Is there a Hebrew Spell Checker?

[Cila]

I just got Mellel and am very upset. The only reason I purchased it was the expectation of finally having a full blown Hebrew Word Processor, which is how it was advertised. When I went to check on the spelling of a word (I am a terrible speller in all languages.) I discovered that no matter how I spelled it, there was no reaction. Figuring that I must have missed something, I went back to the manual. Yes, I'd done everything correctly. So I noticed the option Edit>Spell>Spell and went to the Language Drop Down Box, only to discover the Hebrew isn't even there. No wonder the Spell Checker didn't work.

So now what do I do?? Is there a patch, download, add-on, whatever?? Right now I have to go online to Melingo to check each word. That's not what I expected when I paid for this software.

Please Help ASAP!!

Cila

[Mart°n]

Mellel doesn’t have a built in spell checker but uses the one contained in Mac OS X. As OS X (at least 10.4.x) does’t contain a Hebrew dictionary, you couldn’t choose one from the spell checker options.
You could download (for free) and try cocoAspell http://people.ict.usc.edu/~leuski/cocoaspell/ along with the separate available Hebrew dictionary (to be found at their dictionaries sub-page) but I don’t know how reliable it works. Maybe Janet or one of the other Hebrew writers on this forum could give you some additional advice.

Aside from that, Mellel is called shareware and (in case you don’t know) as with every shareware software, you could download and try it out before you have to buy a license key.

[jannuss]

I understand your frustration, Cila, you assume a Word Processor has certain components and don't bother to check if assumptions apply to the application at hand.

Still, if you had checked the Support page on the Redlers site and clicked on tutorials & guides
http://www.redlers.com/supporttutorials.html
you would have found "Spelling Tips" which includes a section on Hebrew spelling.

A relatively new speller called HSpell offers the option to check spelling in
Hebrew using a mechanism similar to that of CocoASpell. To download the
speller go to: http://www.mitzpettel.com/software/hspell.html.

Janet

[Ori Redler]

I just got Mellel and am very upset. The only reason I purchased it was the expectation of finally having a full blown Hebrew Word Processor, which is how it was advertised. When I went to check on the spelling of a word (I am a terrible speller in all languages.) I discovered that no matter how I spelled it, there was no reaction. Figuring that I must have missed something, I went back to the manual. Yes, I'd done everything correctly. So I noticed the option Edit>Spell>Spell and went to the Language Drop Down Box, only to discover the Hebrew isn't even there. No wonder the Spell Checker didn't work.

So now what do I do?? Is there a patch, download, add-on, whatever?? Right now I have to go online to Melingo to check each word. That's not what I expected when I paid for this software.

Please Help ASAP!!

Cila

Cila, I understand your frustration here. The problem is double: to start, there is no speller that comes with OS X for Hebrew, so one needs to be installed separately in order to check spelling in Hebrew. There are free spellers for Hebrew (as noted above) but there is no built in speller for Hebrew in Mellel (or in any other OS X app. for that matter).

[Cila]

Cila here:

Thanks for all the input. I downloaded Hspell and followed the install instructions exactly. Now Hspell Hebrew shows up in the drop down of lanuagages in the Spell Checker; but it still doesn't work. They specifically state that it does work with Mellel, even using the check as you type option. But it just doesn't. Could I be doing somthing wrong on the Mellel side?

Hope to hear back soon...Thanks

[jannuss]

I downloaded Hspell and followed the install instructions exactly. Now Hspell Hebrew shows up in the drop down of lanuagages in the Spell Checker; but it still doesn't work.

Cila, HSpell works just fine here.

-- in Edit/Spelling/Spelling did you select Hspell as your spelling dictionary?
-- in Edit/Spelling did you select "Check Spelling as you Type"
-- when you work in English and have the dictionary set to English, does the spell checker work?

Janet

[Cila]

Thanks Janet. I checked it out and finally realized what my problem is. The Hebrew Spell Checker looks at each word individually and not at the word in the context of the sentence. So that in a Word Processor you would expect that if I typed "Let's go horse." The word "horse" would be underlined as incorrect & the word "house" would be suggested as a replacement. But since Hspel is acting independently for each word and not within the context of a real word processor, it doesn't know when you type אל or על that one is wrong depending upon the context of the sentence.

So how do I get around that? Considering that that type of situation is exactly what I run into with my terrible spelling.

[rpcameron]

Thanks Janet. I checked it out and finally realized what my problem is. The Hebrew Spell Checker looks at each word individually and not at the word in the context of the sentence. So that in a Word Processor you would expect that if I typed "Let's go horse." The word "horse" would be underlined as incorrect & the word "house" would be suggested as a replacement. But since Hspel is acting independently for each word and not within the context of a real word processor, it doesn't know when you type אל or על that one is wrong depending upon the context of the sentence.

So how do I get around that? Considering that that type of situation is exactly what I run into with my terrible spelling.

This is not a limitation of the spell checker. What you are looking for is a Hebrew grammar checker. Versions of OS X prior to Leopard (10.5) did not include a grammar checker, but instead only checked whether or not the words used are valid and correctly spelled words, regardless of context. A grammar checker for Hebrew would most likely be a costly third-party program to run in the background. (I am uncertain as to the status of Hebrew grammar checkers, but this would be consistent with other languages.)

