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Frequently Asked Questions

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• How do I spell check a Microsoft Word document?

• How do I spell check text in Microsoft Internet Explorer?

• How do I spell check email messages in Outlook Express?

• Hotkeys - How do I change them?

• How do I change the active spelling dictionary?

• How do I add new spelling dictionaries?

• What is your Upgrade Policy?

• Do you send the purchased program on a CD or other media?

• How do I register a 14 Day Trial?

• How do I enter the Registration Number?

• What are the differences between the American Thesaurus and UK Thesaurus?

• Can new words be added to the spelling dictionaries?

• MS Office keyboard 1.0A and use of Hotkeys

• What language is the interface if my Windows is not one of the 10?

Enable Compatibility Mode to perform Spelling, Thesaurus Lookups and Definitions Dictionary Lookups in a much more seamless manner.

Open the Options Dialog and check the 'Enable Compatibility Mode' option.

Then, with your cursor in the Word document, perform a Spell Check All by hitting the Spell Check All Hotkeys.

For more details, please read the 'Microsoft Word and Compatibility Mode' topic in the Help File.

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Now you can spell check your posts in Online Forums and email messages using web based email.

Enable Compatibility Mode to perform Spelling, Thesaurus Lookups and Definitions Dictionary Lookups in a much more seamless manner.

Open the Options Dialog and check the 'Enable Compatibility Mode' option.

Then, with your cursor in the Forum or email message box, perform a Spell Check All by hitting the Spell Check All Hotkeys.

For more details, please read the 'Internet Explorer and Compatibility Mode' topic in the Help File.

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Enable Compatibility Mode to perform Spelling, Thesaurus Lookups and Definitions Dictionary Lookups in a much more seamless manner.

Then, with your cursor in the email message, perform a Spell Check All by hitting the Hotkeys.

For more details, please read the 'Outlook Express and Compatibility Mode' topic in the Help File.

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As an example of a conflict, Win+E would make a very good Hotkey to open the Editor. However, from the Microsoft Natural keyboard, Win+E opens My Computer. Another conflict is the F12 key in Microsoft Word, which opens the Save As dialog; so if you are working in Word, you would want to choose a Hotkey combination that will not conflict with an already used Word combination.

Having said that, it is very easy to change them to be 1, 2 or 3 keys, if you are sure those 1, 2 or 3 key combinations will not conflict with your working application's menu shortcut keys.

To change the Hotkeys (using Spell Check All, in Word Spring, as an example):

1. Determine what Hotkey you wish to change to and ensure that it does not conflict with any in your working application. As an Example, let us choose Ctrl + F11 as the Hotkey we wish to reconfigure.

2. Right-click the Tray Icon by the clock in the Windows Taskbar, the "ABC" icon

3. Choose Options from the popup menu

4. Choose the Hotkeys Spelling tab

5. You will see Spell Check All with checkboxes (Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Win) and F3 in the combobox. This indicates that the Hotkey is Ctrl + Alt + F3.

6. Check your desired checkbox or checkboxes or leave all checkboxes unselected to assign only the one key in the combobox. (Be sure to uncheck any of the checkboxes that you do not wish to enable)

7. Click the combobox's arrow and choose the final key

8. Close the Options dialog with the OK button, which will save your new Spell Check All Hotkeys.

9. Keep in mind that the new Hotkeys may conflict with shortcut keys in your working application. Also you may not always get a recognizable error if there is a conflict.

Read the Help File for your version of Windows and for any working application that you will be using. Usually, the Help File Topic will be 'Shortcut Keys'.

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You may obtain additional spelling dictionaries in 2 ways:

• Automatically by using the Dictionary Update Wizard
• Manually by downloading from our Web Site

• Open the Dictionary Update Wizard by clicking on the Help | Dictionary Update Wizard menu item.
• Follow the directions to download and install the additional dictionary.
• Activate the new dictionary by opening Spelling Options (Options | Spelling Options)
• Select the new dictionary by placing a check in the little box to the left.

Note: We suggest selecting only one language dictionary. However, in the case of using the Add-on dictionaries that is in the same language as you main dictionary (using the American Dictionary and the Medical (English) together or using the main English and Australian Add-on together), you may have more than one active dictionary.

