11 simple ways to improve Microsoft Office's spell & grammar checker
- recognize proper nouns, especially when followed by ’s, and treat them appropriately when using "change all"
- detect and correct word variations during a spell-check session without having to add them to the dictionary; especially important for occasional proper nouns
- detect delayed shift-release capitalization errors, especially for proper nouns (e.g. "my name is ARvind")
- detect typing error patterns within a document and adjust spelling/grammar suggestion accordingly
- use phrase patterns to refine suggestions ("in touh with" is probably "in touch with", not "in tough with")
- detect spacebar order errors ("this is n ot the case")
- infer multiple whitespace usage conventions from the document (don't ask each time you encounter e.g. "and so , we can" to change to "and so, we can" once I make the change)
- show me what "change all" will change, especially if it's a grammatical suggestion and/or there are variations
- turn off "resume" mode when clicking into the text area after loss of window focus
- detect compound grammar & spelling errors (e.g. "she is alectureer" should suggest "a lecturer" instead of just "lecturer" to avoid introducing a grammatical error)
- detect typing errors based on keyboard button proximity patterns (e.g. "traip" is more likely to be "trail" than "train")
[update: the Office Natural Language team has a post on the issue]
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