Sunday, January 07, 2007

I just about squealed!

Word 2007 has contextual spell check!

Type 'it's' instead of 'its' and Word will flag it with a blue squiggly (like the red squiggly for spelling errors, and green squiggly for grammar errors). Right click on the word, and the suggested replacement is available to replace the original. I haven't tested the full capabilities of this feature, but common homonyms like won and one, knew and new, they're their and there, to two and too, are easily identified and corrected.

Now I have to admit that as a parent I have some reservations about this feature, because it could conceivably become a crutch and hinder students from actually learning which is the appropriate word to use in a given context. However, I also think that perhaps repeatedly having Word suggest corrections may help to reinforce the correct choice.

Now if we could only have this immediately implemented into every message board software currently in use... ;)

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