Sentry Spell Checker

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Add a spell checker to your Delphi applications with Sentry Spell Checker

Sentry Spell Checker provides everything you need to add a full spell check capability to your Delphi applications. Click here to find out more about Sentry Spell Checker.

Click on a topic below to find out more about how Sentry Spell Checker works with your Delphi applications:

• How to spell check a TEdit, TMemo,or TRichEdit control
  

• How to check spelling "as you type"
  
• How to spell check strings

How to spell check a TEdit, TMemo, or TRichEdit control

Many Delphi applications let their users enter text via a TEdit, TMemo, or TRichEdit control on a form. If this is how your application works, you can add a spell checker in minutes using these simple steps: Set the Hide Selection property of the TEdit, TMemo, or TRichEdit control. This lets Sentry Spell Checker highlight any misspelled words found. Add a "Spell check" button or menu item to your form. In the event handler for your "Spell check" button or menu item, pass the Handle property of the TEdit, TMemo, or TRichEdit control to Sentry's CheckCtrlDlg function. That's all there is to it! When the "Spell check" button or menu item is pressed, Sentry will check the spelling of words in the control. If a misspelled word is found, Sentry will pop up a dialog the user can interact with to dispose of the misspelling. The misspelled word will be highlighted in the TEdit, TMemo, or TRichEdit control. The dialog shows suggested replacements for the misspelled word. If the user makes a correction, the control will be updated automatically.

How to check spelling "as you type"

You may want to give your users immediate feedback on spelling errors, to report misspellings as soon as they occur. This feature is used in Office and Word. Your users are probably already familiar with the "as you type" or background spell checker feature and may demand it in your product. Including it will give your product a competitive advantage. "As you type" spell checking is incredibly easy with Sentry! Just drop one or more TRichEdit controls on a form. In the OnEnter event-handler for each TRichEdit control, call Sentry's CheckCtrlBackground function, passing the Handle property of the TRichEdit. Sentry will monitor the TRichEdit control, detecting misspelled words as they are typed and marking them in red. When a misspelled word is corrected, Sentry will change its color back to black. If the user right-clicks the mouse over a misspelled word, Sentry will pop up a menu listing suggested replacements. The user can correct the misspelling by selecting one of the suggestions.

How to spell check strings

The text you want to spell check may not be entered by the user -- it may be read from a disk file or database, or obtained from data structures within your Delphi application. Sentry Spell Checker can check words contained in strings interactively or non-interactively. To check a string interactively, just pass it to Sentry's CheckBlockDlg function. The string can contain a single word or an entire book. Sentry will check the spelling of words in the string. If a misspelled word is found, Sentry will pop up a dialog the user can interact with to dispose of the problem. The dialog shows suggested replacements for the misspelled word. If the user makes a correction, the string will be updated automatically. Sentry can even optionally show the string's contents in a text box attached to the dialog so the user can see the misspelled words in context. Checking strings non-interactively is done via the CheckString function. CheckString is usually called in a loop. It checks each word in the string and returns when it finds a misspelled word or when all words have been checked. Your application can obtain a list of suggested replacements for the misspelled word from the Suggest function.