Section 2.4. Spell Check and Other Editorial Tools


2.4. Spell Check and Other Editorial Tools

It's one thing to know how to edit your slides, which is what the first half of this chapter focuses on: the mechanics of cutting, copying, pasting, and so on. It's another thing altogether to figure out if (and why) you need to edit your slides in the first place.

This section acquaints you with PowerPoint's virtual editorial staff: the options that check your text for spelling and capitalization errors, suggest synonyms, help you dig up background information, and translate words and phrases into other languages.

2.4.1. Checking Spelling

Spelling errors are never a good thing. At best, they can give your audience the impression that you don't pay attention to details. At worst, they can actually prevent your audience from understanding what you're talking about. And make no mistake about it: the typo that no one but the former English teacher noticed when it appeared on a hard-copy handout is obvious to everyone when it's four feet high and splashed across a projector screen.


Note: Spell checkers' suggestions aren't always right, and they can miss errors, too. What's more, studies suggest that some folks actually make more mistakes when they use spell checkers than when they don't because they rely on the tool instead of their own proofreading skills. Bottom line: a spell checker can be a timesaver, but it's no substitute for carefully reading through your presentation.

PowerPoint gives you two choices when it comes to spell checking your presentation. You can check as you go, automatically, or wait until you're finished with your presentation and then run the check manually.

2.4.1.1. Setting up spelling

Whether you choose automatic spell checking or manual, you want to give PowerPoint a heads-up on what kinds of special words to look out forwords like company-specific acronyms, passwords, or other non-words that you want PowerPoint to skip during a spell check. To set spelling options:

  1. Select Office button PowerPoint Options.

    The PowerPoint Options window appears.

  2. On the left side of the PowerPoint Options window, click the Proofing category to select it.

  3. Turn on the checkbox next to one or more of the following:

    • Ignore words in UPPERCASE. You want to choose this option if you use a lot of acronyms, like FUBAR.

    • Ignore words that contain numbers . This option is useful if, say, you're a system administrator who peppers presentations with passwords like edgar123 .

    • Ignore Internet and file addresses. This option tells the spell checker not to flag computer-era "words" such as www.oreilly.com and myFile.txt .

    • Flag repeated words. Catches mistakes mistakes that the human eye often misses.

  4. Click OK.

    The PowerPoint Options window disappears, returning you to your slides.

WORD TO THE WISE
Contextual Spelling (and Why It's Not Reliable, Either)

Spell checking is great for catching misspelled words (such as mispelled ). But it's useless when it comes to catching misused words, which are at least as common asand can tarnish your well-polished presentation even more thanglaring typos.

Take, for example, the phrase days of your . Because your is a legitimate , correctly spelled word, the PowerPoint spell checker doesn't flag it and suggest the correct word for this phrase, yore .

PowerPoint does offer an option called contextual spelling which can help catch this sort of grammar errorbut only sometimes. Here's how it works:

When you turn on contextual spelling, the PowerPoint spell checker examines words in the context of their neighbors to see if it can spot common grammar mistakes. For example, the spell checker correctly flags then in the phrase More then this . It even suggests than , which is in fact the correct spelling.

But no contextual spell checker is going to catch every grammatical error. In fact, even with contextual spelling turned on, PowerPoint's spell checker doesn't see any problem with days of your .

As long as you're aware of contextual spelling's shortcomings and plan to double-check the results using your own eyeballs, here's how to turn it on:

  1. Choose Office PowerPoint Options Proofing.

  2. Click OK.


2.4.1.2. Automatic (continuous) spell checking

Out of the box, PowerPoint assumes you want it to flag misspelled words automatically, as you type, by underlining them with a wavy red line. Figure 2-7 shows you an example.


Note: If you see an obvious misspelling on a slide but don't see a wavy underline, someone turned off automatic spell checking. To turn it on again, select Office PowerPoint Options Proofing. Then make sure the radio box next to "Check spelling as you type is turned on , and the one next to "Hide spelling errors" is turned off .

Figure 2-7. The misspelling icon in the status bar and the wavy line you see underneath "temperatore" is PowerPoint's way of letting you know that it doesn't recognize the word. (In other words, "temperatore" doesn't appear in PowerPoint's built-in dictionary.) To tell PowerPoint to recognize a particular spelling in the future, or to display any of the other options you see here, right-click the misspelled word.



