Spellcheck is best applied after you have corrected scannos, removed page separators, and run Gutcheck, as these steps remove many trivial mistakes that would turn up as spelling errors. When you are ready to begin spellchecking, use Search>Spell Check or click in the toolbar. Guiguts saves the document at this time and uses the Aspell program to spell-check the document. (At this time Guiguts is only compatible with Aspell version 0.5.x.)

Guiguts opens the spellcheck dialog:
The word in the top field (here, knes) is a word in the document that is not found in the Aspell dictionary or project dictionary. Just above is the count of how many times this word appears in the document. The first or only use of the word is highlighted in search-orange in the document window, so you can see it in context.

The text in the second field (here, knees) is Aspell's best guess as to a correct spelling. This text will replace the found word if you click the Change or Change All button. Below it is a list of other close matches from the dictionaries. You can move any of these to the Replacement Text field by double-clicking it.

Examine the word in context and decide what to do:

The word is an error. For example, knes was an uncaught scanno for knee. You may have to look at the page image to make sure of the author's intent and the proper correction. Put the correct spelling in the second field—in the example, double-click knee in the list. If the word appears only once, or if it might be correct in another context, click Change. The word is replaced and the next suspect is displayed. If the word appears more than once and would always be wrong, click Change All. (It's best to change the word using the Change buttons rather than by directly editing it in the document.)

The word is a valid English word. If you think the word is valid, check a dictionary (for example, Merriam-Webster Online) and if you are right, click Add To Aspell Dic. In a recent small project the words cresset and tufa came up in this way.

The word is valid in this book. Aspell questions proper nouns, archaic spellings, technical terms, and words from languages other than English. If you are sure the word is valid in the context of this book, click either Skip All or Add To Project Dic.

You aren't sure. Click Skip. Run spellcheck again later and the same word will come up again.

Usage hint: With practice, you can decide what to do with a word very quickly, but you must not let yourself decide too quickly. If the book contains many words to ignore (many proper nouns, latin tags, archaisms, etc.) you may start clicking Add to Project Dic so fast you click right past a real error. You must really look at every word Aspell presents. Scannos can appear in latin or archaic terms, too! If your "click rate" exceeds 60 click/sec, you are probably going to fast.

Hot-keys

The following key-equivalents are available while the spellcheck window has the keyboard focus:

ctl-aAdd word to Aspell dictionary.
ctl-pAdd word to project dictionary.
ctl-iSkip All ("ignore").
ctl-sSkip.

Stopping and Restarting

If you need to break off spellcheck and start again later, you can do so. You can quit spellcheck at any time; just close the dialog window. When you later restart spellcheck it resumes with the first uncorrected word. Words you have skipped will again be found as errors and you will have to skip them again.

You can also click Set Bookmark before closing the dialog window. When you next open spellcheck in the same document, click Resume @ Bookmark. Checking begins at the bookmark, and you do not have to skip over the same skipped words.

Checking Part of the Document

To check only part of the document, select that part before you open the spellcheck dialog. Checking is confined to the selection. After checking has started, click in the document to clear the selection so you can see the found words.

Changing the Main Dictionary

Aspell is usually installed with more than one main dictionary, including at least three for variants of English. (A book published in England will produce many fewer errors when checked with the EN_GB dictionary than with the EN_US one!) To use a different dictionary, click the Options button in the spellcheck window. This opens the following dialog:

It lists all available dictionaries. Double-click one to move it to the Current Dictionary field and click Close. The spellcheck process is restarted with the new dictionary.

The same dialog can be used to locate a different executable program for Aspell (normally you set the path to the executable during the installation of Guiguts).

The set of four buttons at the bottom of the dialog specify how generous Aspell should be in selecting similar words to display as possible replacements. The Ultra Fast setting will suggest only a few, very similar words. "Bad Speller" will suggest many words.

Using the Project Dictionary

Because of the way that Guiguts implements spellcheck, there is no practical difference between the Skip All and Add To Project Dic buttons. Both have the result of adding the current word to the project dictionary, with the result that it will not be shown if you run spellcheck again.

The Project Dictionary is a text file that Guiguts writes in the same folder as the document file. It has the same filename as the document and the suffix .dic. You can edit it, for example to remove a word that you added in error. Or you can remove all words from the project dictionary by simply deleting the file.