What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3.7

Spell Catcher X version 10.3.7 adds Quick Look support for previewing Spell Catcher documents. The complete list of changes for previous versions can be found on the Spell Catcher X Version History page.

New

• Includes a Quick Look generator, supporting previews of Learned Words, Omitted Words, Shorthand Glossary, Dictionary Server, and Modify Selection Macro documents.

Enhanced

• Better handling of soft hyphen characters (Unicode SOFT HYPHEN U+00AD) during Spell Checking.
• Improved compatibility with Spell Catcher’s input methods and Google Chrome.

Fixed

• Fixes a potential crash bug when editing shorthand expansions (exactly) 64 characters long.
• Fixes a problem where some multi-line shorthand expansions (primarily those imported from TypeIt4Me and TextExpander files) wouldn’t expand properly during interactive checking.
• Worked around a Mac OS X bug, where input methods residing in (top-level) /Library/Input Methods or /Library/Components could disappear from the list of input sources in Language & Text System Preferences, after Spell Catcher installed or updated its input method(s).

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What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3.6

Spell Catcher X version 10.3.6 works around a crash using the Look Up window if Safari 5.0 is installed. The complete list of changes for previous versions can be found on the Spell Catcher X Version History page.

Fixed

• Worked around a bug in the version of WebKit.framework that gets installed along with Safari 5.0 that caused Spell Catcher’s Look Up window to crash.
• Fixed a bug introduced in Spell Catcher X 10.3.5 where function keys without modifiers could not be set as keyboard shortcuts.

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What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3.5

Spell Catcher X version 10.3.5 adds a few new features, improves compatibility of its input methods in specific applications, enhances performance in certain areas, fixes bugs, and improves reliability via the removal of code only needed for older versions of Mac OS X. The complete list of changes for previous versions can be found on the Spell Catcher X Version History page.

System Requirements Have Changed!

• Spell Catcher X 10.3.5 requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 (Tiger), however Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later is recommended^*.

  ^* Spell Catcher X 10.3.5 will work well on Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger), with one minor exception—help tags for items in the input method’s pop-up lists don’t always display correctly. This includes the pop-up suggestions, completions, and DirectCorrect suggestions lists. This a Mac OS X 10.4 bug, exposed due to removal of some old code from Spell Catcher X 10.3.5. This bug was fixed in Mac OS X 10.5.

• For older versions of Mac OS X, see this.

New

• On Macintoshes with Multi-Touch hardware running Mac OS X 10.5 and later, left and right swipe gestures (three fingers) navigate to the previous and next looked-up words in the Look Up window.
• On Macintoshes with Multi-Touch hardware running Mac OS X 10.5 and later, left and right swipe gestures navigate to the previous and next errors in the Check Selection window, and up and down swipes restore the current error.
• Added a shortcut menu (control or right-click) to the list of found references in the Find in References window.
• Added a shortcut menu to the list of databases in Dictionary Server document windows.
• Added a shortcut menu to the list of Modify Selection Macros in the Edit Macros window.
• New General preference to control whether the Spell Catcher application will make sure that its input method is “On” in the Input Sources tab of Language & Text (or International) System Preferences. Those that don’t use Spell Catcher’s input method and would rather Spell Catcher does not appear in the input menu can deselect this preference to keep things that way.
• New Language preference to control whether Spell Catcher’s languages (and other references) are available for use by the Mac OS X system-wide spelling checker.