Note: PowerPoint's spell checker examines Word Art and charts , but ignores misspellings in any pictures (such as bitmaps) or graphs that you add to your slides.

To correct the misspelling:

  1. Right-click the misspelled word.

    A context menu similar to the one you see in Figure 2-7 appears.

  2. In the context menu, click to choose one of the following options:

    • One of the suggested correct spellings. (In the example in Figure 2-8, the suggested correct spellings are temperature, tempera tore , and temperatures .) PowerPoint's built-in dictionary contains quite a few common words, so unless you're using trademarked names or jargon, chances are good you'll find the correct spelling listed for the word you've misspelled.

      When you choose a word, the context menu disappears. On the slide, PowerPoint replaces the misspelled version with the corrected version you chose.

    • Ignore All. Tells PowerPoint to ignore this misspelled word each time it encounters it in this presentation. Choose this option when you're using an "illegitimate" word that you don't want PowerPoint to recognize a year from now, such as company-specific code name you know will be retired after the presentation you're currently working on.

      When you choose this option, the context menu disappears, as does the red wavy line beneath the misspelled word. PowerPoint doesn't flag additional occurrences of the misspelling (if it encounters them) in this presentation.

    • Add to Dictionary . Tells PowerPoint to ignore this particular spelling when it appears in any presentation (technically, any presentation to which you've attached a custom dictionary; see the box on page 65 for more information). This is the option you want to use for teachers ' names, company acronyms, and other words you know you'll be using in more than one presentation.

      When you choose this option, the context menu disappears, as does the red wavy line beneath the misspelled word. PowerPoint doesn't flag additional occurrences of this new word ( assuming it encounters them) in any presentation.

    • Spelling. Tells PowerPoint to display the Spelling dialog box shown in Figure 2-8. Your options include:

      • Ignore. Tells PowerPoint to ignore this particular occurrence of the misspelling, but to highlight any additional occurrences it finds in this presentation.

      • Ignore All. Tells PowerPoint to ignore every existing occurrence of the misspelling in this presentation.

      • Change. Tells PowerPoint to swap the selected suggestion (in Figure 2-8, temperature ) for this particular occurrence of the misspelling.

      • Change All. Tells PowerPoint to swap the selected suggestion for every existing occurrence of the misspelling.

      • Add. Tells PowerPoint to add the "misspelled" word to the custom dictionary you choose (see the box on page 65).

      • Suggest. Tells PowerPoint to cough up additional suggested spellings.

      • AutoCorrect. Tells PowerPoint to keep an eye out for this misspelling in the future, and automatically substitute the selected suggestion if you misspell the same word the same way again.

      • Close. Closes the Spelling dialog box without taking any additional action.

      • Options. Tells PowerPoint to display the PowerPoint Options window, which lets you customize the way PowerPoint checks spelling.

2.4.1.3. Manual spell checking

Some folks find automatic spell checking (page 62) more distracting than helpful. They either resent those wavy red underlines distracting them while they're busy trying to concentrate, or they just get so used to seeing the underlines that they ignore them and end up leaving in misspellings.

NOSTALGIA CORNER
Improved Custom DictionaryNow with Delete

PowerPoint uses at least two separate dictionaries to check your spelling: a "real" dictionary (one that you can't change) and a custom dictionary (one called custom.dic that you can change). When you tell PowerPoint to add a particular spelling to the dictionary, as described on page 64, PowerPoint adds the spelling either to custom.dic or another custom dictionary that you specify.

Older versions of PowerPoint let you edit the custom dictionary, but it certainly wasn't easy. Say, for example, that you accidentally added the word persnicketty to the custom dictionary when what you wanted to add was persnickety . In PowerPoint 2003, you either had to use Microsoft Word's Options menu to delete the goof (all Microsoft Office programs can access the same custom dictionaries) or track down the PowerPoint-generated custom.dic file on your computer and delete the goof by hand, using a text editing program such as Notepad.

In PowerPoint 2007, the process is a bit easier. To delete a word from custom.dic (the custom dictionary PowerPoint 2007 assigns you out of the box), follow these steps:

  1. Choose Office button PowerPoint Options.

  2. Select Custom Dictionaries.

  3. In the Custom Dictionaries dialog box that pops up, make sure the checkbox next to the custom dictionary you want to use is turned on, and then click Edit Word List.

  4. In the dialog box that appears, click to select the word(s) you want to delete, and then click Delete to get rid of the word and OK to dismiss the dialog box.


