[Tex/LaTex] ‘Find’ spelling mistakes in TeXworks

dictionariesspellingtexworks

I'm reasonably happy with the dictionary functionality in TeXworks but I am struggling to see how I can 'find' all the spelling mistakes in my (painfully long) tex file. I was hoping for a Wordesque spell checker in which I can scroll through each of my errors and accept or ignore the suggested changes.

I could install another editor that has this functionality but would prefer not to do this if possible.

Best Answer

Well, seeing as there is not a native TexWorks solution, I thought I would post my solution to the problem. Instead of using another editor, I've decided upon Aspell (http://aspell.net/). It's a great little spell checking tool. It's primarily linux based, although they do have a Windows port.

I run it from the command line on my .tex files and it scrolls through each error in turn, presenting me with a list of valid alternatives. My thesis has a number of scientific terms in it, which are obviously not recognised. You can create your own additional list of valid words or, as I've done, just 'add' the words as you go.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] TeXworks: How to add a word to the spell checker dictionary

TeXworks uses a spell checker called Hunspell, an engine which is also used e.g. by OpenOffice:

Each dictionary consists of two files with the extensions .dic and .aff. Where these are located depends on your TeXworks installation, on my system (TeX Live 2010, Windows), they are in the directory

C:\Users\<user name>\.texlive2010\texmf-config\texworks\dictionaries

Adding words to the dictionary is quite simple: As the .dic file is a plain word list, you can just add new lines with your own words. If you want the system to recognize different word forms, too, you have to deal with the .aff file - see this explanation for more details. However, simply changing the word list should be enough in most cases.

[Tex/LaTex] TeXStudio: Add new word to dictionary via button

Hunspell dictionaries (.dic and .aff) are more complex than just word lists (i.e. it contains information of possible affixes). Therefore, a proper entry cannot be generated from a single word.

The solution in TexStudio is to store additional words in an ignore word list (.ign) next to the dictionary. This list can be populated via Context Menu -> always ignore or via the Always Ingore button in the spell checking dialog.

Note: On Windows 7 the default dictionaries are in

C:\Program Files (x86)\TeXstudio\dictionaries\

Windows 7 prevents writing to the program files directory.It redirects the writes to User dictionaries, which are in

 C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\TeXstudio\dictionaries

You may find the .ign files there.

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Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] TeXworks: How to add a word to the spell checker dictionary

[Tex/LaTex] TeXStudio: Add new word to dictionary via button

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