You can check the spelling in a document or in all open stories. InCopy highlights misspelled or unknown words, repeated words (such as “the the”), uncapitalized words, and uncapitalized sentences. When performing a spell check, InCopy checks all XML content and expanded inline notes.
When you check spelling, InCopy uses the dictionary for the languages you assigned to the text in your document. InCopy uses the Proximity language dictionaries for both spelling and hyphenation. Each dictionary contains hundreds of thousands of words with standard hyphenation breaks.
For stand-alone stories (stories not linked to an InDesign layout), you can customize language dictionaries to ensure that any unique vocabulary you use is recognized and treated correctly. For example, when you run a spelling check (Edit > Spelling > Check Spelling), you can click Add and enter the settings you want.
Choose Edit > Preferences > Spelling (Windows) or InCopy > Preferences > Spelling (Mac OS).
To spell-check notes, make sure that Include Note Content When Checking Spelling is selected in Notes preferences. To spell-check deleted text, make sure that Include Deleted Text When Spellchecking is selected in the Track Changes preferences.
The Check Spelling command does not check collapsed stories in a multistory file. However, when you select Change All or Ignore All, all collapsed stories and tables are affected.
Click Skip to continue spell-checking without changing the highlighted word. Click Ignore All to ignore all occurrences of the highlighted word, until InCopy is restarted.
Choose Edit > Preferences > Autocorrect (Windows) or InCopy > Preferences > Autocorrect (Mac OS).
Select Ignore All to ignore occurrences of this word in all documents. When InCopy is restarted, the word is flagged again as a misspelling.
InCopy uses Proximity dictionaries for most languages to verify spelling and to hyphenate words. You can add words to each dictionary to customize it. You can assign different languages to text, and InCopy uses the appropriate dictionary to handle spelling and hyphenation. You can create additional user dictionaries, and you can import or export word lists saved in a plain text file.
By default, hyphenation and spelling exceptions are located in user dictionary files stored outside the document on the computer where InCopy is installed (dictionary file names end with a .clam or .not extension). However, you can also store exception lists inside any InCopy document. In addition, you can store word lists in an external user dictionary, in the document, or in both. The location of existing dictionaries appears in the Dictionary preferences.
Storing hyphenation and spelling exceptions inside a document makes it easier to treat text consistently when you move that document to other computers. For this reason, you can merge the user dictionary into the document in Dictionary preferences. You can also control the location of exceptions from the Create Package Folder dialog box. In contrast, storing an exception list outside the document makes it easier to use the same list of exceptions for multiple documents.
You can exclude words from being considered. For example, if you want to use an alternate spelling for a common word such as “bicycle,” which you may need to spell in a different way for your company name or for a specific document, add the word to the list of excluded words so that it will be flagged during a spell check. InCopy can maintain a separate set of added and removed words for each installed language.
You can create a user dictionary, or you can add user dictionaries from previous InDesign or InCopy versions, from files that others have sent you, or from a server where your workgroup’s user dictionary is stored. The dictionary you add is used for all your InCopy documents.
Choose Edit > Preferences > Dictionary (Windows) or InCopy > Preferences > Dictionary (Mac OS).
Start InCopy , but do not open a document.
To change the order of the user dictionaries, drag and drop them. The order of the dictionaries in the list is the order in which the dictionaries are checked.
For stand-alone stories (stories not linked to an InDesign layout), you can add words to the language dictionaries. Customizing your dictionaries ensures that any unique vocabulary you use is recognized and treated correctly.
To modify the list of words that are being ignored during the current InCopy session, choose Ignored Words. This list includes all the words for which you’ve chosen Ignore All.
You can export word lists to a text file (.txt) and then import that list of words into a user dictionary in InCopy . The words in the text file must be separated by a space, tab, or paragraph return. You can export added words and removed words, but you cannot export ignored words, which are used only in the current session.
Click Export, specify the file name and location, and then click Save.
Use Dictionary preferences to specify how InCopy handles hyphenation and spelling dictionaries. Most languages in InCopy use Proximity dictionaries to verify spelling and to hyphenate words. If you have installed hyphenation or spelling components from a different company, you can select a different vendor for each installed language.
The Dictionary Preferences dialog box does not enable you to specify the language dictionary used for spell checking or hyphenating text. This dialog box is used to specify which hyphenation and spelling plug‑ins InCopy uses for the language specified in the Language field. If you use only the default hyphenation and spelling plug‑in, you don't need to change any settings in the Dictionary Preferences dialog box. If you install a different spelling or hyphenation plug‑in provided by a third-party developer, it appears as an option in the Hyphenation Vendor and Spelling Vendor menus in this dialog box. This would let you select one vendor's hyphenation or spelling engine for some languages and another vendor's hyphenation or spelling engine for other languages.
After you update a shared workstation’s user dictionary, the changes don’t appear in individual workstations until a user restarts InCopy or presses Ctrl+Alt+/ (Windows) or Command+ Option+/ (Mac OS) to recompose all text.
Duden is integrated natively in InCopy. You can use Duden for more accurate German hyphenation and spell checking.
To use Duden hyphenation, go to Preferences > Dictionary and select Show Hyphenation Options.
This allows all hyphenations that are technically correct and that doesn’t go against the spelling rules. For example, both Ur-ins-tinkt and Ur-in-s-tinkt are correct. This is the default setting.
This allows all hyphenations, except unaesthetic hyphenations where the sense of the word might be distorted. For example, Ur-ins-tinkt is allowed but Ur-in-s-tinkt is not allowed.
Accept only old spelling variants like Delphin but not Delfin (ph instead of f). Similarly, Graphik is accepted but not Grafik.
If you use more than one language in a stand-alone story (stories not linked to an InDesign layout), you can tell InCopy which language dictionary to use for spell checking and hyphenating words in a particular language. You can assign different language dictionaries to the various parts of your document down to a single character of text.
Select the text to which you want to assign a dictionary.
Choose Type > Character to open the Character panel.