Figure 2-8. The options you can choose from in this dialog box change depending on whether or not you've selected a suggested spelling. Here, the suggested spelling temperature is selected, so PowerPoint activates all of the options. If you don't select a suggested spelling, then the only available options are Resume, Ignore All, Add, Suggest, Options, and Close.


If either of these reactions sounds familiar, you'll want to turn off automatic spell checking and run the tool yourself, when you've finished composing your text and are ready to begin proofreading in earnest.

To turn off automatic spell checking:

  1. Select Office button PowerPoint Options Proofing.

    The PowerPoint Options window (Figure 2-9) appears showing all the spelling and automatic spelling options.

    FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
    Creating and Using Additional Dictionaries

    As a consultant, I deliver presentations for several different, highly specialized industries. Can I create different custom dictionaries in PowerPoint 2007 to handle different sets of words?

    You're not stuck with custom.dic as your only custom dictionary. If you like, you can create additional custom dictionariessay, one for each jargon-specific project you know you'll be covering in an upcoming presentation.

    To create a new custom dictionary:

    1. Choose Office button PowerPoint Options.

    2. Custom Dictionaries.
    3. In the Create Custom Dictionary box that appears, type a filename in the "File name" field and then click Save. The Custom Dictionaries box reappears, but now it lists your newly added custom dictionary.

    To attach your new custom dictionary to another presentation:

    1. Open the PowerPoint presentation to which you want to attach the custom dictionary.

    2. Choose Office button PowerPoint Options.

    3. Custom Dictionaries.
    4. The Add Custom Dictionary box appears. Browse your computer or, in the "File name" field, type in the name of the existing custom dictionary you want to attach to this presentation, and then click Open. The Custom Dictionaries box reappears, listing your freshly attached custom dictionary.

    5. If the dictionary you added doesn't contain English words, then click the Dictionary Language drop-down list to specify the language.


    Figure 2-9. The options you set here in the PowerPoint Options window are divided into labeled sections. Some settings (such as whether or not you want the spell checker to flag repeated words) affect all Microsoft Office programs; others (such as whether or not you want automatic spell checking turned on) affect PowerPoint only.


  2. Turn off the checkbox next to "Check spelling as you type" and then click OK .

    The PowerPoint Options window disappears.

To check the spelling of your presentation manually:

  1. Click the Review tab.

    The reviewing tools appear (Figure 2-10).

    Figure 2-10. The Review tab shows you all the options you're likely to need after you've finished creating your presentation, when you're ready to read through and tweak it. To bypass the Review tab altogether and skip directly to the Spelling window, press F7.


  2. Click Spelling.

    Up pops the Spelling window shown back in Figure 2-8.

  3. Spell check your presentation following the instructions on page 64.

2.4.2. Thesaurus

Choosing just the right word to get your point across can be tremendously, enormously, even exceedingly difficult. Everybody's experienced it: the perfect word is right there on the tip of your tongue, and yet you can't quite pin it down.

PowerPoint lends a hand with its synonym-listing thesaurus . One of PowerPoint's research tools (see page 69 for more), the thesaurus lets you look up a word or phrase in any of several online tomesall without leaving PowerPoint.

To invoke the thesaurus:

  1. In a text box, right-click the word or phrase for which you want to find a synonym.

    A context menu appears.

  2. From the context menu, choose Synonyms .

    PowerPoint displays a list of synonyms (the list may be short or long, depending on your word, and may even contain a conspicuously labeled antonym or two) followed by the Thesaurus option.

  3. Choose one of the following:

    • If one of the synonyms listed works for you, click to select it. PowerPoint automatically replaces your word or phrase with the synonym you selected.

    • If none of the synonyms fit the bill, click Thesaurus. A Research pane similar to the one you see in Figure 2-11 appears on the right side of your screen, listing additional synonyms. But if the word you're looking for is still nowhere in sight, don't worry. Out of the box, PowerPoint assumes you want to search for synonyms in its built-in thesaurus. To specify different or additional references, click "All Reference Books" or "All Research Sites" and then click OK.


Note: Two alternative ways to invoke the thesaurus: select the word you want to replace and then choose Review Proofing Thesaurus or hit Shift+F7. Either way, the Research pane you see in Figure 2-11 appears.

