AskMe about spellcheck software

April 27, 2013 8:58 AM

I swear there was an AskMe within the past few days in which the OP was looking for a way to differentiate among spelling variances in names (e.g., Steven, Stephen, etc.) and some responder pointed to a tool that the responder had made that did just this. Anyone remember it? I can't find it. Thanks.
posted by dfriedman to MetaFilter-Related at 8:58 AM (5 comments total)

Is there an easy way to get Word (or another program that I could paste the document into) to indicate any instances that are clearly trying to be Scheindler, but aren't (Schindler or Schiendler or Sheindler)?
posted by bcwinters at 9:05 AM on April 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Awesome, thanks.
posted by dfriedman at 9:08 AM on April 27, 2013

Unfortunately, it didn't work on Stephen/Steven, the one that got best answer.

Sounds like a very useful tool, though.
posted by mccarty.tim at 11:27 AM on April 27, 2013

mccarty.tim: "Unfortunately, it didn't work on Stephen/Steven, the one that got best answer."

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but for me it does work with those names!
posted by Ms. Next at 12:16 PM on April 27, 2013

It does work on Stephen/Steven. Put one of those names in the first field, as the "correct" spelling, then put both in the second box and hit submit. The one that isn't in the "Word to find the soundex for" field will be highlighted in red, indicating it's a misspelling.

It's going to be a great help when the name in question has a lot of vowel and consonant clusters and it doesn't jump out at me that a letter is missing or transposed with another. I'm incredibly grateful to zsazsa for coming up with it!
posted by payoto at 1:52 PM on April 27, 2013