Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!haven!purdue!decwrl!sun!imagen!atari!portal!cup.portal.com!ts
From: ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: SUMMARY for Reviews Wanted: Spelling Checkers
Message-ID: <14421@cup.portal.com>
Date: 8 Feb 89 08:54:08 GMT
References: <9125@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 36

I have been using Thunder! and Big Thesaurus.  Thunder! has some problems
under MultiFinder, but as long as you are careful to close Thunder!
before quiting the application you load it in, and do not access the
Thunder! menu from other applications, it seems to work OK.

At first, I thought that it would be annoying to have interactive
spelling checking turned on, but I have found that turning it on
improves one's spelling.  For example, I can never get "separate"
correct.  In batch mode, I will spell this wrong every time.  In
interactive mode, I spell it wrong the first two or three times,
then start to get it right.  I would not buy a spelling checker
that does not support interactive checking now.

I used to do most of my work that needed spell checking in Acta,
which Thunder! knows about.  This means that if one checks something
in non-interactive mode, Thunder! preserves formatting information
when it pastes the corrected spelling back.

However, I now use Acta Advantage, which Thunder! does not know
about.  This prompted me to send in the registration card.  Perhaps
there will be an upgrade available to support newer applications
such as Acta Advantage.  ( note: this only is a problem in batch
mode.  Interactive checking still works fine ).

Big Thesarus is a lot of fun.  It works fine with MultiFinder.  However,
unless you have a lot of memory, you can't keep the thesaurus in RAM.
Keeping it in RAM is the default.  I installed it and found that nothing
would run.  A quick "about the Finder..." revealed that my System was
1.5 meg.  Telling BT to not keep the thing in RAM got the System back
down to where it belongs.  It is reasonbly quick, taking a second oS7 r
two to look up a word.

It does have some problems.  For example, I was quite surprised to
find out that, according to BT, I am a lesbian... :-)

					Tim Smith