Enhanced

• The implementation of shortcut menus (control or right-click) has been “modernized”. On Mac OS X 10.5 and later, “clicked-on” items are highlighted as “outlined”, as done in (for instance) the Finder.
• Added commands to the shortcut menu for the list of references in the References preference pane to set the “Use” and “Completions” settings for the clicked-on references.
• Spell Catcher’s Spotlight Plugin now indexes Spell Catcher 8 and Spell Catcher Plus format files.
• Spell Catcher 8 and Spell Catcher Plus references are indicated as such in the list in Spell Catcher’s References preferences.
• Moved the progress info (for Online Dictionary Server look ups) to the bottom of the Look Up window.
• The pop-up suggestions list in both input methods now shows the language of the detected error.
• The list of menu items in Shortcut preferences now updates whenever the items in a submenu change (Modify Selection and Set Keyboard). As well, the expanded state of submenus is saved and restored.
• Spell Catcher’s input methods and the Spell Catcher Services.service application now try their best to “neutralize” themselves, when they can’t find a copy of the Spell Catcher application. This is done to minimize any side-effects when Spell Catcher is (partially) uninstalled simply by trashing the application, instead of using the “Uninstall Spell Catcher X” utility. Because the input methods and Spell Catcher Services.service application remain installed, the Mac OS may still try to open or use them when needed. The Spell Catcher Services.service application will empty the list of services it provides (Services menu and Mac OS X Spelling Panel). The input methods will (on Mac OS X 10.5 and later) turn themselves off in the Input Sources tab of Language & Text/International System Preferences. Note that (depending on the version of Mac OS X being used) apps that are open may have to be Quit before changes to the available services are noticed.
• Numerous performance improvements.

Updated

• Improved compatibility with the input methods in the following applications:
  • Microsoft Word.
  • Mozilla Thunderbird.
  • Mailsmith.
  • Adobe Dreamweaver 9.x.
  • NeoOffice 3.x.
  • Apple Mail and Safari, along with OmniWeb 5 and Mailplane, when “Check Spelling While Typing” is selected.
  • Interactive checking and shorthand expansions work more reliably with Safari’s AutoFill and completion features.
  • Numbers (Apple’s iWork). Specifically, added a “lesser of two evils” work around for problems caused by Numbers “hiding” certain keystrokes from input methods. Generally, these are keys used for movement between cells, such as tab, return, and arrow keys. Since Spell Catcher never sees these, entering text like “hi” <tab> “there” would signal an error for “hithere”. Because <tab> is not passed along to Spell Catcher’s input method, it has no idea that the words were separated. Now, Spell Catcher will forget any typing it is tracking whenever the selected cell changes. Unfortunately, other event, such as opening menus, has the same effect.
• Some toolbar icons and other images have been replaced with more modern and/or recognizable equivalents. Note that screen shots in Spell Catcher’s Help Book may still show the older icons—however all should still be easily recognizable.
• Update checking is now performed entirely in the background, eliminating potential hangs if our update server is not reachable on the Internet for some reason.
• Removed old code that was really only required on versions of Mac OS X earlier than 10.4 (Tiger).
• Built with Xcode 3.2.2.

Fixed

• Fixed positioning of the various pop-up windows shown by the input methods when multiple monitors are used. This includes the pop-up suggestions list, completions, and suggestions shown when a DirectCorrect-highlighted error is clicked.
• Fixed behavior of the Suggest Spelling Window in the input method application when it becomes the “key” window (the destination for keystrokes).
• DirectCorrect in the input method application now works properly in Numbers (iWork '09).
• Fixed problems with displaying and updating of keyboard shortcuts, for commands in submenus of Spell Catcher’s Input menu (Modify Selection, Set Language and Set Keyboard).
• Changes to the list of installed Language Plug-Ins should be correctly reflected in the input methods’ Set Language menu, after the Spell Catcher application is restarted.
• Fixed problems introduced in Spell Catcher X 10.3.3 related to learned words containing characters that are not part of Proximity’s internal character sets.
• Spell Catcher Unicode input mode is no longer “On” by default for Spell Catcher’s input method application.
• Fixed a few relatively obscure bugs.
• Fixed a couple of small memory leaks.

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What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3.4

Spell Catcher X version 10.3.4 fixes bugs found in Spell Catcher X 10.3.3. The complete list of changes for previous versions can be found on the Spell Catcher X Version History page.

Fixed

• Worked around a bug in Mac OS X that could cause Spell Catcher Application Support folders placed in the top-level /Library folder to become inaccessible. This affected any existing /Library/Application Support/Spell Catcher/Licenses folder. Spell Catcher would not find any computer-wide license keys, and was unable to save a license key for “All users of this computer”.
• Fixed a bug where the “Used?” state of a Reference document wasn’t always saved when the Spell Catcher application was Quit.
• Get Updates and Languages now looks for language plugins in /Library/Application Support/Additional Languages, and should no longer report that any language plugins in that folder (and not also in your home folder) are not installed.
• Fixed a small memory leak when looking up from an Online Dictionary Server.

