Word Processing : Text Analysis

Word processors provide tools which will check the text that you have typed and highlight and possibly correct any errors that it contains. Almost all word processors will include a spelling checker. More sophisticated packages also include thesaurus dictionaries and grammar checkers.

Spell Check

A spelling checker will examine the text that you have typed and identify any spelling mistakes. When a mistake is found most spelling checkers will attempt to "guess" what the correct word should be and make some suggestions to you. You can accept one of the suggestions or retype the word correctly yourself.

Spelling checkers have quite large dictionaries, typically 80,000 words. However there will be some words that are not in the dictionary such as peoples' names. You can usually add extra words to the dictionary that is supplied with the word processor.

A spelling checker can not spot mistakes where you have typed the wrong word, e.g. it will not spot "their" instead of "there" or "the" instead of "they".

Thesaurus and Grammar Check

Advanced word processors may also offer thesaurus or grammar check features :

• A thesaurus will suggest alternative words with the same meaning as a word that you have typed in. Such words are known as synonyms. For example if you type "big" the thesaurus might suggest "large", "huge" and "vast".
• A grammar checker will examine the structure of any text you have typed. It may highlight some grammatical errors or give you a score to indicate how good your grammar is. The grammar checkers that are available at the moment are not very good.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004