It sort of depends on the system you're working on.
I'm using GNU/Linux and here aspell does a good job. For instance, to check test.tex in Danish, I would do like this from the terminal:
aspell -c -t test.tex -d da
The option -c tells aspell to check the file, -t puts it in TeX mode, and -d gives the base name of the main dictionary to use.
On Ubuntu/Debian, this can be installed using:
sudo aptitude install aspell
Aspell is also available as a Windows executable. It can but run from the command line or from any good text-editor (i.e. one that supports macros to run external programs).
aspell
Although aspell has been mentioned, I would like to give some usage examples.
Basic usage
aspell --mode=tex -c sample-file.tex
Languages
List all dictionaries:
aspell dump dicts
Change language to check:
aspell --lang=de --mode=tex -c sample-file.tex
Downsides of aspell
The following is from a German document I've just written. It has 413 lines, so it is rather small.
This should have been recognized as LaTeX, but wasn't:
Before \begin{document}:
\sisetup{locale=DE} - "locale"\pgfmathdeclarefunction{strrepeat}{2}{% - "strrepeat"
pgfmathint{#2}\pgfmath@count\pgfmathresult and twice later - 3x"count"\let\pgfmathresult\pgfutil@empty - "empty"\pgfutil@loop - "loop"\pgfutil@repeat - "repeat"
\pgfmath@smuggleone - "smuggleone"\algtext*{EndIf} - "EndIf", "EndWhile", "EndFunction"\usetikzlibrary{arrows, positioning, calc, shapes} - "arrows", "positioning", "calc", "shapes"\DeclareMathOperator{\ggT}{ggT} - "ggT" (That is valid in a German document about math)
25x words in:
\tikzset{
Stern Brocot at/.style={at/.pgfmath={
strcat("([rotate around=180:(!", strrepeat("#1",\SBLevel),")] !",
strrepeat("#1",\SBLevel-1),"2)")}},
Stern Brocot at*/.style n args={3}{
at/.pgfmath={strcat("(!",strrepeat("#1",#2),"-| SB@#3)")},
append after command/.expanded={\ifnum#2<\SBLevel(\noexpand\tikzlastnode)
edge[densely dotted] (SB@#3@\the\numexpr\SBLLoop+1\relax)\fi}}}
After \begin{document}:
- Almost everything within TikZ
- Much in
algorithm environment
\begin{tabular}{l||ccl} - "ccl"
aspell also has problems with hyphenated words (source)
Workarounds
Create a file called my_def.tex and put your whole preamble in it.
Then add \include{my_def} to your preamble. It should be your file in there.
However, this does not solve the TikZ / table issue. But you can apply the same workaround for TikZ images. I guess it is not convenient to do so for tables.
Best Answer
You can set your preferences by going to Tools/options/spelling and then you'll find some checkboxes and select the ones you want to ignore.
The menu looks like this:
For more information on these options and others, please visit the TeXnic Center's options documentation
However, please bear in mind that ---as stated in the documentation---, the argument of the command is always spell-checked, and not the command itself.
Furthermore, if you wish to include this feature for specific commands (such as
\labeland\ref) in future TeXnicCenter versions, please add your recommendation in the TeXnicCenter Feature Request PageNevertheless, there is kind of a workaround: as you can see in the picture attached, you can ignore things with numbers and/or uppercase... so you can always use numbers and/or uppercase for the arguments of
\labeland\refand\cite.