The Sitemorse Spelling module looks at any text returned to your visitors. In addition to standard paragraph and table cell tags Sitemorse checks alternative image text, meta data and form value fields.

Although Sitemorse does not check the result of JavaScript code it does read between the <noscript> tags, checking the language quality seen by those browsers with JavaScript disabled. This text may be rarely seen by your content developers and can uncover hidden problems.

Currently the Spelling module is limited to HTML files, we do not analyse the spelling in external files such as PDF documents and images.

Additionally Sitemorse ignores UK Postcodes and all web and email addresses.

Sitemorse recognises this and supplies a number of Global Dictionaries. Containing company names, place names and recognisable words.

These lists are growing all the time as we come across new terms. The contents can be viewed from the Dictionaries tab of your site page.

The power of the Sitemorse Spelling module is however with you. Any word we identify as "questionable" may be added to your own dictionary. Once you have marked it as correct we remove this word from the report, and ensure it will not be questioned during future tests.

If you already have a word list in your organisation you can import this through the "Word lists" tab.

You can import any list of words into a private word list you own or have write access to.

Microsoft Office Suite

After clicking "Add to dictionary" in Microsoft Word or another Office application the word is placed in a 'custom.dic' file.

Search for the dictionary

The simplest way to locate the file is by searching your computer. From the Start Menu select

Search >> Files and Folders.

Then type 'CUSTOM.DIC'

Occasionally more than one file will be found. Simply open these in Notepad to determine the one you are after.

Locate the file through Word

If your dictionary has a different name, or is located on a network share you can find its path through Word. Firstly open Word, and select:

Tools > Options > Spelling & Grammar > Custom Dictionaries...

This displays a new dialogue, if more than one dictionary appears in the list select the one you wish to import. At the bottom of the dialogue window the full path to the 'CUSTOM.DIC' file is displayed. Now open this file in Notepad.

Other Applications

Dictionaries can be imported from many applications who store word lists in a plain text file. Simply locate this file to begin.

Types of Word List

Microsoft Office dictionaries are straightforward. Each word is separated by a new line. Sitemorse imports in the same way.

Importing a List of Words

After logging in to Sitemorse navigate to the Site page of a domain you manage by clicking the "View all XX tests". Now select the "Word lists" tab.

Select the word list you wish to amend by selecting its name. This new page displays the current list of words on the left. If you have write permissions to this word list you will see an additional right hand column with options to add a single word, import multiple words, or alter the word list settings.

It is this second option, to import multiple words that we paste our list of words into (one word per line). When ready click "Import list"

You will receive confirmation as to whether the add was successful. Sitemorse only allows the apostrophe to be used, other punctuation, including numbers and '!"#$%&()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{|}~' are not permitted. Sitemorse will also inform you if a word already exists.

While we try to include many useful words in our global dictionaries we must exercise some discretion. Some words are so familiar we do not mind how they appear. For example few would argue the term "BBC" should be capitalised. But what about "RSS" or "UK".

Importing a great number of acronyms would ensure they are not marked as possible spelling mistakes. However they might mask real spelling mistakes. Take for example a Tropical Fish web site. It meant to label the title of the page as "CRAB AND FISH". However the author has mistakenly entered "CRB AND FISH".

CRB is a well known acronym for the Criminal Records Bureaux. Were we to have added this to a global dictionary such an important spelling mistake would have gone unnoticed.

For this reason we encourage our clients to add such acronyms to their own private dictionary. We are, nevertheless, always looking to increase the number of words in our global dictionaries.

Have you ever wondered how many times your company name appears on your site? Maybe you would like to know if all traces of your old office address have been removed. Perhaps a rebranding exercise has you trawling through every page on your site?

Search filters from the Spelling module make such tasks easy to achieve. As Sitemorse examines your site it sifts its way through the text. If it finds a word, or phrase, you are filtering for it highlights when and where it made the find, just like any other problem.

The number of filter matches are detailed on the spell check summary. You may then view every instance of a word, it's URL, line number and parent tag.

Up until the introduction of the spelling module Sitemorse reports have been classified read only. Generally our clients only interacted with the site when requesting a new report or immediate test. The ability to configure word lists and modify the current report is unprecedented. To this end Sitemorse now enforce the permissions assigned when your account was created.

Owner

A site owner can make any changes they desire to the reports and dictionaries.

A shared site

A standard shared appearing in your site list is read only. You may view the reports and not make any changes.

A shared word list

Enhancing this arrangement the Sitemorse spell checker allows the dictionaries and filters to be shared with our users in your organisation. Quickly and simply from the dictionaries tab (see later) you can assign write access to your word lists. Once you have made the change your colleague may modify the relevant reports and dictionaries.

The 'lang' or 'xml:lang' attributes should be used to declare the main language of a document via the 'html' tag and, where appropriate, to denote any change in language. This is helpful for screen readers and other assistive technology reading the page aloud as well as selecting the right dictionary for the Sitemorse spell checker to consult.

The 'lang' or 'xml:lang' attributes attribute consists of a simple code, which is defined and maintained by IANA under the "Language Subtag Registry". This outlines a short language code which can be further refined by several criteria, including geographical region, for example:

'lang="en-GB"' : the British version of English

How to use the 'lang' or 'xml:lang' attributes:

When serving HTML you should use the 'lang' or 'xml:lang' attributes to declare the language of the document. For example, the following declares a document to be in Dutch:

<html lang="nl">

When serving XHTML as text/html, you should use both the lang attribute and the xml:lang attribute. A British English site would use:

<html lang="en-GB" xml:lang="en-GB" xmlns ="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

If your language changes during the document you should mark the relevant section of text with the new language. For example:

<p>The French for <em>cat</em> is <em lang="fr">chat</em>.</p>

Sitemorse will detect the change and consult the appropriate dictionary - if available.

Current language support includes:

• British English ("en-GB")
• American English ("en-US")
• International English ("en")
• Irish ("ga")
• Welsh (both "cy" and "cy-GB")
• French (both "fr" and "fr-FR")
• German (both "de" and "de-DE")
• Spanish (both "es" and "es-ES")
• Dutch ("nl")
• Danish ("da")
• Scottish Gaelic ("gd")

Further information:

Language Subtag Registry http://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry

Tags for Identifying Languages ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc4646.txt

W3C Internationalization (I18n) Activity http://www.w3.org/International/

Further reading and historical reference:

HTML 4.01 Specification, Chapter 8: Language information and text direction http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/dirlang.html#adef-lang

FAQ: Two-letter or three-letter language codes http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-lang-2or3