What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3

Spell Catcher X version 10.3 contains many new features, enhancements and improvements. The complete list of changes for previous versions can be found in the Version History chapter.

System Requirements Have Changed!

Spell Catcher X 10.3 requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 (10.4.11 recommended), or Mac OS X 10.5 and later.
• Spell Catcher X version 10.3 is recommended for all Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) users.
Mac OS X 10.4, 10.4.1, and 10.4.2 (Tiger) users must use Apple’s Software Update, and update to Mac OS X 10.4.3 (or later), in order to use Spell Catcher X (or any third party input method).
Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther) users must continue to use Spell Catcher X 10.2.3.
Mac OS X 10.2.x (Jaguar) through Mac OS X 10.3.8 users must continue to use Spell Catcher X 10.2.1.

Important Information Regarding Language Plug-Ins

All language plug-ins have been updated for Spell Catcher X 10.3! In the Spell Catcher application, choose Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages, or Help > Spell Catcher Languages Page, to download the latest version(s) of any language plug-ins you use. Languages are also available on our website: http://www.rainmakerinc.com/products/languages/.

• Note for Swiss German users: Spell Catcher X 10.3 will report an error when opening earlier versions (for Spell Catcher X 10.2.x) of the Swiss German language plug-in. Just dismiss the alert, download and install the latest version of Swiss German and any other languages you use.

New

• New: Spell Catcher X 10.3 introduces DirectCorrect™ — an entirely new way to check and correct your documents. DirectCorrect combines the “write now, check later” capabilities of Check Selection, and the “make an error, fix it now” instant satisfaction of interactive checking. The result is a totally new, “best of both worlds” experience. Without leaving your document, you can instantly check it for errors, see them highlighted (boldly, color-coded, according to error type), and correct them. In any order you like, when it’s convenient.
  

  DirectCorrect is by far the most significant and important new feature in Spell Catcher X 10.3 — perhaps to Spell Catcher X, since it was first released. DirectCorrect redefines how writing and proofing tools should work — both from the way you use the tool, and the way it integrates into the application you’re using it with. Because DirectCorrect makes corrections to your document directly via the application itself, all work you’ve done getting the formatting just right is not sacrificed! Unlike Check Selection, no conversion (via the clipboard or other similar means) of your documents contents or formatting is needed. This means your formatting stays put, and you get the result you want!

  We have plenty of ideas for the future of DirectCorrect. Many other Spell Catcher features are “natural” additions — Modify Selection functions are one example. Some of the Automatic changes available while you are typing might be useful if you could also perform them afterwards, on already written text. Other tasks, completely unrelated to traditional spell checking or writing, are potential future enhancements. We’ll leave it up to your imagination rather than spilling the beans at this point in time!

  We Want Your Feedback! DirectCorrect is a feature in its infancy. If you have any feedback or ideas, feel free to contact us at directcorrect@rainmakerinc.com.

