I have been using a Mac-only software called Grammarian that checks grammar, spelling, and punctuation, whether I am typing it into the forum, Facebook, the Aviva Directory, a text editor, or a word processing program. I didn't think I'd need such a thing because my grammar, spelling, and punctuation isn't so bad, but I have found that it does improve my writing. The job it does catching typos alone would make it worth it. It is particularly valuable at work. While it doesn't so much matter whether my grammar, spelling, and punctuation are less than perfect here or on Facebook, I like to do better when I'm being paid for it. When I am working on the directory, my category descriptions are limited to 5,000 characters so if I run over, I have to look for things that I can cut in the text, and that's where the errors often find their way in. Grammarian not only catches the errors quite satisfactorily, but it offers suggestions and will make the correction if I decide to go with its suggestions, as I often do. Most words are already in its database, and I can add others that I might come across, or simply direct it to ignore errors that I have used intentionally.
Before deciding on Grammarian, I tried another one called Grammarly, which was far more expensive but didn't work worth a damn. Ninety percent of what it flagged was nonsense. It didn't even understand spaces between words, flagging them as possible spelling errors. After going back and forth with their tech support for a while, I asked for a refund.
@Ken Anderson Yer in much deeper beyond my level of comprehension, but that don't mean many others can benefit. It eludes me how this technology keeps advancing while my understanding of it stagnates. Frank
As I write a short short novel every so often, it would be a useful running check Ken. The website indicated Mac only and I am Windows, so any recommendations please ?
Maybe it is time that you expanded and updated your personal tech devices, @Frank Sanoica ? You have said that the laptop that you use is an older version, and you don’t even have a tablet of any kind, which is where most of us use the different apps (such as Grammarian) . Think of it as someone still driving a Model T and not understanding about how the modern day cars work, with things such as turn signals, stereo radios (and now internet radio), and just a lot of other basic things that cars have had since about the 1950’s. If you don’t know any thing about how an iPad works, then there is no way that you can understand how apps work on a tablet device. Just my opinion, but you are missing out on somereally great things !