13. Extra Tools

Installing and Using the Spellchecker

The information on this page was written by Simon Haynes and is reproduced here

with slight modifications and screenshots.

To enable the spell check feature, follow these instructions:

1.Open a Scene Editor Window (you can do this after adding a chapter and at least one scene) by double-clicking a scene in the Scene List of the Main Screen

2.Select 'Install Dictionary' from the 'Spelling' menu (as shown below).

3.The box below will appear. Press 'Yes' (as shown). This will download and install a free set of files containing a comprehensive English word list. It will also activate the yWriter spelling dictionary.

4.Wait for the zip to download and install itself.

5.Restart yWriter (exit program and open program again) to enable the spellchecker.

If it fails, it is usually due to your firewall blocking yWriter. If so, follow these manual

instructions:

1.Download the file 12dicts-5.0.zip (or later) from:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wordlist/

2.Extract to the Dictionary folder inside your yWriter5 data folder (Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Spacejock Software\yWriter5\) then perform step 5 above.

Checking spelling

After installing the dictionary, your 'Spelling' menu will have more options (as shown). Select 'Check Now' from the 'Spelling' menu. Words not present in the installed dictionary or not entered into the 'Custom Dictionary' will be highlighted red by default. Such words will remain red until you either fix the spelling manually and select 'Check Now' from the 'Spelling' menu again or until you add the word to the custom dictionary (as explained below). To clear Spell-checked highlights, select 'Clear' from the 'Spelling' menu. Known character highlights (as explained below) will remain.

Highlighting known characters

Select 'Mark known characters' from the 'Settings' menu so a tick appears before the said menu option (like this

). Known characters (present in your Characters list) will now show up as blue (by default) when you select 'Check Now' from the 'Spelling' menu and not appear red as if they are spelling errors.

Adding a word to the Custom Dictionary

1.Type the word you wish to add in the Content text box of the Scene Editor Window.

2.Double-click the word to highlight it.

2.Right-click the highlighted word with your mouse and select the 'Add selection to

custom dictionary'. This means the word will appear normal and not be highlighted

red when you next select 'Check Now' from the 'Spelling' menu.

Editing to the Custom Dictionary file

1.Select 'Open the dictionary folder' from the 'Spelling' menu.

2.Double-click the 'Custom' text file.

3.Highlight and delete the unwanted word or type in a list of your own words. Make

sure your list has only one word per line with one return before and after each word.

Automatic spellchecking

Select 'Spell check on display and save' from the 'Spelling' menu so a tick appears before the said menu option. The program will now perform a spellcheck whenever the scenes are saved or opened.

Daily Word Count Target

1.Select 'Daily Word Count Target' from the 'Tools' Menu.

2.Press the 'Copy' button to copy the

'Words in Project now' to the 'Starting Count' box. 3.Click on the date entitled 'Start date' and a box will appear for you to enter the current day, month and year. Once the date is entered, press 'OK'. 4.Click on the date entitled 'End Date' and a box will appear for you to enter the day, month and year when you intend to reach your target. Once the date is entered, press 'OK'. 5.Double-click the number in the Target Count box and type the number of words you intend to write between the given dates (not the finished word count). 6.Press 'Save' to save and close. 7.After writing more words in a scene or scenes you can go back and select 'Daily Word Count target' from the 'Tools' menu to see your progress. You can check the expected 'Total words at end date', the 'Number of days left' to reach your target, the recommended average of 'Words to write per day', the number of words 'You need to write' (in red) and how many words you have written (displayed in words, as a percentage and represented visually). Backups

The following information on backing up was written by Simon Haynes, writer and

creator of yWriter, and is reproduced here with slight modifications and a screenshot.

Default scene backup utility

When you open a scene, yWriter saves it to [Project Folder]\Autobackups\YYYY-MM-DD

(where YYYY-MM-DD represents the current). At regular intervals, and as you work on

the scene, yWriter will save the contents to the same file. Nevertheless, Spacejock

Software recommends that you set yWriter to save backups to sequential files.

Setting yWriter5 to backup to sequential files

If you select the 'Sequential files' option, a new backup file will be created at the

intervals specified. This file will be given the name of the file plus the current time.

1.Click the 'Tools' menu, then 'Backups' and select 'Set scene editor Autobackup options'.

2.Change from 'Save backups to the same file' to 'Save backups to sequential files' by clicking the unselected radio button so that it changes from to . (The latter is now the default.) 3.Enter a number into the 'mins' text box (the default is 5). Thus, if you enter '6' your work will be backed up ever 6 minutes. 4.You may also click on the box in front of 'Create a text file mirror when saving rtf' so that it changes from to . 5.Press 'OK' to save your changes.