Word popped up with a message saying my novel now has too many spelling errors and it will no longer check them. It's a science fiction fantasy / thing, so these are generally not spelling mistakes, but Word doesn't know that. Nevertheless I dont want to go through the entire manuscript adding everything to the dictionary. Its not checking anything now so I've had to split the book into a new file which is inconvenient because I cant see any of what I've written already. Anyone know of a workaround? I've googled this but cant find anything conclusive that I can understand.
The only way I know in Word is what you have already done, split the file into separate smaller ones. Large continuous files like a complete novel are where MS Word starts to show its shortcomings. Are you sure there are so many unique 'non-standard' spellings in your ms that it's not worth going through and having Word learn the more heavily used ones? Not all of them, just the ones that pop up over and again.
That makes no sense to me. Why would someone write that into a WP software program? Are you sure you didn't click 'yes' when it asked you if you wanted spell check turned off? All you have to do is highlight the word, right click and tell the program to learn your spelling. You don't need to go through the whole manuscript, just add enough to get back under the threshold. I don't know why you didn't do it as you went.
It does happen, @GingerCoffee, though I agree in total that it makes no sense that it should that. The program will track only so many 'spelling errors' before it gives you that message.
I guess I can but its already at 152,000 words over 306 pages and I didnt really want to worry about proof reading until its finished.
Why would a WP stop checking for spelling issues when there's too many? It's kinda what it's made for... Other than that, add some uniques to the dictionary or split the file into two.
It's not how many pages, it's how many unique words. You only need correct one of each, and it's versions like if there are plurals or tense changes involved.
heres what i do, i have one file that the whole piece is in, when i start writing again, i begin on the original MS, then copy what ive written so far (And possibly the rest of the paragraph if i have started mid paragraph) and write it in a new document, that way, you can pick up on spelling errors.... just remember to paste them back over again and save (the amount of times ive forgotten then had to retrieve them from autosave)
One possibility is to export the document to a text file, and use one of the many text editors with a spelling checker (and many of those are freeware) to do your spelling checks. This would only be for the error checking, so you'd still have to transfer your corrections back to your Word file. However, you will not be able to depend solely on the spell checker anyway. Too many words, when misspelled, are also valid words, just incorrect for the context. So in any case you'll have to do your own proofreading anyway. The other question I have is how many of these made-up words do you have in your story? I don't know how dense the "errors" have to be before Word throws up its metaphorical hands in surrender, but I wonder how it compares to the jargon density that will make a reader throw in the towel. Just something to consider.
Try this page: http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/MasterSpellCheck.htm I suggest you create a custom dictionary for this project.
Well I went to find one for you but it has now removed spell check from entire document, not just beyond the point where there were too many 'errors'. So I'll have to get copy and pasting like Chaos Reigns suggested. I'm sure ROCK1NG JENNY was one. I also like 'vodka kiss'. But I don't think that was an error.
Yeah it's a pain when that happens. It's usually the little ones - you know, it is, I dunno, "necessary" or "neccesary" - that kinda thing. In this case I know it's "necessary" but there're other cases when sometimes I'm not sure if it's meant to be spelt with an "e" or an "a" or something. Mine's switched itself off a long time ago. I wouldn't worry. As a writer, your grasp of spelling should be pretty firm anyway. If at any point you're unsure, get on Oxford Dictionary and check it out - about time we learnt how to spell properly even for the subtler words. Otherwise, keep writing and proofread later. Nothing's gonna die just 'cause there's a typo you missed
It should mostly be proper nouns. I have a fair amount of 'foreign' names, some made up names and so forth. The spine of the book is contemporary fiction but there are offshoots which read as distinct stories of their own. I've intentionally tried to make the style and prose distinct in each one of these while linking them back to the main part of the book. Whether this will work in practice I don't know. It's way too long to try and publish for a first novel anyway. My next project will be much shorter (and will be my 'first' book). Hopefully if I can get something off the ground then this one might see the light of day in years to come.
If a lot of your miss spellings are from fictional alien names or worlds, there's a workaround for it. Just right click on it and then click on 'add to dictionary' and it'll add it to Word's listing and it won't consider it a spelling error.
It's out of order for computer programs to refuse to check documents because there are a lot of words in them, in my opinion. I bet this is how Skynet started out. Before you know it, Microsoft Word will be firing off nuclear missiles and making Terminators. You mark my words.
When managing large documents in Word you really do want to create a Master Document with each chapter as a Sub-document. Trying to load too much into Word at a time can cause performance issues as well quirks such as this. See more information from Microsoft here, and from Dummies Guide http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-organize-a-large-document-in-word-2010.html. Using Master/Sub documents handles issues such as continuous page numbering etc.
I suspect this doesn't work under Linux.However LibreOffice Writer does support Master/Sub documents as well. For more dedicated DTP software there LyX and Scribus (both also available in Gatesware) - both are free.
Yep, @Wreybies is right. If you go to the Literature and Latte forums you'll see the forum that has the links to the Linux version. You can get .deb files or download a tarball, whichever you prefer.
