Spelling-checkers

1. Use the spelling-checker on your word-processor at least once before you finalise any work.

2. It will highlight mis-spelt words (and offer corrections).

3. Mis-keyed words such as 'hte' (for 'the') will be listed too.

4. It will not understand special terms or foreign words. You will have to check the correct spelling of these yourself.

5. It will not cope with proper nouns (the names of people and places) - such as 'Michael Owen' or 'Fazackerly'.

6. You might want to add these names to the dictionary's memory. If you do this, make sure they are spelled correctly.

7. A phrase such as 'It's over their' may not be highlighted as a mistake. This is because 'their' is a correctly spelt word - even though it is being used wrongly in this statement.

8. [Notice that 'spelled' can also be spelled 'spelt'!]

9. The same would be true for 'It's over hare' [not 'over here']. A grammar-checker might highlight these mistakes.

10. It should spot double words - such as 'going to to the fair'.

11. It will not pick up some words broken by a space such as 'to morrow'. That's because these two terms exist in their own right as separate words.

12. Spell-check at least once before printing.

13. But spell-checkers don't know everything. Here's the proof!