Spell Check Dictionaries

[spyderspyder]

Hi, all.

Can anyone tell me how I can edit .dct dictionary files?

Many subtitle editors/creators have spell checkers included, but I have found that the available default English dictionaries contain many words that are actually misspelled, so many mistakes in the text are missed, especially when checking a file that is mostly (or all) in lower case.

Without an "ignore" or "exclude" dictionary facility, the only solution is to edit the main/default dictionary and, while .dic files are easily accessed, .dct files seem impenetrable.

Can anyone help?

Regards,
s.

[chamallow]

Hi, I found this: http://helpcentral.componentone.com/nethelp/c1spellchecker/default.htm?turl=editingthecontentsofthedctfile.htm

I hope it's gonna help you.

Chamallow.

[spyderspyder]

Good morning, Chamallow.

Thank you for that.

I saw that one - I was unsure of what the whole "Component One" thing was, so I just filed it for future reference.


My problem is to find a spell checker that will,
- check .srt files,
- save the checked file without changing the format,
- have easily customisable dictionaries, including an "exclude" or "ignore" dictionary facility (to cater for all the ambiguities - and misspellings - that come with the default dictionaries).

MS Word has probably the best spell checker available, with "exclude" and "custom" dictionary facilities, both of which are very accessible for compiling and editing; it also has a huge advantage of being the spell checker used by STWorkshop.

I've also found, now, that I can open plain text files (including .srt) with MS Word, by using "Open with..." in the context menu, and then do a successful spell check, but
- if a .srt file is checked in Word 2003 (and later) it is likely to be saved as an html or xml document, unless the settings are checked and reset with every operation,
- Word 2003 (and later) has some unusual behavioural characteristics in a STW spell check, and can become unstable in STW.
(And, of course, Word 2003 (and later) is filled with rubbish, pretty colours, fading and floating panes and windows... grumble, grumble, mutter...)

So, for my purposes (and tastes) pre-2003 versions of MS Office would be preferred.


Office 97 can become unstable with WinXP.

Office 2000 (my choice, to date) works well with WinXP, has the pre-2003 clean and functional interface, but fails on the "Change all" and "Ignore all" functions (a known MS bug that was never fixed).


Last night I experimented, on my laptop "test rig", with Office XP (a.k.a., "Office 10", "Office 2002"...).
So far, it,
- has the pre-2003 clean and functional interface,
- is stable - and plays well - with STW,
- opens and spell checks plain txt files in Word, and saves them in the original format.

This morning I will install it on the main PC, and see how it hackles...

Cheers,

s.

PS: to anticipate suggestions about Aegissub/OpenOffice/AuntFlorrie's superTextMaker... They all have variations on Hunspell/Aspell/Ispell/GnuSpell/MagicSpell...etc disctionaries, which are not readily edited, are full of misspellings, and are not readily adaptable to a variety of file formats. The best spell checker for plain test that I have found is EditPad Pro - but there is no "exclude" dictionary facility, and the default dictionaries are not editable, and filled with misspelled words and ambiguities.

[Kerensky]

Hi spyderspyder, I actually can't see what is your problem with the new versions of MS Word.
Doing the "Open with...", as you said, you just have to click in "Ok" when it ask for format conversion,
and then, do the regular spell-check.
And when you click in "save", click in "yes" to preserve the srt file format.

That always worked for me, and I always use the Word 07' for the spell-check.

[honeybunny]

I always open the srt in notepad, select all, copy and paste in word :)

[spyderspyder]

Hello, Kerensky and bunny.

My main objection to anything after Word 2000 is simply aesthetic - it looks and feels horrible. But it doesn't always work well with STW, I find (eg, on-the-fly editing in a STW spell check is dementing) and so gives me no advantage.

(Having said that, I'm sure that I will have another brief affair with Office '07 in the future, when I've forgotten how much I dislike it, or when I'm feeling bored - as I say, "If it ain't broke, fix it!".

