Why doesn’t SCAYT work?

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

Once upon a time it used to work, but for the past several weeks, although it still identifies miss-spelt words by underlining them, clicking on them just brings up a little window containing the word "Paste". No suggested alternate spellings are shown.

I'm using Firefox and Win10 x64.

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Press <Ctrl> when you right-click on the word.

Neil

[Philip RoweParticipant @philiprowe13116]

OK, I'll bite.

What does the acronym SCAYT stand for?

Also why does the predictive text on my tablet always insist on capitalising the last word of a sentence when I use an exclamation mark or query Mark? I've left this one deliberately rather than manually changing it just to demonstrate.

Phil

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

Thanks Neil. When and why did it change?

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Philip,

SCAYT = Spell Check As You Type.

Neil,

Seems to work fine on the MAC without having to press CTRL, just right click.

Edited By Graeme W on 18/06/2017 12:16:02

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Spelling Correction As You Type ?
don’t forget web developers are generally too idle to spell things out in full + of course adds to the mystical priestcraft they imagine themselves serving – added to note Neil beat me to it and that right click works without cntrl on Linux

Edited By Frances IoM on 18/06/2017 12:19:03

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Frances IoM on 18/06/2017 12:16:19:
Spelling Correction As You Type ?
don't forget web developers are generally too idle to spell things out in full + of course adds to the mystical priestcraft they imagine themselves serving – added to note Neil beat me to it and that right click works without cntrl on Linux

Edited By Frances IoM on 18/06/2017 12:19:03

On behalf of mystical web functionaries everywhere I can't help teasing Francis by highlighting his failures to spell things out in full. He meant to say:

Possibly SCAYT is an abbreviation of Spelling Correction As You Type?

Do not forget web developers are generally too idle to spell things out in full plus of course it adds to the mystical priest-craft they imagine themselves serving. Edited to note that Neil beat me to it and that right click works without pressing the control key on Linux.

Edited By Frances Isle of Man on 18/06/2017 12:19:03

Sorry Francis; I'm only pulling your leg cos' I had a sherry for lunch…

Dave

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

I get the same "Paste" option as Gary when right-clicking an underlined misspelt word, but that's only because SCAYT isn't enabled by default in my set up for some reason. Click on the ABC button at the top of the reply box and it will give you the option to enable SCAYT. Job done.

John

Edited By John Hinkley on 18/06/2017 13:25:56

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

Posted by John Hinkley on 18/06/2017 13:25:22:

I get the same "Paste" option as Gary when right-clicking an underlined misspelt word, but that's only because SCAYT isn't enabled by default in my set up for some reason. Click on the ABC button at the top of the reply box and it will give you the option to enable SCAYT. Job done.

John

Edited By John Hinkley on 18/06/2017 13:25:56

Not in my case. I do click the ABC button and select SCAYT, but only get the "Paste" option unless I hold the "Ctrl" key down while right-clicking.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Gary Wooding on 18/06/2017 11:56:27:

Thanks Neil. When and why did it change?

When we change the editor a couple of years ago!

Neil

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Gary Wooding on 18/06/2017 10:22:52:

Once upon a time it used to work, but for the past several weeks, although it still identifies miss-spelt words by underlining them, clicking on them just brings up a little window containing the word "Paste". No suggested alternate spellings are shown.

I'm using Firefox and Win10 x64.

The problem with the online spell-checker (SCAYT) is that it keeps your added-word list as a cookie on your machine. If you ever lose that cookie (such as when you are trying to solve a computer problem and someone suggests that you – willy nilly – delete all your cookies … ! ) you start again from scratch.

SCAYT isn't particularly good and the best way around this is to turn it off and use the built-in spell checker in your browser (which you can also setup for English language variations if such is your wont). Moreover, the added word list is now available globally for all sites you visit. The penalty for this is that you have to use the CTL-key (on this site or any others using SCAYT) when you click on a mis-spelled word. It appears that this is how you are set up.

Personally, I'd leave it as-is but you can re-enable SCAYT if you want to as John Hinkley says.

