iPhoto '08: The Missing Manual

chapter 11: books, calendars, and cards 285

iPhoto’s opinion, a red, dotted line appears under the word. Proceed as shown in

Figure 11-12.

 •Checkawholetextblock. Click inside a title or comment box, and then choose

EditÆSpellingÆSpelling (c-colon). The standard Mac OS X Spelling dialog box

appears.

 •Checkasyoutype. The trouble with the spelling commands described here is that

they operate on only a single, tiny text block at a time. To check your entire photo

book, you must click inside each title or caption and invoke the spelling command

again. There’s no way to have iPhoto sweep through your entire book at once.

Your eyes might widen in excitement, therefore, when you spot the

EditÆSpellingÆCheck Spelling As You Type command. It makes iPhoto flag

words it doesn’t recognize as you type them.

Sure enough, when this option is turned on, whenever you type a word not in

iPhoto’s dictionary, iPhoto adds a colorful dashed underline. (Technically, it

underlines any word not in the Mac OS X dictionary, since you’re actually using

the standard Mac OS X spelling checker—the same one that watches over you in

Mac OS X’s Mail program, for example.)

To correct a misspelling that iPhoto has found in this way, Control-click (or right-

click) it. A shortcut menu appears. Now proceed as shown in Figure 11-12.

Listen to Your Book

Unfortunately, even a spell checker won’t find missing words, inadvertently repeated

words, or awkward writing. For those situations, what you really want is for iPhoto

to read your text boxes aloud to you.

No problem: Just highlight some text by dragging through it, and then Control-click

(or right-click) the highlighted area. The same shortcut menu shown in Figure 11-12

appears, containing the Speech submenu. From it, you can choose Start Speaking and

Stop Speaking, which makes iPhoto start and stop reading the selected text aloud.

It uses whatever voice you’ve selected in Mac OS X’s System PreferencesÆSpeech

control panel.

Phase 5: Preview the Masterpiece

Ordering a professionally bound book is, needless to say, quite a commitment. Before

blowing a bunch of money on a one-shot deal, you’d be wise to proofread and inspect

it from every possible angle.

Print It

As any proofreader can tell you, looking over a book on paper is a sure way to dis-

cover errors that somehow elude detection onscreen. That’s why it’s a smart idea to

print out your own, low-tech edition of your book at home before beaming it away

to Apple’s bindery.

Phase 4: Edit the

Titles and Captions