Learn Spelling spell check issue on large documents

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GWK56
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Joined: 2018-11-05 04:11:49

Learn Spelling spell check issue on large documents

Post by GWK56 »

I have been using Nisus Writer Pro for several years now. I have written two books with it and am currently working on two other manuscripts. My books are historical in nature, dealing with astronomy, and include the names of people from around the world. The only time I use "Learn Spelling" is for these names. I have discussed a problem I have been having with Nisus support and they have not been able to help. I just upgraded to 3.0 and the problem persists. Here is the problem.

My books and manuscripts range from 400 to 1000 pages. When I type a name and the red, dotted, underline appears, I highlight it and select "Learn spelling." When the document is only a couple hundred pages it takes very little time for the red underline to go away in both the main body of the document, as well as in the footnotes. Although I work on the documents for 4-5 hours a day, names are not added on a daily basis. Sometime after the manuscripts have passed the 400-page mark I begin noticing that when I do "Learn spelling" for a name in the main body of the document, the same name in the footnotes is still underlined. Nisus told me to give it some time, but I have names in the footnotes of both working manuscripts that still have the red underline several months after the same name was added in the main body. For the red underline to disappear for that word in the footnotes, I have to highlight it and select "Learn spelling." Has anyone else run into this problem?
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martin
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Re: Spell check issue on large documents

Post by martin »

I'm sorry this continues to be a problem for you. What you've heard from us on the matter is correct: if you use the "Learn Spelling" command to remove a misspelled word the rest of your document (including footnotes) will be rescanned in the background as idle time is found. How long this takes depends on a variety of external factors, as spellchecking is a joint effort between Nisus Writer and the system (macOS). If your Mac is busy with other tasks, clearing any stale misspelling marks may take longer.

However, what you say here points to a different problem:
GWK56 wrote: 2018-11-05 05:53:54I have names in the footnotes of both working manuscripts that still have the red underline several months after the same name was added in the main body.
It would never take months to recheck your document spelling. And in fact, every time you close and reopen a document the spelling is completely cleared and redone. I expect you close and reopen these documents many times during these months, so there's something else wrong here.

One question: are you using multiple languages and/or spelling dictionaries in your document? If so that might explain the problem. When you learn a misspelled word it only affects the current spelling dictionary. If your document has many languages you would need to learn the word multiple times, once for each spelling dictionary.

Might that explain your problem? If not, maybe you could send us a sample document that showcases the problem.
GWK56
Posts: 3
Joined: 2018-11-05 04:11:49

Re: Learn Spelling spell check issue on large documents

Post by GWK56 »

I do not use multiple languages or multiple spelling dictionaries. All of my writing deals with astronomical history, so I use the same dictionary so I don't have to use "Learn Spelling" when I start writing a new document.
GWK56
Posts: 3
Joined: 2018-11-05 04:11:49

Re: Learn Spelling spell check issue on large documents

Post by GWK56 »

I have identified my problem. I only use one spelling dictionary, but I have collaborated with an astronomer in Germany for two of my last four books. Going back to those two manuscripts, I found that text he sent me in the main body of the manuscript is labeled "Language: English (U.S.)" under Displayed Formatting; however, the footnotes for that text are labeled "Language: German." When I changed it to "English (U.S.)" the red dotted lines for the "misspelled" words in the footnotes went away. Although my current manuscript is not a collaboration with that German author, I did copy and paste some German to English translations that he had sent for the previous manuscripts, so I brought footnotes over that were labeled as "German" language. I know I adjusted the footnote formatting for the current manuscript and I may very well have done this using one of the German language footnotes and then selected "Redefine Style from Selection." I have now redefined my footnote format using the "English (U.S)" language and the red dotted lines have all gone away.
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martin
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Re: Learn Spelling spell check issue on large documents

Post by martin »

That's great, thanks for letting us know. I'm glad to hear you solved the problem, and it was just the simple problem of an unexpected style definition.
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