use for changing the path of the user dictionary
is to allow people using ShareSpell on a network to each have their
own list of user added words.
[W]arn about control characters. If you regularly use a text editor
that uses control characters for formatting you can disable the warning
about the file possibly not being an ASCII text file with this option.
[S]kip and [A]lso skip. If you use a text editor that does formatting
control by proceeding some words with a special character, such as using
something like .BOLD to turn bold-face on you can cause ShareSpell to
skip those words using either of the option. Using the quote mark (")
is not recommended since that would cause ShareSpell to skip the first
word or any quotation.
[ESC] will exit out of the configuration screen. If you have made
changes, you will be prompted to confirm that you want them saved. If
you do, ShareSpell will save the configuration in the file "SS.CON".
If you do not save the current configuration, ShareSpell will use the
new settings for the current session, but will revert to the original
configuration the next time you use it.
DICTIONARY MANAGER
Dictionary Manager version 3.0 is a utility program for maintaining
the dictionary file included with ShareSpell. It allows you to add
and delete words from the dictionary either one at a time or from a
file containing a list of words.
USING DICTIONARY MANAGER
To use Dictionary Manager, type DM at the DOS prompt. It will search
for the dictionary file and then display all the words you have added.
The screen is divided into three sections:
On the left of the screen are the words that have been added. At first
this list will contain the words loaded from the dictionary. It will
be empty if no words have been added.
In the middle of the screen is the list of available commands. Input
widows will also appear in this area.
On the right side of the screen is the holding list. The holding list
is useful for temporarily storing lists of words before adding them
to the dictionary or deleting them.
The most basic commands are the [LEFT/RIGHT] arrows, [PgUp/PgDn] keys,
and the [SPACE] key; they allow you to navigate through the word lists
and to mark the words to be operated on.
The [LEFT/RIGHT] arrow keys allow you to select the currently active word
list. Pressing the [LEFT ARROW] key moves you to the "Word List" column
on the left part of the screen. The [RIGHT ARROW] key moves you to the
"Holding List" column on the right part of the screen. The flashing name
at the top indicates the currently selected column. It is important to
know which list is currently selected because the other commands operate
on the active list. The [UP/DOWN] arrow keys allow you to move up and
down through the words displayed in the currently selected word list.
[PgUp/PgDn] keys move through the list a screen at a time. The
highlighted word in the center of the list is the current word.
Pressing the [SPACE] will mark the current word. Marked words are
indicated by a right pointing triangle to the left of the word.
The commands are:
[A]dd single word
You will be prompted to enter a word in a window in the middle of the
screen; the word you enter will be added to the list of words in the
currently selected column. The exception is if the word is already
present in the list. Added words will be maintained in alphabetical
order. If you decide not to add a word just press the [ENTER] key and
nothing will be added.
[M]ark all words
This will mark all the words in the currently selected list. You will
be prompted to confirm the command before the words are marked.
[U]nmark all words
This will unmark all the words in the currently selected list. You
will be prompted to confirm the command before the words are
unmarked.
[L]oad file of words
You will be asked if you want to unmark the words that are marked in
the current word list. This allows you to distinguish the words that
were already in the list from the words that are loaded. If the file
you specify cannot be found, you will be prompted again for a file
name. If you decide not to load a list of words, just press the
[ENTER] key.
The format for the list of words is simple: one word after another
each on its own line. EXAMPLE:
BOY
DOG
CAT
[E]xchange marked words
Moves the marked words in the currently selected list to the other
list. You will be prompted to confirm the move before it takes place.
A good example for this command is: load a list of words into the
Holding list with the Load command. Now scan through the words and
use the [SPACE] to unmark the words you do not wish to include in the
dictionary. Use the Exchange command to move the marked words to the
Word list for inclusion in the dictionary.
[D]elete marked words
Deletes the marked words from the currently selected list. Use this
command with caution. Once the words are deleted you will have to re-
enter them manually. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion
before it takes place. Use this command to remove words you've
entered and no longer need.
[W]rite words to file
Write the words from the current list to a disk file. You will be
prompted for the name of the file in which you wish to save the list
of words. If you decide not to save the word list press [ENTER].
With this command and the Load command, you can easily move your
personal words from one version of the dictionary to the next by
Writing the word list from the old dictionary and then Loading the
word list into the new dictionary.
[Q]uit and abandon changes
Quits Dictionary Manager without applying any of the changes you have
made to the dictionary. It is a "safe way out" - great if you think
you have mangled the word list beyond all hope. Example: You deleted
all the words. Quit and abandon changes allows you to leave the
dictionary unchanged. You will be prompted to confirm the operation.
[S]ave Word List & Quit
This is the normal way of exiting Dictionary Manager. All the user
supplied words will be removed from the dictionary and the new list
of words in the "Word List" column on the left side of the screen
will be placed into the dictionary. Only the words from the "Word
List" will be placed in the dictionary regardless of whether it is
the currently selected list or not.
QUICK REFERENCE
You can start ShareSpell with a parameter that is the name of the
file you wish to spell check or with a list of filenames to check.
Additionally you can give it a wildcard specification to check the
spelling of a group of similarly named files.
If you start ShareSpell without a parameter you will be shown the
file selection screen where you can use the cursor keys to select the
file to spell check.
Once the spell check begins you have the following options when a
suspected misspelling is found:
[F7] mark the word with a "@" character in the corrected file and then
ignore it through the rest of the document.
[F8] will add the word to your user dictionary.
[ESC] to skip the word and all later occurrences of it.
The [LEFT/RIGHT] arrow keys and [BACKSPACE] allow you to edit a word
manually to correct the spelling.
[F1] to cycle through the three suggestion methods.
[F10] to exit ShareSpell.
REGISTRATION
If you use ShareSpell, I ask you to send $20 to Acropolis Software to
register. You will receive a disk containing the latest version of both
the program and the dictionary. Please use the order form to register.
If you do not use the form, please specify that you are registering
ShareSpell and indicate your preferred disk format (5 1/4" or 3 1/2")
and US or British Dictionary.
Purchases of 10 or more copies will receive a site license package
which consists of a master copy of the latest version and an agreement
that you can make the specified number of copies. Site license are
charged $10.00 per copy they wish to make.
_______________________________________________________________________
Name : ___________________________________________
Company : ___________________________________________
Address : ___________________________________________
___________________________________________
City/State : ___________________________________________
Zip Code : ___________________________________________
Phone : ___________________________________________
Basic registration (less than 10 copies) : $20 x ___ = $ ______
Site license registration (10 or more copies) : $10 x ___ = $ ______
CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS ONLY please add sales tax $ ______
Shipping & Handling $ 2.50
Disk Size: ___ 5.25" ___ 3.5" ------
Dictionary: ___ US ___ British TOTAL $ ______
The product being registered is ShareSpell v3.1.
You will receive a registered copy of the latest version of ShareSpell
without the shareware screen, latest dictionary and related utilities.
Send check or money order to: Acropolis Software
P.O. Box 5037
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
Credit card orders may be phoned or faxed to: (916) 967-4791.
Phone order from 9am - 6pm PST. Fax Orders 24 hrs a day.
Please provide the following information:
___ Visa ___ MasterCard
(PLEASE PRINT)
Name as appears on card: ____________________________________
Card Number: ____________________________________
Expiration Date: ______________
Signature: __________________________________