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What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3.3

Spell Catcher X version 10.3.3 adds 64-bit support on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), updated linguistics and language plug-ins, a number of new features and changes, along with some bug fixes. To really find out what’s new, see What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3. The complete list of changes for previous versions can be found on the Spell Catcher X Version History page.

Download Spell Catcher X 10.3.3 now and find out what’s new later!

New for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

(64-bit capable Macintosh hardware only)

• New input method application, for compatibility with both 64-bit and 32-bit applications.
• New input method installation and update procedure and user interface.
• More information about Spell Catcher’s input methods for Mac OS X 10.6 can be found in the Input Methods for Mac OS X 10.6 chapter of Spell Catcher’s Help Book.

New

• German localization, courtesy of Norbert Lindenthal.
• Autosaving of reference documents. A new preference in the References pane allows you to specify how often modified reference documents should be automatically saved. Note that references are only autosaved when not open for editing, and have been modified using a “Learn”, “Shorthand”, “Forget” or other similar command. If “Never” is selected, changes to reference documents will only be saved when Spell Catcher is Quit, or manually by choosing File > Save All.
• New speech alerts feature (Spell Catcher Preferences, Alerts pane, Speech tab). A new “Insert” pop-up menu for inserting the (spoken) error, along with other simple embedded speech commands. Manually entering speech commands into the text to be spoken has always worked, but there was no way to speak the actual error itself.
• New preference (Spell Catcher Preferences, Language pane, “Dock Icon:”) “Indicate whether interactive checking is on or off”. When Spell Catcher is the active input source, Spell Catcher’s Dock icon shows a checkmark instead of its application icon; yellow when interactive checking is on, red if it’s off.
• Added ability to reset Universal preferences to their out-of-the-box defaults.
• Added Filter command to the Edit > Find menu to move the focus to the window’s search field. This applies to the Find in References, Look Up, and Shorthand Glossary document windows.
• Added import of TypeIt4Me version 4.x files.
• Added import of TextExpander files.
• Added XML Property List export and import of Learned Words and Omitted Words files. This is in preparation for improved cross-platform sharing of references with the new version of Spell Catcher Plus we’re working on.

Updated

• Updated to version 11.2.9.1 of the Proximity Linguistic System (PLS). In addition to code improvements, PLS 11.2.9.1 includes the following new and updated spelling databases:
  • U.S. English:
    • Updated U.S. English Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
    • Additions to U.S. English Computer Terms.
  • German: Updated German Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases), German 1901 Main Spellings (“lex”), and German 1996 Main Spellings (“lex”).

    PLS 11.2.9.1 improves German compounding rules, and now tailors the behavior according to the specific German reform year. For 1901 German, compounding rejects words with triple-consonant, such as Schmuckblatttelegramm, Falllinie, Spannbetttuch. It accepts the double-consonant forms: Schmuckblattelegramm, Fallinie, Spannbettuch.

  • Spanish: Updated Spanish Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • Swedish: Updated Swedish Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • Dutch: Updated Dutch Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases), and Dutch 1995 Main Spellings (“lex”).
  • Portuguese: Updated Portuguese Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • Brazilian Portuguese: Updated Brazilian Portuguese Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • Norwegian Bokmål: Updated Norwegian Bokmål Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  
  To update your language plug-ins, in the Spell Catcher application, choose Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages, or Help > Spell Catcher Languages Page. Languages are also available for download on our website: http://www.rainmakerinc.com/products/languages/.
• Changes to DirectCorrect so that it is more tolerant of various “quirks” in iWork ’09 applications. Numerous fixes and additions have been made in iWork ’09, enough to support DirectCorrect reasonably well. iWork ’08 applications had bugs that made DirectCorrect mostly unusable.
• Much improved performance when importing large amounts of text into Learned Words, Compiled Learned Words, and Omitted Words documents via Paste or Drag and Drop.
• Numerous code modernizations and improvements related to document handling and error reporting.
• Other performance improvements, mostly related to application launch time and DirectCorrect.
• Spotlight plugin now built as 32/64 bit universal for compatibility with future versions of Mac OS X.
• Updated HTML formatting of the French Help Book to that of the English Help Book, primarily to remove HTML frames.
• Built with the Xcode 3.2.1.

