TinySpell.

Introduction.

Checking your spelling is one of the most difficult things you can do from a screen-reading standpoint. There is no consistency between the spell checking interfaces of many programs. For example, the spell checker in Microsoft Word is completely different to that in Mozilla Thunderbird. This in itself causes confusion for new computer users, because they have to adopt different procedures depending upon the program being used.

Finally, there's the scenario of checking the spelling of a word that you potentially wish to write in the future. You might want to write the word "catastrophe" in a blog post, but you don't know how to spell it.

We've tried to overcome this by employing the services of a small program called TinySpell. A version of this is free to download and some JAWS scripting and setup instructions which we have already provided in this document ensure you can get the most from it. Please consult the earlier section of this document relating to TinySpell setup instructions.

Using TinySpell.

There are two ways we envisage this being used. The first is to have TinySpell check the spellings of words as you type them. When you press the Space Bar, TinySpell will alert you to incorrectly spelled text by playing a sound. This can be a sound of your choosing.

For example, launch Microsoft Word or any word processing application and type the word "test" as "t t e s t". Then press the Space Bar. You will hear the sound. We can check the alternative suggestions for it, and we will show you how to do that in a moment. This feature can be disabled if you wish.

The primary reason for us using this program however is to check the spelling of words, either when they have been typed or those which you would like to check in advance of writing a document. The best way of handling this situation is this.

  1. Type the word as you think it should be spelled. Type the word "Catastrofee".
  2. Place the cursor on the word and select it with Control+Shift+Right Arrow.
  3. Copy it to the Clipboard with Control+C. Selecting the word is important because in a moment, we're going to choose a word from a list of suggestions. That word will replace the original and so it needs to be selected in order that it can be overwritten. Copying to the Clipboard is also important because we'll ask TinySpell to check the contents of the Clipboard for any spelling errors.
  4. Now, press the keystroke to bring up my list of spelling suggestions. You can choose which keystroke you like as we discussed in our setup instructions for TinySpell, but in development we chose ALT+Control+F9.
  5. JAWS reads the first suggestion and spells it. Usually, the first choice is the one you want, so you can go ahead and press Enter. If it's not, press Down Arrow repeatedly.
  6. You will notice an item in the list, "Add to Dictionary". So if TinySpell does not recognise a word you use frequently, you can add it to the dictionary so it will not be flagged as incorrect in the future.
  7. When you have the correct spelling, press enter.

If you are in the situation where you are just checking the spelling of a word for future use, clearly you don't need to replace it in your document. You can just press Escape to exit the list as hopefully you'll now remember how to spell it.

Lets go back now to our situation where we have the sound enabled to alert us to an incorrectly spelled word. When you hear the sound, you do not need to go back, select the word, and copy it to the Clipboard. Just bring up your list of suggestions. Provided it is the last word you typed, TinySpell assumes that is the text you would like to correct.

TinySpell works in almost every application where you might want to check spelling. So what we've learned is that you can use it as an immediate spell checker, but also to check the spelling of the occasional word which you just want to know how to spell correctly.

It's a tiny program, but with Leasey's help, it becomes accessible and usable! Back to Help Index.