# Spell Checking

Amaya provides a multilingual spell checker, and selects the appropriate language according to the `LANG` attribute. The `LANG` attribute can be associated with any element in a document, even with a single word, by choosing Language from the Attributes menu.

To spell check a document, choose Spell Check from the Edit menu.

## The Personal Dictionary

When you register a new word, the spell checker creates or updates the user's personal dictionary. A user's personal dictionary is located in the `AmayaHome/dictionary.DCT` file. In read-write mode, the spell checker employs the user dictionary when reviewing all documents, in addition to the language-specific dictionary. When you click the Skip (+dic) and Replace (+dic) buttons in the Spell Checking dialog, the user dictionary is created and automatically updated by the spelling checker.

## The Spell Check Dialog

The Spell Check option on the Edit menu displays a dialog that enables you to choose parameters and interact with the spell checker. These parameters are defined below.

- Number of proposals field defines the maximum number of proposed corrections: any value between 1 and 10, the default value is 3. When an error is detected, any change made to this value immediately displays a new list of corrections.

- The Ignore section tells the spell checker to ignore certain words, for example, words that contain capital letters, digits, Roman numerals or special characters.

- The Checking section, similar to that in the Search dialog, enables you to specify the part of document on which the checker will work.

- The Spell Checking field displays incorrect words. The list of proposed corrections is displayed in the selector field located below the incorrect word. By default, Amaya selects the first proposed correction. To select another correction, simply click it. The selected correction is displayed below the selector field. This correction can be directly edited on the form. The correction is made when you click the Replace and next or Replace (+dic) buttons.

- The language in which the correction is made is specified in the top left corner of the form. To change the language, apply a Language attribute to the text with the Attributes menu, and restart the spell-check procedure.

## Running the Spell Checker

To start the checker, click the Search/Skip button at the bottom of the form. If an error is found, the incorrect word is selected and highlighted in the document. If no error was detected, Amaya displays the Not found message in the bottom right corner of the form.

When an incorrect word is detected, you can use a button on the form to perform the following operations:

- Done: Amaya closes the form and stops spell checking. Previous corrections are not canceled.

- Search/Skip: Amaya considers the incorrect word as acceptable. No change is made in the text or in the dictionaries. The checker searches for the next error.

- Skip+Next: Amaya considers the incorrect word as acceptable, and the checker moves on to the next word.

- Skip (+dic): Performs the same action as the Skip+Next button, except that the word considered incorrect is added to the document dictionary, and the checker will ignore any subsequent occurrence of this word.

- Replace and Next: Amaya replaces the incorrect word with the correct word (optionally edited by the user) and the checker searches for the next error.

- Replace (+dic): Performs the same action as the Replace and Next button, except that the replacement word is added to the document dictionary.