# The Edit Screen Spell-Checker?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-screen-spell-checker/646582>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [January 9, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-screen-spell-checker/646582 "2013-01-09T03:31:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-screen-spell-checker/646582/1 "2013-01-09T03:31:40Z")

</div>

I noticed that the word “spectography” gets a red-squiggly-underline, suggesting it isn’t properly spelled. Well, okay… But “spectrography” also is marked as wrong… I’m pretty sure one of these is right, but I wouldn’t bet my left leg on which…

Does a mod or admin control the auxiliary (hey, I spelled it right!) word list? Can we request certain words to be added? Does it matter a whole lot? Is bimetallism an answer to the cross of gold?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-screen-spell-checker/646582/2 "2013-01-09T03:36:18Z")

</div>

That’s internal to Firefox (or probably whatever browser you’re using). The SDMB has nothing to do with it.

On Firefox, right-click on the word to bring up the options. One of them is “add to dictionary” (your own local Firefox dictionary).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-screen-spell-checker/646582/3 "2013-01-09T05:22:09Z")

</div>

> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> I noticed that the word “spectography” gets a red-squiggly-underline, suggesting it isn’t properly spelled. Well, okay… But “spectrography” also is marked as wrong… I’m pretty sure one of these is right, but I wouldn’t bet my left leg on which…
> 
> Does a mod or admin control the auxiliary (hey, I spelled it right!) word list? Can we request certain words to be added? Does it matter a whole lot? Is bimetallism an answer to the cross of gold?

I’m pretty sure “spectrography” (your second try) is the correct one. Chrome doesn’t seem to like either choice. Must be an unusual enough word to not be in the built-in dictionary.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-screen-spell-checker/646582/4 "2013-01-09T05:52:24Z")

</div>

> [@rowrrbazzle](#):
>
> That’s internal to Firefox (or probably whatever browser you’re using). The SDMB has nothing to do with it.
> 
> On Firefox, right-click on the word to bring up the options. One of them is “add to dictionary” (your own local Firefox dictionary).

Zounds! I always thought that was a feature of the SDMB editor! Thank’ee!

(Fighting ignorance is tough work; I’ve got ignorance I didn’t even know I had!)