This page documents an English Wikipedia
editing guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though
occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect
consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the
talk page. |
Spellchecking software can be helpful when copyediting Wikipedia articles. This page explains how to use it well and avoid conflicts with other editors.
General advice:
Be careful about setting the language of the software to the correct variety of English. If the article's topic is not linked to a particular region, use the same variety as the first non-stub version of the article. Check the talk page before editing variety-specific spelling; many articles have a template such as {{ Use Hiberno-English}} near the top of its talk page that indicates the spelling to be used.
Use the article's variant consistently throughout the article (except in direct quotations), and use terms that are common to all varieties of English (e.g., fixed-wing aircraft rather than airplane or aeroplane) whenever possible.
See Wikipedia:Manual of Style § National varieties of English for detailed advice, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Spelling for a table of spelling variants in different dialects.
The easiest way to spellcheck a single article is to use the built-in spellcheck of your web browser.
Regardless of the method used, care should be taken to make sure that your spellchecker does not break wikitext, as most of these spellcheckers have not been designed for wikis like Wikipedia. |
Many office suites, such as Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, are equipped with spell and grammar checkers that are on by default. Open the Wikipedia article, select "edit" from the menu atop the page or section, select and copy the article source, paste it into a Word or Writer document, follow the red (spelling) and green (grammar) markers, and correct mistakes as necessary.
To enable spellchecking in Microsoft Word, go to the Tools menu and enable "Grammar and spellchecking". When satisfied, copy and paste the text into the text box in the browser window, check that any UTF-8 characters are still working as before by clicking "Show changes", and, if satisfied, click "Publish changes", as usual.
In LibreOffice Writer, go to the top menu, select "Tools" → "AutoCorrect", and select "while typing" to enable checking.
If you have installed the anti-vandal tool in your common.js, you can use the live spellcheck to identify misspellings as they happen (recent edits). This is not a comprehensive spellcheck — it points out only the most commonly misspelt words. And it will not spellcheck text that an editor is adding to an article (for that, see the web browsers section, above).
Wikipedia:Spellcheck dictionary is an editor-compiled list of English words, terms, abbreviations and acronyms commonly encountered on Wikipedia. You may copy it and add it to your software's spell-check dictionary.
This page documents an English Wikipedia
editing guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though
occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect
consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the
talk page. |
Spellchecking software can be helpful when copyediting Wikipedia articles. This page explains how to use it well and avoid conflicts with other editors.
General advice:
Be careful about setting the language of the software to the correct variety of English. If the article's topic is not linked to a particular region, use the same variety as the first non-stub version of the article. Check the talk page before editing variety-specific spelling; many articles have a template such as {{ Use Hiberno-English}} near the top of its talk page that indicates the spelling to be used.
Use the article's variant consistently throughout the article (except in direct quotations), and use terms that are common to all varieties of English (e.g., fixed-wing aircraft rather than airplane or aeroplane) whenever possible.
See Wikipedia:Manual of Style § National varieties of English for detailed advice, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Spelling for a table of spelling variants in different dialects.
The easiest way to spellcheck a single article is to use the built-in spellcheck of your web browser.
Regardless of the method used, care should be taken to make sure that your spellchecker does not break wikitext, as most of these spellcheckers have not been designed for wikis like Wikipedia. |
Many office suites, such as Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, are equipped with spell and grammar checkers that are on by default. Open the Wikipedia article, select "edit" from the menu atop the page or section, select and copy the article source, paste it into a Word or Writer document, follow the red (spelling) and green (grammar) markers, and correct mistakes as necessary.
To enable spellchecking in Microsoft Word, go to the Tools menu and enable "Grammar and spellchecking". When satisfied, copy and paste the text into the text box in the browser window, check that any UTF-8 characters are still working as before by clicking "Show changes", and, if satisfied, click "Publish changes", as usual.
In LibreOffice Writer, go to the top menu, select "Tools" → "AutoCorrect", and select "while typing" to enable checking.
If you have installed the anti-vandal tool in your common.js, you can use the live spellcheck to identify misspellings as they happen (recent edits). This is not a comprehensive spellcheck — it points out only the most commonly misspelt words. And it will not spellcheck text that an editor is adding to an article (for that, see the web browsers section, above).
Wikipedia:Spellcheck dictionary is an editor-compiled list of English words, terms, abbreviations and acronyms commonly encountered on Wikipedia. You may copy it and add it to your software's spell-check dictionary.