Use Google with Microsoft Word for better spelling suggestions than the traditional dictionary.
Some of the hacks we cover in this book are very useful, some are weird, and some of them are not exactly useful but have a definite cool factor. The first version of CapeSpeller (http://www.capescience.com/google/spell.shtml) fit into that last category. Send a word via email and receive a spelling suggestion in return.
While cool, there weren’t many scenarios where you’d absolutely need to use it. But the newer version of CapeSpeller is far more useful; it’s now designed to integrate with Microsoft Word and provide spelling suggestions powered by Google as an alternative to the standard Word/Office dictionary.
Now, why in the world would you want another spellchecker in Word? Doesn’t it already have a rather good one? Indeed it does, but it employs a traditional dictionary, which falls over when faced with certain proper nouns, jargon, and acronyms. Google’s dictionary [Hack #16] is chock-full of these sorts of up-to-the-minute, hip, and non-traditional suggestions.
There are several steps to acquiring and installing CapeSpeller.
First, you’ll need to have the Microsoft SOAP Toolkit installed (http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?URL=/code/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/001/580/msdncompositedoc.xml). It’s a fairly small download but may take a little wrangling to get squared away. You must be running Internet Explorer 5 or later. You may also have to update your Windows Installer depending on what version of Windows you’re using. The CapeSpeller site (http://www.capescience.com/google/spell.shtml) provides more details.
Once you’ve got the SOAP toolkit squared away, you’ll have to get two code items from CapeScience. The first is a zipped executable that’s available from http://www.capescience.com/google/download/CapeSpeller.zip. Download that one, unzip it, and run the executable.
After you’ve downloaded and installed the executable, download the source code. The source code contains a place for you to copy and paste your API. Unless you’ve got a legit developer’s key there, you won’t be able to get spelling suggestions from Google.
The final thing you’ll need to do to get CapeSpeller to work with Word is to set up a macro. CapeScience offers instructions for setting up a spellcheck macro at http://www.capescience.com/google/spelltoword.shtml.