Hunny:
Yes, I pull that trick as well - but it adds yet another set of tasks and, if there are more than just a couple of files to check, it gets tedious.

Incidentally, WordXP was a washout (for my criteria) as was Word97.

I'm back to Office 2000 and EditPad.

Care.
s.

[spyderspyder]

Hunny...

If you right-click on a .srt file and select "Open with...", you may see Microsoft Word in the list of available programs; if so you can open it directly in Word and do a spell check etc.
It saves the whole process of opening the .srt file, opening Word, copying and pasting the text...etc.

If Word is not shown in the "Open with" list, click on "Choose program" and look for it in the pane that opens.

If Word isn't in that list, click "Browse", go to "Microsoft Office"*, find and click on "Winword.exe"*. Click "OK" (But make sure that the "Always use the selected program..." box is unchecked").

From then on (possibly after the next reboot) Word should appear in your right-click "Open with" menu for .srt files.

*(or whatever it is called in your version).

Regards,
s.

[honeybunny]

Oh, I know that, of course But sometimes the formatting was changed, so I'd rather do it this way

Thanks anyway :P

[spyderspyder]

"But sometimes the formatting was changed..."

I guess that is with a more modern version of Word than 2000 - just like I said, above.

Cheers.
s.

[rogard]

Spyderspyder,

you might wanna check out gaupol. It's a free subtitle editor with a pretty good spell-checker, a user dictionary etc. I am not quite sure but I think it uses ASpell from the Gnu library. And yes, you can choose between correct and "wrong" spelling. :-) I am using it all the time and it's the best software for subtitle spell-chekcing there is. It's also awesome for removing hearing impaired parts.

http://home.gna.org/gaupol/

[Dawg]

Spyderspyder, also awesome for removing hearing impaired parts.

And are those? I'm just starting to learn about creating/editing subtitles so I have no clue what a "hearing impaired" part is, what it would look like etc..

---

What about IDM's Ultraedit? It has a good spell checker, and it preserves the format w/o you having to tell it to convert one way to the other and vise versa.

[rogard]

Closed Captions (CC), Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired (SDH) or simply Hearing Impaired (HI) are more or less different names for the same thing.

Further information can be found at wikipedia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtitle_(captioning)


Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired contain not only speech but descriptions of relevant noises, who says what etc.
A subtitle for hearing impaired (i.e. deaf) people looks like this:

[Groans]

[Door opens]

[Cheering and applause]

POLICE OFFICER: Stop!

Jack: Hi.

Susan: (muffled) Help!

If your subtitle does not have similar descriptions of noises and names that indicate who is talking, then IT IS NOT FOR HEARING IMPAIRED.

So the same subtitle (without the parts for hearing impaired!) would look like this:

Stop!

Hi.

Help!

See? No names with ":", nothing in brackets () or [], no description of any noises.

Many people who speak English as a second language like to have subtitles although they are not hearing impaired / deaf. They don't need the extra information though, so it's kind of annoying. So the subtitle uploaders remove these parts.

And one of the best tools to do that:
gaupol.

Ultraedit is a cool text editor, but it can only handle the text. Gaupol is a subtitle editor that can actually shift, sync, join, split, convert to other formats.....you name it....

[spyderspyder]

Hi.

Thank you for the suggestions.

I've looked at gaupol and Ultraedit...etc

Their biggest drawback, for me, is that, unlike MS Word or EditPad spell checkers, which move smoothly through the document, the Aspell (et al) spell check panel refreshes (flashes off and on) with every action - the result is a wopping migraine!

As to the timing, etc, adjustments, I'm happy with STWorkshop - like all "best" applications, it has the overriding advantage of familiarity.

Regards,
s.

[Dawg]

Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired contain not only speech but descriptions of relevant noises, who says what etc.

Ahh, Ok, There are times I prefer subs for the HI/Deaf (I'm the former) but other times they kinda detract from the tv show/movie.

Thanks you for the information.