System and method for improved spell checking

• US 20060224586A1
• Filed: 06/02/2006
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pickover, Clifford Alan, Zlatsin, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 7,647,554 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation

Abstract

A spell checking method presents a selectable list of similarly spelled words, when a misspelled word is selected by the user who wishes to find the correct spelling. One feature determines the “content” or “topic” of a document. Based on the content, the spell checker presents likely replacement words for a misspelled word. In another feature, for each letter in the word, the spell checker checks for “nearby” letters on keyboard keys to improve the spell checker'"'"'s list of replacement words. The system also monitors a user'"'"'s history of use with respect to nearby or key (i.e. lefter) substitutions and considers this information when presenting lists of alternative words. Another feature corrects spelling by monitoring a user'"'"'s history of spell check corrections. Aggregate tables of corrections for more than one user may be maintained, shared, and provided by spell checkers. Various priorities may be used so that one approach is given favor over another. The priorities may be determined by manual input of a user or automatically provided by the system software. Another feature provides an auxiliary window that shows a user'"'"'s most-frequently or most-recently misspelled words. The user can use a clipboard facility to copy and paste words of interest from the auxiliary window to a current document.

Claims

1. A method of spell checking a document being processed by a word processing program, said method comprising:

(a) reporting a misspelled word to a user;

(b) determining a first group of one or more words that each include a substitute letter for a letter contained in the misspelled word, wherein a keyboard key of the substitute letter is a nearby keyboard key of the letter contained in said misspelled word; and

(c) presenting to the user a list of replacement words that have spellings similar to said misspelled word, said list including one or more words selected from said first group of words.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) determines which words to include in said first group of words based on distance between the keyboard keys of the respective substitute letters and the respective keyboard keys of the letters contained in the misspelled word.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the order of a first one and a second one of said selected words in said replacement list is determined by the distance of said first and second selected words that is smaller.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said selected words are chosen based on a history the user'"'"'s past letter substitutions.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said history includes the user'"'"'s letter swaps, and wherein the replacement list includes alternative words based on said history of letter swaps.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

(d) monitoring the user'"'"'s mistypes that include letter swaps and incorporating said mistypes to said history, and wherein said history includes words that contain letter substitutions or letter swaps that are supplied by the user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting to the user another list of the user'"'"'s misspelled words.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said other list includes words that the user either most frequently misspells or has most recently misspelled.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining from a content of said document a second group of one or more words that includes words actually occurring in said document,

wherein said list includes one or more words selected from either or both of said first and second groups of words.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said list of replacement words is ordered with said selected words of the first group appearing before any selected words of the second group.

11. A computer readable medium that includes computer executable instructions for performing steps, comprising:

(a) reporting a misspelled word to a user;

(b) determining a first group of one or more words that each include a substitute letter for a letter contained in the misspelled word, wherein a keyboard key of the substitute letter is a nearby keyboard key of the letter contained in said misspelled word; and

(c) presenting to the user a list of replacement words that have spellings similar to said misspelled word, said list including one or more words selected from said first group of words.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein step (b) determines which words to include in said first group of words based on distance between the keyboard keys of the respective substitute letters and the respective keyboard keys of the letters contained in the misspelled word.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the order of a first one and a second one of said selected words in said replacement list is determined by the distance of said first and second selected words that is smaller.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein said selected words are chosen based on a history the user'"'"'s past letter substitutions.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein said history includes the user'"'"'s letter swaps, and wherein the replacement list includes alternative words based on said history of letter swaps.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 including further executable instructions for performing the step of (d) monitoring the user'"'"'s mistypes that include letter swaps and incorporating said mistypes to said history, and wherein said history includes words that contain letter substitutions or letter swaps that are supplied by the user.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising presenting to the user another list of the user'"'"'s misspelled words.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein said other list includes words that the user either most frequently misspells or has most recently misspelled.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising determining from a content of said document a second group of one or more words that includes words actually occurring in said document, wherein said list includes one or more words selected from either or both of said first and second groups of words.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein said list of replacement words is ordered with said selected words of the first group appearing before any selected words of the second group.