Changed

• Numerous improvements to the way that the various pop-up windows are positioned during interactive checking. This includes the pop-up suggestions list, completions, and suggestions shown when a DirectCorrect-highlighted error is clicked. Spell Catcher tries its best to ensure that the entire pop-up window is visible, and that it doesn’t obscure the error or word being completed in the document. Previously, when an entire pop-up window didn’t fit either above or below the error, it would often appear positioned above the error, and only partially visible. The new behavior positions the window to the left or right of the error, offset so as not to obscure it, and ensure that the window is entirely visible.
• Ensure that Ghostwriter files are visible in the Finder by changing any leading period (.) to an underscore (_). This makes sure you can easily locate changes recorded by Ghostwriter when editing “special” files like “.htaccess”, “.bash_profile”, “.inputrc”, etc.
• Importing text into Learned Words, Compiled Learned Words, and Omitted Words documents (via Paste or Drag and Drop) now looks for lines containing two words separated by a single space, and adds them as a single word pair. This is useful when importing more structured textual word lists, where (for example) the basic format is one word or word pair per line.
• Modify Selection commands that return changed text can now be used on words selected in Learned Words, Compiled Learned Words, and Omitted Words documents. For instance, the Strip Characters command can be used to (say) strip trailing periods from all the selected entries in a Learned Words document.
• Spell Catcher is more stringent about what is considered a path or file name (for the Ignore file names preference in the Spelling pane, Checking tab).
• The calculated values in the Statistics and Word Count windows can now be selected and copied to the clipboard.
• Assorted UI changes where the current behavior was just “bothering me”. One example: improved calculation of the left side/right side ratios/maximums for the splitter in the Check Selection window.

Fixed

• Worked around a bug in Mac OS X that could cause Scripting Additions to fail to load. For example, Default Folder X now loads properly in the Spell Catcher application.
• Fixed a number of problems with Spell Catcher’s AppleScript support.
• Fixed behavior when the “Speak” (small microphone) button was toggled on in the Check Selection, Check Word and Suggest Spelling windows. This was broken in Spell Catcher X 10.3, the most noticeable symptom was excessive speaking of error words when turned on in the Suggest Spelling window.
• Fixed a problem entering values in the Custom Date/Time Offset sheet (in Shorthand Glossary document windows).
• On Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger), pressing the return/enter key in the Modify Selection window to Proceed would cause the Spell Catcher application to crash.
• Ghostwriter folders containing only invisible files are now properly deleted, according to your Ghostwriter preferences. Previously, the only invisible files that Ghostwriter considered OK to delete were Finder “.DS_Store” files. Now, invisible files with the extension “.txt” are also considered safe to delete.
• Fixed a problem where refreshing a license key could incorrectly report that no changes were made to that license.
• Fixed keyboard navigation for back/forward arrows in the Check Selection and Look Up windows (command-[ and command-]).
• Application switches when Spell Catcher wasn’t the active input source didn’t always update the language or keyboard layout shown in the Dock icon.
• Some windows had a smaller-than-intended maximum size restriction, due to a (rare, strange?) bug in Interface Builder. A little bit of voodoo to set and reset the window’s maximum size in IB fixed this.
• Fixed a few problems with editing Modify Selection Macros.
• Alert sounds larger than 256K would not always play correctly two or more consecutive times.
• A few relatively obscure bugs fixed.

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What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3.2

Spell Catcher X version 10.3.2 includes updated language plug-ins, important bug fixes, and is recommended for all Spell Catcher X 10.3 and 10.3.1 users. To really find out what’s new, see What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3. The complete list of changes for previous versions can be found on the Spell Catcher X Version History page.

Updated

• Includes the following new and updated spelling databases:
  • U.S. English:
    • New U.S. English Medical Additional Spellings “hsp” format database.
    • Updated U.S. English Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
    • Updated U.S. English Medical Additional (“lex” database).
    • Additions to U.S. English Computer Terms.
  • British English: Updated Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases), additions to British English Computer Terms.
  • Canadian English: Updated Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases), additions to Canadian English Computer Terms.
  • French: Updated Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • Italian: Updated Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • Spanish: Updated Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • Swedish: Updated Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • German: Updated German Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases), and German 1901 Main Spellings (“lex”).
  • Swiss German: Updated Swiss German Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases), Swiss German 1901 Main Spellings (“lex” database), and Swiss German 1996 Main Spellings (“lex” database).
  • Brazilian Portuguese Updated Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • Portuguese Updated Portuguese Main Spellings (both “lex” and “hsp” databases).
  • Danish: Updated Main Spellings (“lex” database).
  