Manually by downloading from our Web Site

• Download your desired spelling dictionary

• Extract dictionaries from the self-extracting files and place the dictionaries into the Alcoda program's home folder (example: C:\Program Files\Alcoda\Word Spring)

Activate the new dictionary (using Word Spring & ExactWord as examples):

• Close & reopen Word Spring or ExactWord.

• Click Word Spring's popup 'Spelling Options' menu item or ExactWord's Options | 'Spelling Options' menu item

• and place a check beside the new dictionary names,

• for best results when using different languages, uncheck the English (United States) dictionary,

• however, if you are using an Add-on dictionary, in conjunction with your main language, you will leave both selected

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• Open Spelling Options (Options | Spelling Options menu item) or tray icon's popup Spelling Options menu item
• Select desired dictionary in the list of Dictionaries and
• unselected the others (We suggest not activating multiple language dictionaries, except when using one of an Add-on, such as Medical, Legal or Technical)

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Alcoda Software always offers free upgrades on minor version increases. Minor version increases are from 5.0 to 5.1 or 5.2. In other words, if you purchase any 5.x version, you are entitled to a free upgrade until the version number changes to 6.0.

Please note that in the past, we have offered free upgrades to the major versions also, such as from 3.x to 4.x and 4.x to 5.x, however we reserve the option to charge for future major upgrades, such as upgrades to 6.x.  

Alcoda Software is now offering free upgrades to our Version 2 DLLs and Version 5 standalone programs. Read more...

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All of our products are downloaded from our Download Page, which will contain all the latest versions.

Download your desired program before or after purchase.   

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Before the 14 Day Trial period has expired:

• Right Click on the Tray Icon ("ABC' icon or 'Hand holding an S or T') to bring up the popup menu.

• Go to the Help | Register menuitem,

• Click it to open the Registration form.

• Enter the Registration Number exactly as shown.

After 14 Day Trial period has expired:

• Attempt to open the application by clicking its shortcut.

• This will bring up the Expiration Message.

• Click the Yes button and enter the Registration Number exactly as shown

Using ExactWord or EditExt as the example:

Before the 14 Day Trial period has expired:

• Go to the Help | Register menuitem,

• Click it to open the Registration form

• Enter the Registration Number exactly as shown

After 14 Day Trial period has expired:

• Attempt to open the application by clicking its shortcut.

• This will bring up the Expiration Message.

• Click the Yes button and enter the Registration Number exactly as shown.

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The American Thesaurus is based on the public domain version of Roget's Thesaurus, with the replacement words using the unique American English spellings.

The UK Thesaurus is a UK English Translation of the public domain version of Roget's Thesaurus, with the replacement words using the unique UK English spellings.

Read more about using either Thesaurus...

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Yes, you can easily add new words or words not currently in our spelling dictionaries.

Words are added to the Custom Users Dictionary by clicking the Add button on the spelling dialog or the Add menu item on the ActiveSpell popup menu. The Custom Users Dictionary can also be easily edited.

In addition to added words, you can add Auto-Correct pairs for commonly misspelled words, such as 'adition' will be changed to 'addition'.

You may also use the Auto-Correct pairs to allow you to enter an abbreviation which is automatically expanded into the longer phrase, such as 'yt' can be automatically changed to 'Yours truly,'.

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A user sends us this report:

"I am using MS Office keyboard 1.0A. It is the type that has a row of buttons on the top to launch Word, Excel, your mail application, etc. The F-lock key is on the far left side and is silver."

His original problem was that pressing Ctrl + Alt + F8 did not initiate a Thesaurus Lookup in MS Word.

He found that the F-lock key must be engaged in order to use the F keys as Function keys. Once the F-lock key was enabled, the default Hotkeys correctly initiated the Thesaurus Lookup.

We pass this along in our FAQ in hopes that it may help someone else who uses this type of keyboard.

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If the computer's Windows Locale/Language is not one of the 10 supported languages, the application opens in English. If you have Japanese Windows, the application will open in English. You may then leave the application in English or choose any of the other languages.

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