[X-Newbies] Polyglot easy spell checking in non-default languages in Mail, Safari, TextEdit, etc.

[Jamie Kahn Genet]

Brian Durant <globetrotterdk at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am looking for an easy way to spell check non-default languages in
> Mail and Safari. I use both Mail and Safari for e-mail and often write
> notes or phrases in TextEdit, Stickies, etc. all of which I use in a
> number of languages: English (of course), Danish, Bahasa Indonesian,
> Russian, etc.
[snip]
> I know there are other apps out there like Excalibur (which I am unsure if
> it still is being developed)
> http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~excalibr/excalibur.html , but I believe one
> has to go through a similar process. Isn't there a way to more
> easily/elegantly switch between the dictionaries in various languages that
> Apple provides, for people who are at least partial polyglots like myself?
> I could imagine that a series of Apple Scripts combined with a keyboard
> command might do the trick, but I have no experience with Apple Script
> myself.
> 
> Any ideas from anyone?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Brian

Excalibur is still under active, yet slow development. If an application
is wordservices capable (e.g. Tex-Edit Plus) I can use a kb shortcut to
check spelling with Excalibur. Otherwise I simply copy the text to the
clipboard, switch to Excalibur and check it, switch back to the
application and paste the result.
A bit cumbersome, but at least I can use Excalibur in _any_ application
that supports copy and paste, not just wordservices (but WS is much
handier -please developers - and support, you especially Apple!).
Apple's own spellchecker is IMHO pretty useless because it's use is
severely limited.

I hate having to maintain multiple user dictionaries so Excalibur fits
the bill ideally. YMMV.

Regards,
 Jamie Kahn Genet

P.S. I imagine Tiger's Automator will allow many non-scripters to create
just the thing to streamline jobs like you describe.
-- 
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.