  To update your language plug-ins, in the Spell Catcher application, choose Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages, or Help > Spell Catcher Languages Page, or while you’re here, download them from our Languages page.
• The English Help Book has been re-designed, and no longer uses HTML frames. The French Help Book will be changed accordingly when time permits. The actual Help Book content remains basically the same.
• Various corrections and changes to the English Help Book, to correct inaccuracies and update some of the outdated portions.
• Built with the Xcode 3.1.2.

Changed

• Choosing the Suggest Spelling command from Spell Catcher’s input menu no longer unconditionally gives it the focus for keystrokes. Now, the focus will only be acquired if it’s already visible, or there’s no current error, or if “Keystrokes go to the Suggest Spelling window” is selected in Spell Catcher Preferences, Interactive pane, Spelling tab. The old behavior can be restored by entering the following command in the Terminal:
  
  defaults write com.rainmaker.SpellCatcher SCOldSuggestSpellingCommandFocusBehavior -bool TRUE

Fixed

• On Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger), in Mail, Safari and perhaps other apps that use WebKit, scrolling some pop-up menus using the mouse wheel (or equivalent trackpad gesture) could crash.
• On Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger), clicking the “Use Universal” button in the Preferences window’s Applications drawer, when viewing a pane whose “settings are always Universal” (General, References), would cause the Spell Catcher application to crash. This is now fixed, additionally the “Use Universal” button is appropriately disabled when viewing “always Universal” preferences.
• In Microsoft Entourage, the Suggest Spelling window no longer closes immediately after it is opened and/or made the key window, when there are pending errors.
• Adding an application to the drawer in Spell Catcher’s Preferences window would fail under certain circumstances.
• Extraneous “red” applications (those without any preferences specific to the application) should no longer appear in the drawer in Spell Catcher’s Preferences window. You may want to open and close the Preferences window after updating to Spell Catcher X 10.3.2—this will remove any empty application preferences created with Spell Catcher X 10.3 or 10.3.1.
• Spell Catcher 8 and Spell Catcher Plus format Shorthand Glossaries would fail to open, displaying a “file appears to be damaged” alert.
• Exporting Shorthand Glossary documents in XML Property List format would fail under some circumstances. This was a backwards-compatibility problem, as such the format of exported XML Shorthand Glossary file has changed slightly (files exported from prior versions of Spell Catcher X can still be imported). The new format is now versioned, the keys used in an exported shorthand’s dictionary have been changed for better compatibility—but can no longer be customized (sorry).
• Line endings were not properly standardized in a shorthand’s expansion, when created using the “New Shorthand (for Selection)” command.
• Find in References properly ignores case and embedded/ending dot (period) differences when looking for matches (“Canada” will match “canada”, “i.e.” will match “ie”, “etc.” will match “etc”).
• Find in References properly displays results for “special” case words such as “Ph.D.”.
• Worked around problem with German and Swiss German “lex” spelling databases and detection of capitalization errors for certain compound words.
• Worked around (what appears to be) a bug in Java’s accessibility support that caused hangs in some (well, one in particular, but certainly not all) Java applications.
• More reliably perform direct replacements from the Suggest Spelling window when it has the focus for keystrokes.
• No longer report a harmless “NSMutableRLEArray objectAtIndex:effectiveRange:: Out of bounds” exception to the Console, that could occur when typing very quickly when DirectCorrect was turned on. This exception is now handled at a more appropriate time, resulting in slightly better performance.
• Fixed a problem where changing the value of certain Universal preferences (back) to their defaults could cause the input method’s idea of that value to be incorrect.

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What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3.1

Spell Catcher X version 10.3.1 is a free maintenance update to Spell Catcher X 10.3, and recommended for all Spell Catcher X 10.3 users. To really find out what’s new, see What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3. The complete list of changes for previous versions can be found on the Spell Catcher X Version History page.

