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SpellCheck
Version: 2.3 Sign up to be notified by email when a new version of this script is posted
Okay, I admit it…I am a horibal uhm horrible speller; but I thankfully grew up in the age of computer aided spell checking. Unfortunately, Adobe After Effects never included this feature. Every time a new release was announced I would anxiously await the arrival of this much needed feature…but it never came.
I finally decided to take matters into my own hands. I used the scripting functionality in After Effects to build my own spellchecker. The script goes through the currently selected composition, and any precomp contained within and checks every text layer for proper spelling.
If a word is misspelled, the script will give you the opportunity to enter in the propper spelling or get a suggestion. The spell suggestion comes from my website. I originally had the script come up with suggestions but it was taking nearly 15 seconds per word, so I created a script on my website using perl (which gets the suggestion very quickly). When you click on the suggest button, your computer connects to my website and gives it the misspelled word. The script on my website then gives the spell check script a list of suggestions.
Please note that even though this script has a UI, it is installed in the Scripts folder not in the ScriptUI Panels folder.
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- SpellCheck UI
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Mike,
I donated the suggested amount for the spell checker and I thank you. I did already find a bug. I had several super scripted ® throughout my AE project and after I exited the spell checker it made them all regular and not subscript. Since I had over 30 of these, my whole document got reformatted. Luckily I could undo.
Mike,
Hey Mike,
thanks for the donation! Unfortunately, what you have described is not so much a bug but a limitation in the way adobe allows you to change text via scripting or expressions.
when the spellchecker script grabs the text layer it does not associate formatting with the source text…so when you click the change button the script puts the new, correctly spelled, text into the source text property, which takes on the formatting of whatever the first character was.
I suppose one of these days I should document all this stuff…so the workaround (as you’ve probably figured) is to ignore any misspelled words, then manually correct the misspelled layers.
unfortunately, until adobe allows formatting to be accessed via scripting, there is no way to get it to work properly with formatting.
Mike Cardeiro
I can run the script but the “suggest word” button brings up nothing. I may have the dictionary in the wrong place? I am fairly new to running scripts, so it is most likely an error of placement on my part. I simply dragged all the files into the scripts folder. Is there another step?
I figured it out, I needed to check the box in my general preferences to “allow scripts to write files and access network”, now it works.
This is a blessing, I alwyas rush through my work and end up making a typo. I hate that more than anything. Thanks!
Firstly, what a lifesaver of a script!!
But a slight annoyance…
When running from rd_ScriptLauncher or from LaunchPad, for some reason the script says it cannot find the dictionary file. I have ensured that the spellCheckFiles folder is indeed sitting next to the jsx file… but no dice
any suggestions?
Thanks
Hey Nathan,
It might have something to do with the fact that you are running a script presumably in scriptUiPanels and spellchecker is in scripts(I will download and run rd_ScriptLauncher and see if I can get a patch coded) .
Mike Cardeiro
Nathan,
I fixed the problem you described. The problem was when you launch a script from scriptlauncher the current directory is the directory above the scripts directory. I fixed this and found and fixed some other problems related to the file system.
Hopefully it will now work properly for you. enjoy!
Mike Cardeiro
since the script sends data to your website it is virtually impossible to use it in a real production environment because of all the NDAs. maybe there will be a “stand alone version (offline)” some time down the road?
The only data that gets sent over the web is a misspelled word, and the only time it is sent is if you hit the “suggest word” button. So if you accidentally spell “dog as “dg” when you hit “suggest word” the characters dg get sent to a website thatsends back a list of possible words that you may have meant by dg ( this is done for speed…it took nearly 15 seconds a word when I tried to code the functionality directly into the script ).
dont know what kind of NDAs you are signing but I cannot see how your computer sending out a misspelled word over the web could be a breach, then again, I’m no lawyer.
Mike Cardeiro
is it posible to install some how the spa;ish dictionary for the pellcheck??
Balarama,
Included with the spellcheck script is a script called buildDictionary (it is in the spellCheckFiles folder). This script will build a dictionary for use with the script from a text file that contains every word on a seperate line.
Get a text document that has every word in the spanish dictionary on separate line to create a dictionary structure for use with spellcheck
-Go to the spellChekFiles folder that you are running spellcheck from and delete the dictionary folder
-run the build dictionary script and when it asks for a dictionary file navigate to the text file that has all the spanish words.
-the script build a new dictionary folder for use with spellcheck.
that should do it , I am not sure if the accents will cause a problem with spellcheck so I would love to hear if it works out for you.
Mike Cardeiro
Where is the default list of all the words that have been added to the dictionary using the “add word to dictionary” button? Using OS X 10.5.8 and AE CS4. Words added this way are not being added to the “userWords.txt” file and I cannot seem to find where they are being placed…
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks to Mike’s help with this!
FYI, on a Mac (OS X 10.5.8) the list of all the entries in the “add word to dictionary” is located in:
Macintosh HD/Users/***USERNAME***/Documents/.userWords.txt
This is a HIDDEN file. I was able to easily access the file using FileZilla FTP client and browsing locally. Rename the file, drag to desktop to view. Drag the file back, then rename again to have your changes saved.
Hi,
I purchased the spell checker script and installed it in CS5 however, the “suggest” feature and library are not functioning.
Can you go over the procedure of how to properly install so that the dictionary works properly?
Thank you.
I worked with this user on the problem. It turns out he did not have the preference “allow scripts to write access files across the network” in the general preferences enabled.
The script will still work with this turned off but you will now be able to get suggestions or add words to the dictionary.
Mike Cardeiro
Hi MC, what kind file / “master list” for create new dictionary, txt or doc ?
it should be a text file with each word on a seperate line.
Mike. I’d love to use your spell checker in spanish, but i have no idea where i could find such a list of words. A spell check dictionary isn’t like a regular dictionary as you well know. I needs to contain every conjugation and tense of the word. For example: go, goes, going, gone, went, etc… Any idea where one could find such a list in spanish? Could i cannibalize some existing spell check dictionary from Word? Where did you find your list?
thanks
Pablo,
when I fist wrote the script, I found a dictionary file by googling until I found what I needed (and you will need) which is a text file with every (or nearly every) spanish word, one word on each line.
The only issue I see in doing this is I do not know how the script will handle letters with accents. Good luck, let me know how you make out…If I come across a spanish dictionary I’ll post the link.
it doesn’t work in spanish right? it’s very helpfull, but, It make’s me think, if there was a way to use the Microsoft Word SpellCheck maybe it can be abble to change the language to any of the SpellCheck in Word. Anyway thank you very much, this will be so much helpfull, I just don’t know why I didn’t think it a bout before!
you can build your own dictionary. There is a script included in the spellcheckFiles folder called “build dictionary”. You need to find a text file with all the words of the Spanish dictionary on a separate line. When you run the script it will ask you for the text file then it will build a new dictionary from the text file.
The only unknown is how it will deal with accents and tildes; I think it will be fine, let me know how you make out.