iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Spell Checking

One of the most apreciated features of the modern word processor is its ability to corect embarassing misspellings. Pages can’t save you from choosing the wrong word—it still can’t tell a “heroine” from “heroin,” or “there” from “their” from “they’re”—but it can at least let you know when you’ve misspelled “appreciated,” “correct,” or “embarrassing.”

Make a spell check the last stop before considering any document finished. Even if you’re a spelling bee champ, typos eventually befall anyone who puts fingers to a keyboard. To catch these gaffes, Pages makes use of Mac OS X’s systemwide spell checker—tapping the same dictionary used by other Apple programs like Mail, Keynote, Numbers, TextEdit, iPhoto, and so on.

Check Spelling As You Type

Unless you tell it otherwise, Pages quietly watches as you type and nudges you when it spots a problem. The moment that you type an unrecognized word, the program flags it with a red dashed underline and provides fast access to spelling suggestions—if you want them. This Check Spelling as You Type feature is turned on by default, but you can turn it on or off by choosing Edit → Spelling → “Check Spelling as You Type”. When the feature is on, Pages shows a check mark next to that menu item.

When Pages adds a red underline to a suspicious spelling, Control-click the word. A shortcut menu appears, topped with the spell checker’s guesses of correct spellings (Figure 4-4). Choose the word you’re after, and Pages makes the correction.

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