Figure 2-11. PowerPoint looks up your word automatically when you click Thesaurus, so unless you've misspelled it (in which case, click the correct spelling that appears), you should see a list of synonyms in the Research pane as soon as the pane appears. To replace slide text, mouse over the synonym you want and, when a down-arrow next to the synonym appears, click it and choose Insert.


2.4.3. Translating Words into Other Languages

Using PowerPoint's translating tool, you can type a word or phrase onto your slide in one language and look up the translation in one of several other languages (French, English, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and so on) without ever having to take your eyes off your slide.


Note: If you want to create your entire presentation in a different language, then you'll want to check out the section "Non-English Text" on page 75. But if all you want to do is add that certain je ne sais quoi to your presentation (and make sure you spell it correctly), the translating tool described in this section is what you want.

To translate a word or phrase from one language to another:

  1. On your slide, select the words you want to translate. Then choose Review Proofing Translate .

    The Research pane appears, ready to translate your selection, as shown in Figure 2-12.

  2. Choose a From language and a To language .

    PowerPoint automatically translates your word based on the languages you chose.

  3. In the Research pane, select the translated word or phrase you want to copy .

  4. Press Ctrl+C or right-click the word or phrase and select Copy .

  5. On your slide, drag to highlight the phrase you want to replace .

  6. Press Ctrl+V to paste the translation or right-click the highlighted phrase and select Paste .

    Figure 2-12. Translation services like the one PowerPoint uses (World Lingo) are a beautiful thing, but they're no substitute for an actual bilingual human being who understands both nuance and context. You can up your confidence in a particularly sensitive phrase by translating it first in one direction, then back again. If the result is nonsensical , then you may want to do a bit more legwork before accepting PowerPoint's translation. (For example, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" translated from English to Russian and back again shows up as "The vodka is strong, but the meat is lousy.")


2.4.4. Researching Stuff

Maybe you don't want to translate a word into Swedish or come up with a synonym for cerulean (page 67). Maybe all you want to do is double-check that the stock quotes you're adding to your presentation are accurate and up-to-the-minute.

You could always exit PowerPoint and fire up your Web browser, of course, but there's no need: PowerPoint's Research pane lets you surf the Web right where you are. You can use this tool to find synonyms, translate a word, find a definition, locate articles that discuss a particular topic or sell a certain product, and much more.

To research a word or phrase:

  1. On your slide, select the word or phrase you want to research. Choose Review Proofing Research .

    The Research pane appears.


    Note: The Research, Thesaurus, and Translate buttons are toggle buttons. Clicking them once displays the Research pane; clicking them a second time hides it.
  2. In the Research pane, check to make sure the "Search for" field contains the phrase you want to research.

    If it doesn't, then you can either cut-and-paste the phrase from your slide, or type it directly into the "Search for" field. (If you've previously run a search, PowerPoint leaves the old phrase in the "Search for" field, so you need to replace it with the new phrase.)

  3. From the drop-down menu labeled "All Reference Books" (circled in Figure 2-12), choose the reference book, site, or collection you want PowerPoint to search.

    For example, you can choose "All Research Sites" or "All Business and Financial Sites."

    In the Research pane, you immediately see the message "Searching..." which PowerPoint replaces (eventually) with paid advertisements, followed by the results of your search.

  4. If you're not satisfied with your results, then try broadening your search by repeating steps 3 and 4 .


Note: If your results appear scrunched up in the Research task pane, then make the pane bigger by dragging the left edge of the pane toward your slide.

2.4.5. Turning on AutoCorrect (for Capitalization and Spelling)

Unlike PowerPoint's spell check option, which simply flags potential goofs (page 61), the AutoCorrect option goes one step further and actually corrects mistakes as you type them. AutoCorrect can correct the following two types of errors automatically, as your fingers fly across the keyboard:

  • Case (capitalization). AutoCorrect can make sure you begin every sentence , or day of the week, or what-have-you with an uppercase letter. It can also recognize when you've mistakenly hit the Caps Lock key and corrects senTENCES LIKE THIS.

  • Spelling. AutoCorrect can catch and fix commonly misspelled words such as taht instead of that, adn instead of and . You can also tell PowerPoint to catch and fix your own personal slips of the finger: Mrs. Carbapple , for instance, if you find yourself repeatedly misspelling Mrs. Crabapple .


Tip: AutoCorrect spelling can do more than just catch goofsit can also save you a bunch of typing time. For example, you can tell PowerPoint to expand every occurrence of LI to Sunny's All-Natural Lycopene Infusion . Or, if you know you have trouble capitalizing tricky acronyms, you can tell PowerPoint to replace a lowercase version ( phd ) with the correctly capitalized version ( Ph.D .)

