[OS X TeX] Spell Check in TeXShop?

Bruno Voisin bvoisin at mac.com
Thu Mar 16 06:09:04 EST 2006


Le 16 mars 06 à 11:02, Jérôme Laurens a écrit :

> Le 14 mars 06, à 22:48, Bruno Voisin a écrit :
>
>> Unfortunately not. Similarly it's very inconvenient in Mail to  
>> have to switch dictionaries manually all day long, when writing  
>> indifferently messages in several languages (in my case two:  
>> French and English).
>
> Pages can use different dictionaries/languages in the same document.
> So this is perfectly possible with OS X to do such a thing.
> The Pages user is expected to add a language attribute to any part  
> of the text.
> This language attribute is stored in the file.
>
> Doing such a thing is not possible with mail, because the mail file  
> format does not authorize it.
> It is not a limitation of Mac OS X, but a limitation on the mail  
> system.

Sorry, I'd been unclear. What I referred to wasn't being unable to  
use multiple dictionaries within the same email message, but having  
to switch dictionaries constantly through the Spelling panel when  
writing one message in French, then one in English, then another in  
French, and so forth.

The problem here (IMO) isn't the functionality, but the interface: it  
would be nice to have a keyboard shortcut to switch between  
dictionaries, in the same way as Cmd-Space rotates between Input  
Methods (ie French keyboard, Numerical French keyboard, American  
keyboard etc.) in the International pref panel and menu; otherwise  
you have to navigate through Edit > Spelling > Spelling... (or use  
Cmd-:) -- no this isn't a smiley --, then select the appropriate  
dictionary in the Dictionary pull-down menu.

An alternative is to leave the Spelling panel open all the time, but  
I find it unfortunate to lose screen estate, à la Adobe Illustrator  
or Photoshop, just for this. All the more so since, AFAIK, panels in  
OS X have the very annoying behaviour -- I really wonder in which  
state the Apple GUI designers were on the day when they designed this  
-- of always sticking on top of regular windows, hiding their content.

In an off-list message Gary Gray pointed out the existence of the  
Multilingual dictionary, but neither he nor I could find any  
documentation about it. What does it do? I imagine it would yield  
false positives for words with slightly different spellings in  
different languages (like "Ressource" in French and "Resource" in  
English, or "behaviour" in UK English and "behavior" in US English).

Speaking about Cmd-Space, the Keyboard Shortcuts tab in the Keyboard  
& Mouse pref panel reports a shortcut "clash" between SpotLight and  
Input Menu, which both use Cmd-Space. Is it just on my setup? I did  
nothing to customize this, as I use neither. Or is it a conflict  
between one -- either Input Menu or SpotLight -- using a shortcut  
attached to the "function" of a key -- such as the letter m which  
corresponds to different physical keys in different keyboard layouts  
--, and the other -- either SpotLight or Input Menu -- using a  
shortcut attached to a physical key, like the Finder's Rotate Window  
function which is always associated with the first key on the right  
of the left Caps key, independently from the keyboard layout? In that  
case, the clash would only occur on French keyboards.

Bruno Voisin------------------------- Info --------------------------
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