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TinySpell, now with useless JAWS scripts.


TinySpell is a wonderful little program that lets you check your spelling anywhere in windows. It even has JAWS scripts it doesn't need now!
Dated: Thursday, March 06, 2008.

I've used TinySpell for ages, podcasted about it in days gone by and generally find it one of those invaluable little programs that I have to download whenever I get a new system (or the old one dies and needs a fresh start). I even take it around on my flash drive, because I love having the confidence to know that I can write something (in an IM, on a forum or whatever) and be reasonably certain its accurate.

A friend of mine asked me for the URL of this fabulous application on Tuesday and I gave it to him. He then asked how he could get JAWS to automatically read the spellings of TinySpell's suggestions. It'd never occurred to me to want to do that - the times I can't understand my synthesizer I do a quick spell word on the thing with JAWS and these are few and far between anyway. But needs must, and all that...

Anyway, you can now:

  1. Hear the spelling of Tinyspell's first suggested correction automatically,
  2. Hear the spelling of each subsequent correction as you cursor through,
  3. And hear the spelling of any word you land on in the menu with the space bar (either spelled normally or phonetically).
All this is easy to set-up - when you install the scripts, spell a word wrong, pop-up the corrections menu, and tap your grauv (`) accent key (next to the 1 on UK keyboards) to set the options of your choosing.

TinySpell also has a paid version, payment starting from about $7 USD (roughly £3.50 at time of writing). Even if you don't need the advanced features, it's well worth buying. Although you'll not be able to take that version around with you via USB, it's a low enough price that we can all afford it and gives developers that something back for all their hard work (and yes, it really is work). This sort of computer program may look simple, but even so, it still involves hours of dedicated effort.

Anyway, my rantings aside, you can download the program itself from TinySpell's Home Page, where you can also buy the plus version. You can also Download the scripts as an executable installer (thanks to JSX), or as a zip file, which you'll have to paste in the right place yourself.

So to conclude: it's an on-the-fly, free (but with a plus, paid version) spell checker. It loads with my main system at startup, runs from my USB if needs be, makes a nice "booong" sound when I misspell a word and is highly accessible out-of-the-box. These scripts were written for Alex Wallis (who is lazy). Enjoy!



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Contents copyright Sean Randall unless otherwise stated within.