Psion Epoc Spell and Thesaurus

The best miniature spelling checker on the planet

Spelling checker and thesaurus application in Psion Epoc.

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The spelling checker is a Lernout and Hauspie product licenced by Psion. It includes the spelling checker for files or sections of files. Amusingly it doesn't know about Psion (or Epoc), and suggests poison as a spelling. Unfortunately, the spelling checker does not include definitions (no room in the ROM).

There is also an anagram generator. Do try to avoid asking for anagrams from antidisestablishment.

Other utilities are a crossword puzzle word suggestion generator, and a thesaurus.

The spelling checker defaults to checking the entire Word file. To check a word or section of a file, highlight that portion. See Selecting Text.

Start the spelling checker from the Tools menu, or the Spell button on the Toolbar, for standalone operation. If you are in some other application, you can use tap Ctrl Word to switch to the spelling checker.

Selecting Text

Select text by highlighting it. Put the cursor in the text and extend highlight.
Shift+stylus tap anywhere for any arbitrary area.
Shift+left or right arrow for a character at a time.
Shift+up and down arrow for a line at a time.
Shift+Ctrl+left or right arrow for a word at a time.
Shift+Ctrl+up or down arrow for a paragraph at a time.
Shift+Fn+right arrow to end of line.
Shift+Fn+left arrow to start of line.
Shift+Fn+up arrow to start of page.
Shift+Fn+left arrow to end of page.

Responses to Spelling Checker

If a word is not recognised you can choose to:
Correct the word.
Skip the word this time and leave it unaltered.
Skip All, which ignores the word throughout this spelling check.
Add to Dictionary, to make it part of the spelling checker list
Stop, if you decide not to continue checking.

If you choose to Correct a word, you can ask for Suggestions, and press the Tab key to display a list of suggested spellings. Select the replacement word. Correct replaces the word, while Correct All replaces all instances of that word.

Personal Spelling File

Personal spelling file is at /System/Data/User.dic and is in ASCII. There is a word limit of around 800 words, and exceeding it will cause the file to be deleted, so ensure you have a backup.

Additional Support Utilities

Thesaurus Link
ThesLink version 2.02 March 1998 by Henry Hirst is a freeware opo (so it doesn't show in Etxra Bars) for use with applications that support the standard Ctrl C and Ctrl V copy and paste keys. Start the .opo, and in any application, highlight a word, press the hotkey (Fn Ctrl L by default). The standard Thesaurus application in Spell will pop up with your selected word being looked up. Cut and paste your selected replacement word into your application. Works faster if the Spell application is already open. About 3k. www.neuon.com

Bug reports

Spell user word list size(5mx)
4 Nov 2000. In Spell in 5mx the user word list, user.dic, gets corrupt when the size reaches 9K. No fix in sight. For a non-english-speaking user this also means that you can not have a user.dic with native language words, for example Swedish words to use on Swedish texts. Believed from Jan R Gustafsson Stockholm, Sweden
Spell bug in Psion 7 (not in 5mx).
You can't save new words in your personal dictionary. This is because the file \system\data\user.dic has been set to Read Only. Use File Properties from the System Screen to remove the Read Only status.

This site will look much better in a browser that supports W3C web standards but it is accessible to any browser or internet device, including Psion Web and similar PDA or limited browsers. Netscape 4.x users - turn Style Sheets off. Your style sheet support is too broken to use (sorry).


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