The Wordlist tool can be used for reviewing and setting the spelling status for words in your project text. It can help you to identify words which are most likely to be spelled correctly as well as those which are most likely to be misspelled.
Upper pane
The upper pane displays the unique words, spelling status, and count of occurrences for the selected range of the project text.
Create a spelling discussion note for a word by double-clicking the hollow icon in the column to the left of a word.
Select morphological and hyphenation information from the View menu.
To find a word or specific character(s), enter it in the Filter Text box to the right of the filters on the Find drop-down list on the toolbar.
Lower pane
The lower pane displays the references and the occurrences in context when you click a word in the upper pane.
If you double-click a line in the lower pane, the text window goes to that reference.
If you hold down the Shift key and double-click a line in the lower pane, an Edit dialog opens at that reference.
Best Practices for Spell Checking
Before working on spelling issues, make sure the language of your project has been set up. See: How do I set up my language in Paratext?
It is important to be familiar with various tools and to follow certain steps before investing a lot of time with any one aspect of spell checking or the Wordlist tool. Following these steps will ensure better results and improved efficiency.
What should I do first?
Please follow the three steps below if you have text that has already been drafted. If you are only just starting to draft text, you should skip to the next section (How can spell checking be done in the editing window?) and return to the steps in this section once some text has been drafted.
Open the Wordlist tool and do the following (see the links below):
- Approve spelling of frequent words
- Check the words Paratext thinks are wrong
- Check similarly spelled words (e.g. common typing mistakes)
By doing the above three steps first, as many words as possible will be marked as “correct”. It is the status as “correct” or “incorrect” which will impact spell checking in the main editor window.
Numbers at the lower left of the Wordlist dialog show how many words are in the project and how many are in each status.
How can spell checking be done in the editing window?
There are two ways to check spelling from the main editor window.
- From the Checking menu, select Display Spelling to display a wavy red underline under words that are not yet approved as correctly spelled.
- From the Checking menu, select Spell Check Current Book.
How can I do spell checking in the Wordlist tool?
Once the three steps in the first section above have been carried out, do either of the following from the Tools menu of the Wordlist:
- Point to Spell Check and select All checks to display words whose spelling status is Undecided or Incorrect.
- Select Spell Check by Morphology to show all words that cannot be divided by using prefixes and suffixes you have defined.
