4 replies to this topic

[gibsonm]

Hi,

I’ve just upgraded to Spell Catcher X 10.1.1.

I appreciate that the software comes bundled with US English because perhaps most of your customers use this.

However, having downloaded and installed UK English, I notice that the reference: US English Spellings, Main Spellings is still selected (and the tick is greyed out so I can’t de-select it).

Is there any way to get rid of US English all together in future versions (perhaps making it available as a removeable plug in)?

[skippingrock]

---- My comment is retracted ----
I wasn't thinking things through. It makes perfect sense that the Canadian dictionary is a upgrade.

[Evan Gross]

skippingrock, on Apr 14 2004, 06:29 PM, said:

Agreed!

And why is Canadian English a paid upgrade add-on?

This is a Canadian company right?

It costs money because it cost us a fortune up front (in advances, but up front, nevertheless)!

Do you have any idea how many we copies of the 4 new language plug-ins we would have to sell at $10 a piece (the price we're asking) to recoup the advance we paid? Thousands, that's how many.

One of our competitors (spellex) charges $45 for the basic spell checker (their "Anywhere" product - doesn't even do shorthands, no (real) interactive checking!) with US English only, and $35 for each additional language (spelling only - no thesaurus, and compare word counts: SC Swedish: 900,000 - their Swedish:110,000). Spell Catcher is $40 for 9 languages, $10 for additional ones. Why do so many folks think our product is so expensive? This isn't directed at you, but just something we're trying to understand ourselves. Even some of our best reviews mention that Spell Catcher is a tad expensive. Depends on your perspective, obviously!

[Evan Gross]

gibsonm, on Apr 14 2004, 04:22 PM, said:

Hi,

I’ve just upgraded to Spell Catcher X 10.1.1.

I appreciate that the software comes bundled with US English because perhaps most of your customers use this.

However, having downloaded and installed UK English, I notice that the reference: US English Spellings, Main Spellings is still selected (and the tick is greyed out so I can’t de-select it).

Is there any way to get rid of US English all together in future versions (perhaps making it available as a removeable plug in)?

There might be a way, if you wanted to fiddle around yourself you could do so. But running SCX with NO language plug-ins installed at all is something we've not tested. You're on your own:

Show Package Contents on the app.
Remove US English.language from Contents/Resources.
I would suggest putting British English.language in its place (i.e. not in plug-ins such that it is removeable).

Let me know if that works.

[jeremy]

Evan Gross, on Apr 14 2004, 07:11 PM, said:

Why do so many folks think our product is so expensive? This isn't directed at you, but just something we're trying to understand ourselves. Even some of our best reviews mention that Spell Catcher is a tad expensive. Depends on your perspective, obviously!

I suspect that a big part of the reason people feel that it's expensive is because it costs more than the usual "utility" program that they buy, which tend to cost about $10-15. SCX is DEFINITELY worth the price, but I think the price does make a potential buyer think twice before buying it. Anything over about $25 is going to have that effect; it just needs to be overcome with marketing, I guess.

One thing I have noticed, when I've recommended SCX on newsgroups and such, is the feeling, "why would I want to buy a spell checker, when one comes with OS X?" Maybe you should try to answer that question on your web site -- it's definitely answerable, you're certainly not just duplicating the built-in functionality!