I am unaware of any spell checker that would flag the word "horse" as incorrect in your given example. Grammar checkers may flag the sentence in its entirety as incorrect, or suggest the addition of the word "around", but why would any sensible spell checker, let alone grammar checker, suggest a sentence as "Let's go house" is beyond me. (I am not trying to be snide or petty, but to put the situation in perspective.)

[Mart°n]

The Hebrew Spell Checker looks at each word individually and not at the word in the context of the sentence.

Every spell checker looks at a word independently, that’s why they’re called spell-checker. They look at a word and highlight it in some way, if it wasn’t spelled correctly.

So that in a Word Processor you would expect that if I typed "Let's go horse." The word "horse" would be underlined as incorrect & the word "house" would be suggested as a replacement.

What you mean is called grammar-checker. Those tools look at the whole sentence and try to find grammar errors that could occur if you misspell a word in a sentence. I hope a good grammar checker will suggest “home” in your example above, as “Let’s go house” isn’t a better choice that “Let’s go horse”, from a grammar point of view.

But even the best grammar checker don’t know what you want to write. If you like to write “I like my house” but misspell it as “I like my horse”, no grammar checker would find an error as both sentences are grammar-wise and spelling-wise o.k. No (currently available) software tool could help you in this case.

So how do I get around that? Considering that that type of situation is exactly what I run into with my terrible spelling.

I don’t know if a Hebrew grammar checker is available on Mac OS X, maybe Janet knows an answer (a short Google search couldn‘t reveal anything). If there isn’t one, you could either work on your spelling or find a proof reader.

[Cila]

OK. I messed up with my English example; but the example I gave in Hebrew still holds true. A true WORD PROCESSOR like "Word" automatically checks the Grammar as well as the spelling to be sure that the spelling of words that perhaps sound alike but are spelled differently depending on their correct meaning in the context of the sentence are picked up on and are flagged for correct spelling. A better English example might be: I was frightened by the big bare in the woods. "Word" would have flagged "bare" as incorrectly spelled within the context of the sentence, even though by itself the word "bare" is not an incorrect spelled.

So now I'm back to my question: If Mellel is a true WORD PROCESSOR why doesn't it check the grammar in Hebrew if Hebrew is part of the software? And if not then why is Mellel touted as such a wonderful Hebrew WORD PROCESSOR. ? How can I fix this situation?

[jannuss]

I don’t know if a Hebrew grammar checker is available on Mac OS X, maybe Janet knows an answer (a short Google search couldn‘t reveal anything). If there isn’t one, you could either work on your spelling or find a proof reader.

The only Hebrew grammar checkers I know are expensive, hand-held "dictionaries." I'll keep an eye out, but I'm doubtful I'll find anything affordable.

And, besides, Hebrew is such a very terse language that writing a grammar checker would be extremely challenging.

Janet

[jannuss]

OK. I messed up with my English example; but the example I gave in Hebrew still holds true. A true WORD PROCESSOR like "Word" automatically checks the Grammar as well as the spelling to be sure that the spelling of words that perhaps sound alike but are spelled differently depending on their correct meaning in the context of the sentence are picked up on and are flagged for correct spelling.

OK, you need to back up about twelve paces here.

WORD is not a "true" word processor!!!

WORD is a hodgepodge of applications tossed together willy-nilly as only Microsoft is capable of doing. If what you really want is a WORD clone on your Mac, then run NeoOffice. It's just as confounding and confusing as WORD is.

Mellel is not a Hebrew word processor!!!

Mellel is an international word processor; Hebrew is just one of the dozens of languages it supports well. The developers of Mellel have set themselves the goal of producing the best Mac word processor for academic and technical writers. They focus totally on that goal and whenever possible rely on outside utilities to provide additional support.

So, Cila, your complaint about inadequate Hebrew support should go to Apple [and to Apple's Israeli agent iDigital].
And, while I'm at it, I should add (for political correctness) that Apple's support of Arabic is equally inadequate!

Janet

[Cila]

OK Janet,
Point well taken. Believe me I'm not a lover of anything connected with Microsoft; but I have to go back to my problem. I noticed that Neisi (hope I spelled that right) advertises a Hebrew Grammar Checker with it's software; so that would mean that it's out there. I wish I'd thought about trying Mellel before buying because now I'm stuck with software that isn't doing what I expected, unless I can find a Hebrew Grammar Checker to go with Mellel. I haven't found one by itself; but just maybe someone out there has heard of something. At this point, I don't care if it's free or not.

Thanks for any help I can get....Any suggestions

Cila

[jannuss]

I've looked and haven't found anything yet.

Do you have a link to this "Neisi" software?
[Did you mean Nisus . . . they also use third party software and I don't believe that includes grammar checking.]
[Oh, and I just checked, NeoOffice also uses Apple's spelling/grammar services.]

Janet

[Cila]

Yes Janet, I did mean Nisus. I can't remember where I saw it but it was an ad the said that is now includes a Grammar Checker. But then somewhere else a read a comment that someone sent in saying that the Nisus Grammar Checker doesn't work. At least it was a second reference to such a thing.

I'm really not convinced that what I need is a full blown Grammar Checker. If you think about it, when you read Hebrew without Nikud, there are many words that you would not be sure of without reading the entire sentence; so since Hspell is a spell checker for Hebrew without Nikud, it is incomplete without considering the meaning of the word within the context of the sentence.

I'm still looking and hope you will continue to try and find something as well. I wish more people would get involved in this search as well.

Thanks,
Cila

P.S. We''re on Google!