 

 

Edited By Bandersnatch on 18/06/2017 17:26:41

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Silly O D (I’d better not fully abbreviate) “On behalf of mystical web functionaries everywhere I can’t help teasing Francis by highlighting his failures to spell things out in full. He meant to say: ” – minor correction try ‘she’ usually the ‘e’ is a give away.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Gary Wooding on 18/06/2017 15:21:09:

Not in my case. I do click the ABC button and select SCAYT, but only get the "Paste" option unless I hold the "Ctrl" key down while right-clicking.

 

I have SCAYT turned off by default and use my Firefox spell-checker (using the CTL-key – without CTL I get "Paste" ). I just tried turning on SCAYT using ABC (in Reply mode; top row, 6th icon) and it works as billed …. without the CTL-key.

However, I did notice that it didn't seem to work if I tried to change the default in the middle of writing a reply. I seem to need to do it before quoting/writing.

 

[ Edited  to fake things (again) so phantom smiley doesn't appear, which is a much more annoying problem than the SCAYT stuff. Not to mention it makes the site look amateurish (not to mention being ludicrously unnecessary). ]

Edited By Bandersnatch on 19/06/2017 01:08:49

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 19/06/2017 00:59:54:

[ Edited to fake things (again) so phantom smiley doesn't appear, which is a much more annoying problem than the SCAYT stuff. Not to mention it makes the site look amateurish (not to mention being ludicrously unnecessary). ]

These days you have to call them emoticons.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 19/06/2017 01:19:30:

These days you have to call them emoticons.

 

"Smiley" was good enough for my father and my grandfather before him – and it's good enough for me. (Of course I have quite a different word for the "phantoms"

<——- (smiley).

 

PS: Go to bed.

Edited By Bandersnatch on 19/06/2017 01:54:45

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 19/06/2017 01:19:30:

These days you have to call them emoticons.

.

If true [which I think it is not] then the forum software is past its 'use by' date

… the pop-up box is headed: Insert a Smiley

MichaelG.

.

P.S. according to this article from the infallibe Grauniad:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/06/difference-between-emoji-and-emoticons-explained

An emoticon is a typographic display of a facial representation, used to convey emotion in a text only medium.

P.P.S. … Younger readers may not 'get' my use of 'Grauniad' … internet search engines are available.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 19/06/2017 06:22:34

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 19/06/2017 00:59:54:

I have SCAYT turned off by default and use my Firefox spell-checker (using the CTL-key – without CTL I get "Paste" ).

I too prefer the Firefox spell-checker, but it doesn't show it's face on my system (Firefox with Win10).

It's available just about everywhere else, just not on this forum. If I don't enable SCAYT and click a miss-spelled word I simply get the Paste option – the Firefox speller doesn't kick in. What should I do to use the Firefox facility?

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Frances IoM on 18/06/2017 18:01:42:
Silly O D (I'd better not fully abbreviate) "On behalf of mystical web functionaries everywhere I can't help teasing Francis by highlighting his failures to spell things out in full. He meant to say: " – minor correction try 'she' usually the 'e' is a give away.

Touche! As a card-carrying right-on liberal pinko, I'm mortified to have been caught out in a sexist assumption. Serves me right for being a pedant.

Sorry,

Dave

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Gary Wooding on 19/06/2017 07:54:22:

I too prefer the Firefox spell-checker, but it doesn't show it's face on my system (Firefox with Win10).

It's available just about everywhere else, just not on this forum. If I don't enable SCAYT and click a miss-spelled word I simply get the Paste option – the Firefox speller doesn't kick in. What should I do to use the Firefox facility?

1. Turn SCAYT off

2 Use CTL-rt-click to edit a word

This invokes the Firefox spell checker and is (as I understand it) what you are already doing. On other websites (not using SCAYT) you only need to rt-click.

(You have to use CTL at this site because the SCAYT enable/disable setting is actually a toggle between the spell-check and the paste menus. CTL tells the software to ignore those selections and allow what you want to do.)

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 19/06/2017 14:29:53:

1. Turn SCAYT off

2 Use CTL-rt-click to edit a word

This invokes the Firefox spell checker and is (as I understand it) what you are already doing. On other websites (not using SCAYT) you only need to rt-click.

(You have to use CTL at this site because the SCAYT enable/disable setting is actually a toggle between the spell-check and the paste menus. CTL tells the software to ignore those selections and allow what you want to do.)

Thank you – it works perfectly – as you knew it would, of course.

I've learnt something new today.

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