What is Spellswell?

Some writers refuse to use one, others can't live without one. Spelling checkers are a very personal product. You either want a great one or you don't want one at all. And you know the answer. Now.

So far, spelling checkers for the Mac haven't been an impressive lot. Spellswell changes that. This standalone spelling checker combines power with performance. It checks for incorrect hyphenation, contractions. homophones and homonyms. The program works with MacWrite 4.5 files, Word files (any version), and all text-type files.

The dictionary is large (approximately 80,000 words) and you can easily add or delete items. When Spellswell finds a questionable word, it displays the word highlighted and in context. You are also presented with a suggested "best guess" correction and the section of the dictionary right around the suggested correction. If you don't accept the suggestion, you can type in your own word. As you type the dictionary rapidly scrolls to that area. If the word desired appears before you finish typing it in, just click on it and it fills in automatically.

There is an option to replace words every time they appear with no further intervention on your part, a nice touch especially if you've misspelled a word many times in a document. Other options allow capitalization and homonym checking. Simple menu toggles turn all options on or off.
Adding words to the dictionary is particularly easy, using a well-designed entry screen. All commands can be activated by menu selections or keyboard equivalents. And as a final touch the program gives you a word count when it's finished.

While a desk accessory spelling checker would seem preferable, this program is so well designed and implemented that using it at the end of a session to check all your work is no burden. An example of the program's excellent design is what Spellswell does when it finds a misspelled first word in a sentence. Say a sentence starts "Whn." Most spelling checkers would, without human intervention, change that to “when.” Spellswell will change it to "When." That's what it should do.

The dictionary is well chosen and will not bother users with silly questions or words that are obviously valid. The program ran well and reliably and is a good addition to the writer's program library.

Bobker, Steven. (May 1986). Spellswell. MacUser. (pg. 38).

Download Spellswell for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

System Requirements

From Mac OS 2.0 up to Mac OS 6.8

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Mini vMac