spell checker/thesaurus word list accessible for own terminology?

[Ulrich]

Hi there,

is the spell checker/thesaurus word list of XMetaL 4.6 and/or 5.5 accessible for changes or import of own terminology word lists? If yes, is it possible to mark terms as 'forbidden' ?

Thanks!

Best regards,

Ulrich Pinkernell

[Derek Read]

Yes, you can add words to what is called the User Word List for your language. It is accessible in the spell checker by selecting Options > User Word Lists. This is where words are added when you select the "Add" button in the spell checker.

You can mark certain words as "forbidden". In the spell checker they are called "exception" entries.

To do this:
1. Launch the spell checker.
2. Select "Options" then "User Word Lists..."
3. In the User Word List dialog find your word by typing it in the left text field above the list.
4. If you find your word select it and go to step 6.
5. If your word is not in the list spell it out completely and click the Add Entry button. It will be entered as a <skip> entry (the same as if you had selected the Add button during regular spell checking).
6. Select the "Properties" button and change the radio button in that dialog to "Exception entry". No other settings are needed.

[Ulrich]

Derek, thank you for your reply.
We do already have a large list of managed terminology with thousands of terms. I would like to import them or provide a data file in a sufficient format. CSV or XML would be fine.
Is there a way to do this? Are there any differences between XMetaL 4.6 and 5.5 concerning this issue?

Thanks in advance!

Ulrich

[Derek Read]

We do not offer a tool that will do this, though our Professional Services team has one for internal use that they can use to create such files. You will need to contact your sales representative to arrange this type of work to be done. There are some limits as to what can be done and Professional Services should be able to let you know once they see your lists and have tested with them.

[Katriel Reichman]

Has this changed in XMetaL 6.0?
One of my customers has a list of hundreds of words/phrases that need to be corrected (such as from "impact" to "affect"), and needs to maintain this list outside of a UWL.

Is there a way to import from an XML file, CSV file or some other format directly into a UWL?
Much thanks,
Katriel

P.S. Check out The DITA Project @ http://methodm.com/blog

[Derek Read]

The behavior is the same in 6.0, you can add words to the UWL file, which if necessary could be shared between different users if everyone should have the same list.

Can you explain why the UWL file is not acceptable? Are they the same needs that Ulrich in this thread has?

One option that will work (in all versions going back to 4.x):
1) Place all your new words in an XML document that the user can open (probably using a schema they typically author to).
2) Optionally, have the user delete their UWL file. This would be necessary only if you need to remove words from the list (ie: something that used to be "good" that is now unacceptable).
3) Have the user open the file and spell check it (F7).
4) During spell checking hold down the Alt+D and keep it held down until all words have been added to their UWL.

Alternatively, you could run this process on your machine and distribute the UWL.

[Katriel Reichman]

Hi Derek,
The problem with the UWL is that we have mutliple sets of words/phrases, each containing several hunrdred pairs of change from-->to, and importing and re-importing them into the UWL will be time consuming and error prone.
Your idea of adding words by having the the user open the file and spell check it (F7) sounds promising but then we would still have to type in the replacement phrase each time (e.g., change impact to affect).
Katriel