• New: A major upgrade to the Proximity Linguistic System (PLS) - the product we license and use for Spell Catcher’s spelling, thesaurus, and definition dictionary. Previous versions of Spell Catcher used PLS version 8, Spell Catcher X 10.3 uses PLS version 11. One of the new features in PLS 11 is a brand-new type of spellings file (“hsp” trie-based phonetic databases), more compact than the traditional “lex” databases we have been using. The major improvement - one you will notice right away - is the vastly improved quality of spelling suggestions that are offered.
  • The content of the traditional “lex” spelling databases has been updated in PLS 11 in a major way for all languages. Spell Catcher X 10.3 includes both the new “hsp” and updated “lex” spelling databases. You can use both at the same time if you’re someone that just wants the highest possible word count, or choose the one you like or “get along with” best. There is, of course, overlap in both word lists for any given language, but there are significant content differences that you may want or need to take advantage of.
  • The German and Swiss German language plug-ins now contain complete spelling “lex” databases for 1901 and 1996 spellings.
  • The Dutch language plug-in now contains a complete spelling “lex” databases for 1995 spellings.
  • A Russian language plug-in is now available (a separate $10USD purchase). Interactive checking in Russian requires Spell Catcher X 10.3 (see the next item regarding input modes). Selection-based features (such as Check Selection and Check Word) in Russian will work with Spell Catcher X 10.2.x.
• New: Spell Catcher’s input method now has input modes, to accommodate Unicode and Cyrillic keyboard layouts and input. By default, only Roman input is turned on - this is nearly identical to what users of previous versions of Spell Catcher X are familiar with. The other modes can be enabled in the Input Menu tab of International System Preferences.
• New: French language localization. Spell Catcher X has always had features tailored specifically for French and Canadian French users. Now it’s got a French user interface as well, courtesy of Ronald Leroux - http://www.cortig.net/localisations/.
• New: The “Auto-Show Suggestions” command in Spell Catcher’s Input menu now has a submenu, where you can quickly choose between the Suggest Spelling window or the Pop-up suggestions list.
• New: Updated Find in References, Look Up, Learned Words and Shorthand Glossary windows. More modernization, resulting in useful new features. For example, real Search fields in the Find in References and Look Up windows. Things just look better, and work better than they used to.
• New: In the Find in References window, you can choose whether to find in all references, or just those that are currently being used.
• New: In the Look Up window, the pop-up menu of recently looked-up words has been replaced with a more appropriate search field and “Recent Searches” shortcut menu and back/forward controls for complete history navigation.
• New: When editing Shorthand Glossary documents, you can now search on abbreviation, expansion, or the entire shorthand.
• New: New Shorthand Glossary interactive expansion option “Append to the previous word.” This makes it possible to define shorthands that appear as a sort of “suffix”. As an example, say you often type “xx-year old man”, where “xx” represents an age that can vary. Define the shorthand “yom” → “year old man” with this option selected, and typing “64-space-yom-space-” will produce “64-year old man” (the space after “64-” is removed). Previously, it was quite inconvenient to get this result, manually having to remove that space.
• New: The Date/Time tab of Spell Catcher’s Spelling preferences has been completely re-designed. Creation of custom date/time formats is much easier than before, and region-specific previews are much more accurate.
  • Date/Time expansions now use standard ICU predefined date/time formats (short, medium, long and full), and patterns for custom formats. This makes it possible to exactly match the date, time and region specified in the Formats tab of International System Preferences when expanding shorthands containing dates and times. Any customized date/time formats you have previously defined can be easily updated to ICU format. All of your existing shorthands that use the old format patterns will still expand exactly as expected.
• New: Full undo is now available when editing Date/Time formats and Custom Suggestions (the Suggestions and Date/Time tabs of Spell Catcher’s Spelling preferences.
• New: Undo/Redo is now available after documents are saved.
• New: All of Spell Catcher’s preference panes that contain some sort of scrolling list can now be resized vertically.
• New: Spell Catcher X 10.3 sports entirely new Alerts preferences - complete with a new interface and new ways of signalling errors. You can now use Mac OS X’s speech technology to alert you to errors, and more selectively flash the screen based on whether System output volume is muted.
• New: Automatic update checking, settings available in the “Get Updates and Languages” window (Spell Catcher application, Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages).
• New: You can now drag words onto the Find in References, Check Word, and Look Up windows to conveniently, well, find, check, or look up a word (or appropriate piece of text).
• New: Standardize Line Endings Modify Selection plug-in. Does just what it says, and can be very useful in conjunction with DirectCorrect in certain applications.
• New for Leopard: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) introduced a number of new features specifically related to input methods and related text input tasks. Spell Catcher X 10.3 takes advantage of a number of these features for Leopard users:
  • On Mac OS X 10.5, it’s possible to install or update an input method, and make it available for use right away. Spell Catcher X 10.3 uses this capability — Spell Catcher’s input method can now be used immediately after it is installed. Please see Known Issues below for more information.
  • On Mac OS X 10.5, it’s possible to (reliably) programmatically enable (turn on or off in International System Preferences) and select (as if chosen from the Input menu) an input source. Spell Catcher X 10.3 uses these capabilities at various times, notably when using the “Activate Now” / “Deactivate Now” button in Spell Catcher’s Interactive preferences.
  • When Spell Catcher X 10.3 is used in conjunction with the Mac OS X Spelling Panel, grammar checking is enabled, and passed through to the built-in Mac OS X spelling service to handle.
• New: In with the new — so we could do away with a whole lot of old. It was time to adopt the modern Cocoa Bindings way of tying an application’s user interface to its underlying “guts.” Almost all of Spell Catcher X 10.3’s interface has been re-built using Cocoa bindings technology. Perhaps not something you’ll immediately notice (or even care about), but we got to throw out all sorts of old code!

Enhanced, Updated, Changed and Fixed

• Enhanced: Navigation between errors in the Check Selection window has been greatly enhanced. Little arrows are now shown next to those errors that occur more than once. Use the arrows to navigate to the previous or next occurrence. The old (and ugly) round buttons to move forward and backwards through the errors have been replaced with more appropriate controls.
• Enhanced: Adding and editing Learned Words with suffixes has been greatly improved. You no longer have to actually begin editing a word to add suffixed variations of that word. The suffixes that are selected are automatically updated as words are added and removed from the Learned Words document. Adding and removing suffixed words is as simple as selecting or deselecting the associated check box.
• Enhanced: Much better rendering of keyboard shortcuts where they appear as text (Shortcuts preferences, for example). They should now appear exactly as shown in the actual menu itself.
• Updated: Many of the default additional references have been updated.
• Changed: Following Apple’s (somewhat unwritten) guideline that language names should not be localized (take a look at the Languages tab of International System Preferences), language names in Spell Catcher’s user interface appear in their associated language. This includes the various language menus and where appropriate in lists (such as Spell Catcher’s References preferences).
• Fixed: “Don’t ask unless the option key is held down”, in those Modify Selection commands that support this setting, was broken in Spell Catcher X 10.2.x. Holding down the option key had no effect, making it pretty much impossible to get the window to appear again when this setting was selected. This is now fixed, and now requires that option is the only modifier key that is pressed. This also eliminates any conflict with this setting when you assign a keyboard shortcut that uses the option key to the command.
• Literally hundreds of other improvements, in every area of the program. No feature has gone “untouched.” In fact, a great deal of Spell Catcher X 10.3’s internals were essentially re-written completely.
• Built with the Xcode 3.1.1.

Known Issues

• As of this writing (Mac OS X 10.5.5), there are two significant and serious bugs in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) that affect installing new and (especially) updating existing input method components. We managed to find a pretty successful work around, but if you are upgrading or updating an existing Spell Catcher X installation, you may be affected by these bugs. Thankfully, the solution is pretty simple - in the Finder, choose Go > Home, and navigate to your home folder’s Library/Components folder. Drag the Spell Catcher.component out onto your Desktop, then drag it back into the Components folder, and Restart right away. A restart alone will not clear up the problem.
• A similar problem can occur on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) as well, although it appears to be related to updating an input method component without input modes, with a newer version that has input modes (Spell Catcher X 10.3 has input modes, earlier versions do not). The solution is the same as the one above for Leopard - in the Finder, choose Go > Home, and navigate to your home folder’s Library/Components folder. Drag the Spell Catcher.component out onto your Desktop, then drag it back into the Components folder, and Restart right away. A restart alone is sometimes good enough, but moving the component first definitely helps.