Extended proofing tools

This document is meant as sketch for ideas on making an extended proofing tool, containing as many ways of helping the writer as possible. Target audiences ar both L2 and L2 speakers as well as dyslectic writers.

Read the text aloud

There are several reasons for integrating synthetic speech in the proofing tool:

1. The user is presented with a text and shall answer questions. The program may read the text if the user has problems in reading it.
2. The user has written some text and is not sure whether it is correct. Listening to the written text may help.

Translate the text to another language

1. What does the written text mean?
2. Have I written what I intend to write?

I both cases a translation may help.

Right-click the words and get a dictionary article

Today click-in-text gives only translation, and it is only available in browsers. An integrated proofing tool could also include inflectional paradigms (on demand) as well as information on valency etc.

Proofing

Today’s proofing

Grammar checker

The grammar checker.

Possible extensions

Here we list more or less good suggestions for extensions.

Word prediction

Add a function “guess the next word”. The possible next word is visible as a set in a falldown menu. Let us say we write Dat lea metodo. Then the falldown menu may suggest words like metodologiija, metodologalaš, metodologalaččat, …. We may also set up the system so that it learns what words the writer already has used, and give them more weight.

Proofing suggestions immediately

Today, we get a red line when we write an error. In order to get a suggestion, we have to ask for it. A possibility would be to present the suggestion menu as soon as we press SPACE (and remove it if we continue writing).

In order to avoid using the mouse, we may also