PowerPoint doesn't give you one overarching way to turn AutoCorrect on or off. Instead, as you see in the following sections, you turn AutoCorrect on or off separately for case and spelling. (Out of the box, PowerPoint assumes you want AutoCorrect turned on for both.)

2.4.5.1. Autocorrecting case (capitalization) errors

PowerPoint can catch and fix capitalization errors as you type.

To turn on AutoCorrect for capitalization (case):

  1. Select Office button PowerPoint Options.

    The PowerPoint Options window appears.

  2. Click Proofing. Then, in the Proofing panel, click the AutoCorrect Options button .

    The AutoCorrect Window (Figure 2-13) appears.

    Figure 2-13. All of the options you see here have to do with case (also known as capitalization), except one: the "Replace text as you type" option. That one tells PowerPoint how to fix your own idiosyncratic spelling errors, as you see on page 74.


  3. Make sure the AutoCorrect tab is selected; if not, click to select it.

  4. Turn on the checkbox next to one or more of the following options:

    • Correct TWo INitial CApitals. Tells PowerPoint to keep the first capital letter and make the second lowercase. (PowerPoint won't touch three capital letters in a row.) If you like, you can turn this option on but specify exceptions, such as EBay . To do so, in the AutoCorrect window (Figure 2-13), click Exceptions. Then type your exception as shown in Figure 2-14.

      Figure 2-14. Click the INitial CAps tab to type in company-, organization-, and school-specific acronyms beginning with two caps that you want PowerPoint to ignore.


    • Capitalize first letter of sentences. Tells PowerPoint to capitalize the first letter following a period and a space, even if you forget. You can turn on this option but specify words (such as abbreviations) you want PowerPoint to leave alone. To do so, in the AutoCorrect window (Figure 2-13), click Exceptions. Then type your exception as shown in Figure 2-15.

      Figure 2-15. The First Letter tab lets you tell PowerPoint which abbreviations you expect to type into your presentation. That way, when you type your abbreviation onto a slide, PowerPoint won't think the period after the abbreviation is the end of a sentence and capitalize the next word.


    • Capitalize first letter of table cells . Tells PowerPoint to capitalize the first letter you type into every cell of a table.


      Note: Chapter 6 shows you how to insert a table into your slide.
    • Capitalize names of days. Tells PowerPoint to capitalize the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on, automatically.

    • Correct accidental use of cAPS LOCK key. Tells PowerPoint to watch for capitalization that looks backwards (the first letter lower case followed by all upper case letters) and reverse the capitalization.

NOSTALGIA CORNER
PowerPoint Still Has Style (It's Just Changed)

Earlier versions of PowerPoint let you specify style options (Tools Options Spelling and Style Style Options) that told the program which extras you wanted it to look for during a spell check: case (upper vs. lower), end punctuation (mandatory periods or not), and visual clarity (maximum number of bullet points and words per slide).

Well, the Tools menu is history, but through the PowerPoint Options window, PowerPoint 2007 still gives you a way to control how the program checks your text for case (page 71) and end punctuation.

Unfortunately, the visual clarity options no longer exist in PowerPoint 2007.


2.4.5.2. Autocorrecting spelling errors

For many misspellings, you don't have to hassle with either the automatic or manual spell checks: PowerPoint can catch and fix many spelling errors immediately, as you type. To turn on AutoCorrect for spelling, go to Office button PowerPoint Options Proofing. Under the "When correcting spelling in PowerPoint heading, turn on the "Check spelling as you type" checkbox to turn on AutoCorrect.

If you like, you can specify one or more words you want PowerPoint to correct automatically. For example, words you know you have a habit of misspelling or words you want to abbreviate and have PowerPoint type out completely. To do so:

  1. Go to Office button PowerPoint Options Proofing. On the Proofing panel, click AutoCorrect Options.

    The AutoCorrect window shown back in Figure 2-13 appears.

  2. On the AutoCorrect tab, turn on the "Replace text as you type" checkbox.

    In the Replace box, type the misspelling you want PowerPoint to correct (or the abbreviation you want PowerPoint to spell out).

  3. In the With box, type the correctly spelled word. Click OK when you're done.




PowerPoint 2007
PowerPoint 2007
ISBN: 1555583148
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 129

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