FILEMAKER: Visual Spell-Checking Explored

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

CHAPTER 1.6: Working With Fields

FileMaker includes the ability to spell check text fields or text on a layout when in layout mode. Visual Spell-Checking is a feature that underscores a word that FileMaker may think has a spelling error. When you see the indication that a word may be misspelled, you can right click on the word to bring up your contextual menu options to address it.

Here you can see that the visual spell checker has flagged a misspelling of the word FileMaker.

Here you can see the contextual menu showing you alternate spelling options and the ability to add a word to your FileMaker dictionary.

Not all words flagged by the spell checker are misspelled. You may want to add words to the internal FileMaker user dictionary to accommodate people names, slang, industry related words and the like. This way they will not be flagged as spelling errors in the future.

Now with the release of FileMaker 9, visual spell-checking can be controlled via the Field Behavior dialog box.

FYI... Up to version 9 of FileMaker, Visual Spell-Checking used to be an option that you could turn on or off on a per file basis only. This limitation became a type of “damned if you do / damned if you don’t” choice for developers and users alike.

FYI... FileMaker has the ability to use multiple dictionaries and you can select which one to use during different data entry situations!

FYI... You might not know that you can edit the user dictionary, import new words from a text file or export the user dictionary so that you can share it with other FileMaker users in your workgroup! This is all accessed from the Spelling sub-menu under the Edit menu. Hey, you can even have multiple dictionaries and switch back and forth depending on unique FileMaker usage situations.

Here are some links to other posts that might be of interest in regards to this topic...
Field Behavior
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More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

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