----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Amir E. Aharoni <amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il>
To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Sunday, 18 March 2012, 1:35
Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] An easy way to improve the spelling and grammar in the Wikipedia in your language

Hello, Wikipedians in India,

This just struck me: There's a very easy way to contribute to the
Wikipedia in your language and to your language in general, and a lot
of people are probably not aware of it.

Here it is: Modern web browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome allow
you to check the spelling while you type. An important thing that a
lot of people don't realize is that it works not just in English, but
in many other languages, too.

If you use Firefox on Windows, go to this page:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/language-tools/

Find the spelling dictionary for your language in the list. Most major
languages of India already appear there. Some important languages,
like Kannada and Telugu are not there yet; i'm working on getting them
there.

To make it work:

1. Click "Install Dictionary" and follow the instructions.
2. Restart Firefox.
3. Open some article in the Wikipedia in your language for editing.
4. Right-click in the editing area.
5. Make sure that "Check spelling" is checked.
6. Right-click again. Go to "Languages" and make sure that your
language is checked.

Now check: Does the spell checking work as you would expect?
Does it mark incorrect words in red?
If you right-click words in red, does it offer sensible corrections?

If all works well, you'll be able to easily fix spelling and grammar
errors in the Wikipedia in your language. It is an easy way to
contribute to the Wikipedia in your language, because usually you can
improve the spelling of articles even without knowing much about the
subject of the article.

It is also possible that the dictionary is buggy or has missing words
and marks correct words in red. If this happens, please write to me
and i'll do my best to report these words to the maintainer of the
dictionary, so that in the next version of the dictionary they will be
checked correctly. (Let me say this again: Please feel free to write
to me about technical problems in support for your language. I don't
know any Indic language well, but i'm sure that i'll be able to help
nevertheless.)

If you don't use Firefox, you should try it:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html
(There's a good chance that there's a version in your language!)

If you use Firefox on Linux or Mac, a spelling dictionary for your
language is supposed to be already installed if you installed a
language pack for your language in the operating system. If you are
not sure how to do it or if it doesn't work as you expect, please
write to me.

Spell checking is supposed to work in Google Chrome, too, but it
supports less languages and i also found some bugs in its spelling
functionality. You are still welcome to try it: go to Preferences
(wrench) -> Under the hood -> Languages and Spell-checker settings,
and then add your language.

I might be wrong, but i don't think that you can install custom
spelling dictionaries in Microsoft Internet Explorer. If i'm wrong,
please correct me; if i'm right, then well, that's another reason to
try Firefox or Chrome :)

--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
‪“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

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