Recipe 7.17. Checking Spelling

Problem

You want to check the spelling of text within your Flash document.

Solution

Use the spellchecking feature in Flash.

Description

Flash includes a spellchecker that can check spelling throughout your Flash document, including frame and layer labels, ActionScript, and text. However, in order to use the spellchecker, you must first configure it. To do so, choose Text Spelling Setup. Within the dialog box, you have many options via which you can configure the spellchecker to best suit your needs. You can instruct it to check the spelling in a variety of locations, though perhaps the most practical is to have it check the contents of text fields. Second to that, you may also choose to have it check your ActionScript for spelling. If you do have it check your ActionScript for spelling, however, depending on your coding style, you will probably return many reported misspellings on variable names and such.

Within the Checking options section of the Spelling Setup dialog box, you may want to check the "Suggest phonetic matches" and "Suggest typographical matches" options. That way, when you run the spellchecker, Flash will make suggestions to you for words it reports as misspelled.

After you've configured the spellchecker, click OK to close the dialog box. Then you can check the spelling at any point by choosing Text Check Spelling. If Flash reports any misspellings, you will have the option to change them or ignore them. You can also add words to your custom dictionary so that Flash will recognize them next time you check the spelling.