Fixed

• Spell Catcher’s Help Book now opens correctly on Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger).
• Fixed crash with Interactive/Typing preference “Make replacements directly (without backspacing) where possible” in certain applications on Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger).
• Setting the font in the Look Up window now works as expected.
• Interactive/Spelling preference “Suppress tab, return and enter before automatically showing suggestions” no longer suppresses if not automatically showing suggestions.
• Spelling/Suggestions preference “Automatically select the first suggestion for all types of errors” properly sets the default button (usually to Replace) in the Suggest Spelling window.
• Spell Catcher Preferences, Shortcuts: Allow function keys (F1, F2, etc.) to be used as shortcuts without modifiers.
• In some situations, clicking a control that modified a document’s appearance without modifying its text, would not update errors highlighted via DirectCorrect—for example, clicking an alignment button in a TextEdit document’s ruler.
• Work around text input (from input methods) bug in Microsoft Word 2008, allowing shorthand glossary expansions containing tab characters to expand properly.

Updated

• Minor Help Book modifications.

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What’s New in Spell Catcher X version 10.3

Spell Catcher X version 10.3 contains many new features, enhancements and improvements. The complete list of changes for previous versions can be found on the Spell Catcher X Version History page.

System Requirements Have Changed!

Spell Catcher X 10.3 requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 (10.4.11 recommended), or Mac OS X 10.5 and later.
• Spell Catcher X version 10.3 is recommended for all Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) users.
Mac OS X 10.4, 10.4.1, and 10.4.2 (Tiger) users must use Apple’s Software Update, and update to Mac OS X 10.4.3 (or later), in order to use Spell Catcher X (or any third party input method).
Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther) users must continue to use Spell Catcher X 10.2.3.
Mac OS X 10.2.x (Jaguar) through Mac OS X 10.3.8 users must continue to use Spell Catcher X 10.2.1.

Important Information Regarding Language Plug-Ins

All language plug-ins have been updated for Spell Catcher X 10.3! In the Spell Catcher application, choose Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages, or while you’re here, download them from our Languages page.

• Note for Swiss German users: Spell Catcher X 10.3 will report an error when opening earlier versions (for Spell Catcher X 10.2.x) of the Swiss German language plug-in. Just dismiss the alert, download and install the Swiss German language plug-in for Spell Catcher X 10.3.

New

• New: Spell Catcher X 10.3 introduces DirectCorrect™ — an entirely new way to check and correct your documents. DirectCorrect combines the “write now, check later” capabilities of Check Selection, and the “make an error, fix it now” instant satisfaction of interactive checking. The result is a totally new, “best of both worlds” experience. Without leaving your document, you can instantly check it for errors, see them highlighted (boldly, color-coded, according to error type), and correct them. In any order you like, when it’s convenient.
  
  DirectCorrect is by far the most significant and important new feature in Spell Catcher X 10.3 — perhaps to Spell Catcher X, since it was first released. DirectCorrect redefines how writing and proofing tools should work — both from the way you use the tool, and the way it integrates into the application you’re using it with. Because DirectCorrect makes corrections to your document directly via the application itself, all work you’ve done getting the formatting just right is not sacrificed! Unlike Check Selection, no conversion (via the clipboard or other similar means) of your documents contents or formatting is needed. This means your formatting stays put, and you get the result you want!
  
  We have plenty of ideas for the future of DirectCorrect. Many other Spell Catcher features are “natural” additions — Modify Selection functions are one example. Some of the Automatic changes available while you are typing might be useful if you could also perform them afterwards, on already written text. Other tasks, completely unrelated to traditional spell checking or writing, are potential future enhancements. We’ll leave it up to your imagination rather than spilling the beans at this point in time!
  
