By Julian Prokaza on Wednesday, 10 October 2007
 Originally a clever innovation to help keep word processed documents free from typos and other spelling mistakes, the spell checker is now a standard feature in a variety of other applications. The problem, however, is that each spell check-equipped application maintains its own user dictionary, so any custom words you add to one won’t be used by another. And, of course, spell checking is still absent from many applications that rely on typed input, from instant messaging to form entry in a web browsers.
Fortunately, help is at hand in the shape of AutoHotKey. This free utility lets you create ‘universal’ macros – application-independent automated actions. AutoHotKey is extremely versatile and can be used for a wide variety of tasks and this workshop uses it to correct misspelled words.
The workshop relies upon an AutoHotKey script based on Wikipedia’s list of common misspellings – the program monitors everything you type and when it detects a word that’s on the list, it replaces it with the correct spelling. You can add your own common misspellings too, and since it works across all applications, your typing should be near-perfect from now on.
Step 1
Download wikipedia_autocorrect.zip – this is the autocorrect script for AutoHotKey. Unzip the downloaded file, then open wikipedia_autocorrect.ahk (the extension if for AuotHotKey) in Notepad.
Step 2
Leave Notepad open and download AutoHotKey from www.autohotkey.com. Double-click the downloaded file to begin the installation and leave all settings at their default value.
Step 3
Run AutoHotKey from the Start menu and click Yes when prompted to create a sample script. When the script window opens, press [Ctrl]+[A] to select it and then press [Del] or Backspace to delete it.
Step 4
Leave the sample script Notepad window open, and switch to the autocorrect script window opened in step 1. Copy the whole script ([Ctrl]+[A] then [Ctrl]+[C]), then paste it into the sample script window from step 3.
Step 5
Press [Ctrl]+[S] to save the sample script, then close both its and the original wikipedia_autocorrect Notepad windows. Start AutoHotKey again from the Start menu and this time it will automatically load the newly-created script – look for the H icon in the Notification Area.
Step 6
AutoHotKey will now monitor everything you type and automatically change any mistyped words that are in its dictionary – the change takes place as soon you press [Space] after a word.
Step 7
You can add words to the dictionary by selecting your misspelling pressing [Windows]+[H]. A dialog box will pop up containing the word – change the word on the right of the ‘::’ to the correct spelling and click OK to add it to the dictionary.
Step 8
Any words you add to the dictionary are added to the script created in step 5. You can edit this (to remove mistakes or add corrections in bulk) by right-clicking the AutoHotKey icon in the Notification Area and selecting Edit This Script – user-added words appear at the bottom.
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