Spell Checking

Introduction

Spell checking is implemented into TeXlipse by utilising an external spell-checking program called Aspell.

Setting up

First, Aspell needs to be installed. This usually means installing the Aspell core program and one or more dictionaries. There are instructions to this in the Aspell website.

Next, TeXlipse needs to be configured to use Aspell. There is a preference page titled Spell Checker under TeXlipse preferences, where the program path can be specified. The default arguments should work with at least Aspell version 0.5. Older versions could also be compatible.

Running spell checker

Once the setup is complete, the spell checker can be run by for the currently open LaTeX document by selecting Latex > Check spelling from the menu. If all goes well, the incorrectly spelt words in the document should get a yellow line under them (only the misspelled words!). By default, Aspell will skip the words appearing to be LaTeX commands. (This is controlled by the argument -t.)

The spelling errors should also appear to the problems log. If the problems log is not visible, it can be opened from Window > Show view > Problems. If the spelling errors aren't visible in the problems log, they are currently filtered out. The filters can be changed by clicking the filter-button on the upper right corner of the problems log (the one with a yellow arrow on it). Select TeXlipse spelling error from the list under "Show errors of type:".

The individual misspelled words can be easily corrected by selecting a spelling error entry from the problems log and choosing Quick Fix from the menu that opens by clicking right mouse button. Another way is to click once on a misspelled word, so that the cursor moves there, then open a list of corrections by pressing Ctrl+space (or what ever is the auto-completion hot key).

NOTE: the spell-checker is still of experimental nature and thus contains some features which don't work as the user would expect. One is that after correcting many spelling errors, the markers go out of sync and further correction might not be possible unless the document is saved and re-checked.

Choosing language

Not all documents are written in English, so the language of the spell checker can be changed by changing the language code field from the project properties. This is a text field where you can type the language code of the project.

NOTE: what you type into this text box is passed as is to Aspell as the language argument. Therefore, make sure you type the correct code and have installed the corresponding Aspell dictionary. The language codes Aspell uses are two-letter ISO standard language codes (some are three-letter). These codes are listed in the Aspell's supported languages page. The language code is also part of the Aspell dictionary package filename. For example, the Aspell German dictionary package might be called aspell-de-0.50-2.tar.bz2.

Some common language codes:

Using Eclipse build-in spell checker

Instead of using Aspell, it is also possible to use Eclipse build-in spell checker. It will mark errors while typing. Remark, that this feature is currently experimental. To use it, you first need to enable it in Preferences/Texlipse/Spell checker. In most cases you have to increase the maximum numbers of errors reported per file in General/Editors/Text Editors/Spelling.