Electronic Word Search Programs

Spelling anxiety is no affliction for writers who use electronic typewriters or personal computer (PC) word processing programs that provide so-called spell checking (see The Electronic Spell by Faith Eckler in the May 1988 Word Ways). Writers can choose to be notified (via beep) immediately after typing a word incorrectly, or they can invoke global spell checking after completing a manuscript. Most built-in spell checkers both identify a misspelled word and try to guess the word intended, offering a candidate list of correctly spelled alternatives from a database ranging in size from 40,000 to over 100,000 words