  We Want Your Feedback! DirectCorrect is a feature in its infancy. If you have any feedback or ideas, feel free to send us an email with DirectCorrect Feedback.
• New: A major upgrade to the Proximity Linguistic System (PLS) - the product we license and use for Spell Catcher’s spelling, thesaurus, and definition dictionary. Previous versions of Spell Catcher used PLS version 8, Spell Catcher X 10.3 uses PLS version 11. One of the new features in PLS 11 is a brand-new type of spellings file (“hsp” trie-based phonetic databases), more compact than the traditional “lex” databases we have been using. The major improvement - one you will notice right away - is the vastly improved quality of spelling suggestions that are offered.
  • The content of the traditional “lex” spelling databases has been updated in PLS 11 in a major way for all languages. Spell Catcher X 10.3 includes both the new “hsp” and updated “lex” spelling databases. You can use both at the same time if you’re someone that just wants the highest possible word count, or choose the one you like or “get along with” best. There is, of course, overlap in both word lists for any given language, but there are significant content differences that you may want or need to take advantage of.
  • The German and Swiss German language plug-ins now contain complete spelling “lex” databases for 1901 and 1996 spellings.
  • The Dutch language plug-in now contains a complete spelling “lex” databases for 1995 spellings.
  • A Russian language plug-in is now available (a separate $10USD purchase). Interactive checking in Russian requires Spell Catcher X 10.3 (see the next item regarding input modes). Selection-based features (such as Check Selection and Check Word) in Russian will work with Spell Catcher X 10.2.x.
• New: Spell Catcher’s input method now has input modes, to accommodate Unicode and Cyrillic keyboard layouts and input. By default, only Roman input is turned on - this is nearly identical to what users of previous versions of Spell Catcher X are familiar with. The other modes can be enabled in the Input Menu tab of International System Preferences.
• New: French language localization. Spell Catcher X has always had features tailored specifically for French and Canadian French users. Now it’s got a French user interface as well, courtesy of Ronald Leroux - http://www.cortig.net/localisations/.
• New: The “Auto-Show Suggestions” command in Spell Catcher’s Input menu now has a submenu, where you can quickly choose between the Suggest Spelling window or the Pop-up suggestions list.
• New: Updated Find in References, Look Up, Learned Words and Shorthand Glossary windows. More modernization, resulting in useful new features. For example, real Search fields in the Find in References and Look Up windows. Things just look better, and work better than they used to.
• New: In the Find in References window, you can choose whether to find in all references, or just those that are currently being used.
• New: In the Look Up window, the pop-up menu of recently looked-up words has been replaced with a more appropriate search field and “Recent Searches” shortcut menu and back/forward controls for complete history navigation.
• New: When editing Shorthand Glossary documents, you can now search on abbreviation, expansion, or the entire shorthand.
• New: New Shorthand Glossary interactive expansion option “Append to the previous word.” This makes it possible to define shorthands that appear as a sort of “suffix”. As an example, say you often type “xx-year old man”, where “xx” represents an age that can vary. Define the shorthand “yom” → “year old man” with this option selected, and typing “64-space-yom-space-” will produce “64-year old man” (the space after “64-” is removed). Previously, it was quite inconvenient to get this result, manually having to remove that space.
• New: The Date/Time tab of Spell Catcher’s Spelling preferences has been completely re-designed. Creation of custom date/time formats is much easier than before, and region-specific previews are much more accurate.
  • Date/Time expansions now use standard ICU predefined date/time formats (short, medium, long and full), and patterns for custom formats. This makes it possible to exactly match the date, time and region specified in the Formats tab of International System Preferences when expanding shorthands containing dates and times. Any customized date/time formats you have previously defined can be easily updated to ICU format. All of your existing shorthands that use the old format patterns will still expand exactly as expected.
• New: Full undo is now available when editing Date/Time formats and Custom Suggestions (the Suggestions and Date/Time tabs of Spell Catcher’s Spelling preferences.
• New: Undo/Redo is now available after documents are saved.
• New: All of Spell Catcher’s preference panes that contain some sort of scrolling list can now be resized vertically.
• New: Spell Catcher X 10.3 sports entirely new Alerts preferences - complete with a new interface and new ways of signalling errors. You can now use Mac OS X’s speech technology to alert you to errors, and more selectively flash the screen based on whether System output volume is muted.
• New: Automatic update checking, settings available in the “Get Updates and Languages” window (Spell Catcher application, Spell Catcher > Get Updates and Languages).
• New: You can now drag words onto the Find in References, Check Word, and Look Up windows to conveniently, well, find, check, or look up a word (or appropriate piece of text).
• New: Standardize Line Endings Modify Selection plug-in. Does just what it says, and can be very useful in conjunction with DirectCorrect in certain applications.
• New for Leopard: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) introduced a number of new features specifically related to input methods and related text input tasks. Spell Catcher X 10.3 takes advantage of a number of these features for Leopard users:
  • On Mac OS X 10.5, it’s possible to install or update an input method, and make it available for use right away. Spell Catcher X 10.3 uses this capability — Spell Catcher’s input method can now be used immediately after it is installed. Please see Known Issues below for more information.
  • On Mac OS X 10.5, it’s possible to (reliably) programmatically enable (turn on or off in International System Preferences) and select (as if chosen from the Input menu) an input source. Spell Catcher X 10.3 uses these capabilities at various times, notably when using the “Activate Now” / “Deactivate Now” button in Spell Catcher’s Interactive preferences.
  • When Spell Catcher X 10.3 is used in conjunction with the Mac OS X Spelling Panel, grammar checking is enabled, and passed through to the built-in Mac OS X spelling service to handle.
• New: In with the new — so we could do away with a whole lot of old. It was time to adopt the modern Cocoa Bindings way of tying an application’s user interface to its underlying “guts.” Almost all of Spell Catcher X 10.3’s interface has been re-built using Cocoa bindings technology. Perhaps not something you’ll immediately notice (or even care about), but we got to throw out all sorts of old code!
• New: Spell Catcher X 10.3’s code is signed (for Leopard and beyond) using a code signing certificate from a trusted root certificate authority (Thawte Code Signing CA → Thawte Premium Server CA).

