I have a confession to make. I can’t spell. (Are you now thinking, “Didn’t I read somewhere that she’s a technical writer?”) Yep. That’d be right. I’m a technical writer who can’t spell. Spell Check has saved my life (and my job!) Shhhhh! Don’t tell my boss!!
I only use Firefox as my browser because it has a built-in spell check. (Funny, Firefox comes up as spelled wrong LOL)
I was much relieved when one of my three IM’ing applications came out with a version of built-in spell check.
And I always have my email checked when sending work email. (Personal email is composed in the oft-mentioned Firefox. Blog entries are composed there too…)
I’ve been known to copy/paste into and from Word before sending something out (even a simple IM) so everything is spelled right! Anal. I know.
The things that really trip me up? Graphics software. I’m boogying along, manipulating some graphic and I have to add some text to it… BAM! Ah crap. How do you spell that?? And it’s not always easy to fix a graphic once you’ve got it all together. (I tend use Word as mentioned above. Then I save in layers and have “source” graphics so I can go back and fix text if I need to!) They need to add spell check to all graphics packages!
But spell check doesn’t catch typos that are actual words! Or homonyms. Don’t get me wrong. I know the difference between they’re, their, and there. (I also know that should be “among” because there’s more than two, but it looks funny, doesn’t it??). I always write around effect and affect – because even if I look those up I still don’t know the difference. *blush* I think I just got the hang of who’s and whose. Maybe. I use the common errors in English website a bunch, but probably not as much as I should. LOL
So, I guess what I’m saying is…if you see an error in my blog … feel free to let me know. I’ll be highly embarrassed (LOL!), but I’d rather fix it right away instead of finding it myself a few days/weeks/months/years later and wonder how many people noticed. 🙂
Filed under: me | Tagged: confession, spelling |
The Zimmer Zoo 
Came over from We are THAT family – just wanted to say hi 🙂
Oh dear, I am an Anal Annie that gets distressed when I discover well after posting/submitting/sending that I’ve made an error in spelling or grammar.
On occasion, even after I’ve hit “send” I’ve attempted to fix a spelling error! (It never works)
In a weird way, I kind of resent spell check as I’ve lost my former spelling aptitude from lack of application.
This post gave me a great giggle…and I empathize!
Spell check is just one of the many features I love about Firefox! (Along with awesome tab browsing, adblocking and mouse gestures just to name a few of the many extensions/addons I use with it.) I also have the auto-spellchecker turned on in Outlooks. With all of these readily available free tools it drives me a little crazy when I see emails and web posts that are riddled with spelling errors.
Please know that you are not alone in the catagory of not being able to spell. I OFTEN avoid words because I just am not sure.
I can’t spell and since I use my work computer I can’t install any other software (like Firefox). I do hate that when I comment on blogs there is no spell check option on most. Thank goodness there is when you are the blogger yourself but when I read old posts I still see typos. I also use spell check religiously in Outlook for work emails and make sure I read them twice. Being a laywer there are times where one typo can cause a lot of confusion!
One of my favorite bloggers accidentally typed “panty” instead of “pantry.” No one cared though…we all had a good laugh!
So see, if you misspell stuff, who cares? We won’t judge you!
I too do not have the spell correct gene. It’s just not in me. I spelled friend — fiend for a long time — people thought I was making a joke until a professor (!!!) pointed it out to me. It was a special moment for sure. I like FireFox b/c it will correct spelling as a I type (most of the time). The positive thing about this lack of spelling ability…..I am snazzy at the thesaurus, because if I can’t spell a word, I’ll think of a great replacement in a flash.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This message was spell-checked in Microsoft Word. 🙂