The built-in spell checker in emsCharts is defective and should not be used. emsCharts uses
a spell-checking program they did not write and which they cannot modify. The company that
wrote the program allows users to add words to the dictionary. After about five years, so
many bad spellings have been added that the spellchecker is worthless.
PFAS has installed a separate program on its Toughbooks and in-house computers that fixes this
problem. The program will check your typing as you type and will show a misspelled word with a
red underline. The underline will appear as soon as you hit a space or other character that
delineates the word. The program has been installed ONLY on the Squad's
computers. Instructions to install this on your home computer are included later in this
document
If you see an error, it is best to correct it immediately. Double click on the red-underlined word,
then right click. A dialog box will appear with a guess for the correct spelling. You may accept the guess,
leave the word misspelled, or click "Add To Dictonary." If you add the word to the dictionary, it will
only be added to the one dictionary on the one computer you are working on. A better approach would be
to send an email to the Captain asking him to add it to all dictionaries.
The software we are using is a little too accepting of your decisions. If you leave a misspelled word and then go back
later to check spelling. You will find that errors are no longer flagged. Here is a workaround:
- Open the text box you need to check
- Quickly triple-click in the box. All the text should be higlighted
- Cut the text from the box either with a control-x or right click, then select Cut
- Paste the text back into the box with a control-v or right click, then select Paste
- Type a space or other character at the end of the text you just pasted. The mispelled words
will be highlighted.
The standard English dictionary has been supplemented with the 48000 word medical dictionary
available from openoffice.org. This includes several thousand drug spellings as well as many
proper names, procedures, and terms with French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Norwegian special characters.
The special characters have been removed and replaced with the closest corresponding single
English letters since PFAS discourages entering umlauts, accent graves etc in
emsCharts. All abbreviations allowed in the field guide have also been added,
so if you use an abbreviation or a medical term and it comes up as misspelled, you have probably
misspelled it. A common example is "RMA." This is not an allowed abbreviation and will come up with
a red underline.
Installing the IE7PRO spell checking program and the specialized dictionaries
Here are the steps to install the spell checking program on a PC. This program is
not necessary on a Mac because spell checking is already built in. If you read this and
you don't have a clue what is going on, you should probably not attempt it. If you need
help, feel free to call a software administrator.
- Login to your PC as the user who will be using emsCharts. Do not login as administrator unless
you use emsCharts as the administrator.
- Start Internet Explorer (you must be using IE 7 or 8) and return to this page
- Click on the IE7PRO link.
- Click on "Download Free".
- Click on "Run".
- When the download completes, click on "Run" again if prompted.
- Select English as language and click okay.
- Follow the steps in the Wizard, click next, agree to the license, click install, select
only the check box that Enables Spelling Checker (unless you want to try other stuff). Click
next until the Wizard is complete, then click Finish.
- A new window opens. Close it. You now need to get the PFAS specialized dictionary. This is
available by returning to these instructions and
clicking Download spelling files.
- Click save. A new window should open. It should contain a file called en_US.dic (or en_US
if you have the default Windows setting to not show
extensions). Drag the file to your desktop.
- You need to place this file in the right place to use it. If you have the default
Windows option to hide special files you will need to change that. Right click on the START
button. Click "Explore". Click on the "C" Drive.
- In Vista...
- Click on Organize.
- Click on Folder and Search Options.
- Click on View.
- Click on Show Hidden Files and Folders.
- Click OK and close the window.
- Drag the file en_US.dic to
the folder C:\Program Files\IEPro\spelldic\en_US
- An easy way to find this folder is to copy the path from this document
and paste it into the address line in the Explorer.
- If the spell checker does not work, you may have to turn it on. With Internet Explorer running,
hold down the control key and type the F7 key or right click on the little white-on-blue icon on the bottom
of the Internet Explorer window. A dialogue box pops up. Click on "modules" and click on the spell checker
box.
- Quit from Internet Explorer.
- In XP...
- Click Tools.
- Click Folder Options.
- Click View.
- Click Show Hidden Files and Folders.
- Click OK and close the window.
- Drag the file en_US.dic to
the folder C:\Program Files\IEPro\spelldic\en_US
- An easy way to find this folder is to copy the path from this document
and paste it into the address line in the Explorer.
- If the spell checker does not work, you may have to turn it on. With Internet Explorer running,
hold down the control key and type the F7 key or right click on the little white-on-blue icon on the bottom
of the Internet Explorer window. A dialogue box pops up. Click on "modules" and click on the spell checker
box.
- Quit from Internet Explorer.
Spell checking should work the next time you visit emsCharts.
Check it out with luckenschadel, APGAR, Pt., nerse, and hospitol. The first three should
be okay; the last two should be highlighted as misspelled.
The following words and abbreviations have been added to the PFAS dictionaries:
- diaphoretic (19-Apr-2008)
- diaphoresis (19-Apr-2008)
- prednisone (19-Apr-2008)
- nebulizer (27-Apr-2008)
- hypotonic (27-Apr-2008)
- strabismus (29-Apr-2008)
- Motrin (31-May-2008)
- lumpectomy (31-May-2008)
- hypotension (10-Aug-2008)
- mentation (10-Aug-2008)
- emesis (22-Aug-2008)
- sublingual (18-Nov-2008)
- sublingually (18-Nov-2008)
- nitro (18-Nov-2008)
- rigor mortis (15-FEB-2009)