Enhanced, Updated, Changed and Fixed

• Enhanced: Navigation between errors in the Check Selection window has been greatly enhanced. Little arrows are now shown next to those errors that occur more than once. Use the arrows to navigate to the previous or next occurrence. The old (and ugly) round buttons to move forward and backwards through the errors have been replaced with more appropriate controls.
• Enhanced: Adding and editing Learned Words with suffixes has been greatly improved. You no longer have to actually begin editing a word to add suffixed variations of that word. The suffixes that are selected are automatically updated as words are added and removed from the Learned Words document. Adding and removing suffixed words is as simple as selecting or deselecting the associated check box.
• Enhanced: Much better rendering of keyboard shortcuts where they appear as text (Shortcuts preferences, for example). They should now appear exactly as shown in the actual menu itself.
• Updated: Many of the default additional references have been updated.
• Changed: Following Apple’s (somewhat unwritten) guideline that language names should not be localized (take a look at the Languages tab of International System Preferences), language names in Spell Catcher’s user interface appear in their associated language. This includes the various language menus and where appropriate in lists (such as Spell Catcher’s References preferences).
• Fixed: “Don’t ask unless the option key is held down”, in those Modify Selection commands that support this setting, was broken in Spell Catcher X 10.2.x. Holding down the option key had no effect, making it pretty much impossible to get the window to appear again when this setting was selected. This is now fixed, and now requires that option is the only modifier key that is pressed. This also eliminates any conflict with this setting when you assign a keyboard shortcut that uses the option key to the command.
• Literally hundreds of other improvements, in every area of the program. No feature has gone “untouched.” In fact, a great deal of Spell Catcher X 10.3’s internals were essentially re-written completely.
• Built with the Xcode 3.1.1.

Known Issues

• As of this writing (Mac OS X 10.5.5), there are two significant and serious bugs in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) that affect installing new and (especially) updating existing input method components. We managed to find a pretty successful work around, but if you are upgrading or updating an existing Spell Catcher X installation, you may be affected by these bugs. Thankfully, the solution is pretty simple - in the Finder, choose Go > Home, and navigate to your home folder’s Library/Components folder. Drag the Spell Catcher.component out onto your Desktop, then drag it back into the Components folder, and Restart right away. A restart alone will not clear up the problem.
• A similar problem can occur on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) as well, although it appears to be related to updating an input method component without input modes, with a newer version that has input modes (Spell Catcher X 10.3 has input modes, earlier versions do not). The solution is the same as the one above for Leopard - in the Finder, choose Go > Home, and navigate to your home folder’s Library/Components folder. Drag the Spell Catcher.component out onto your Desktop, then drag it back into the Components folder, and Restart right away. A restart alone is sometimes good enough, but moving the component first definitely helps.

Spell Catcher X Version History