Add a word to dictionary - iPad

Scrivener Scrivener for iOS
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Is it possible to add words to the dictionary for Scrivener on IOS? I’ve tried the Settings->Keyboard->Text Replacement method, that’s not helping.

Mostly, I’m just trying to avoid having character names being marked as incorrectly spelled. It’s a distraction. Any assistance would be appreciated.

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Double tap on a name that is being flagged. Then tap Permit on the resulting contextual menu. That name will no longer be flagged as a misspelling.

(I have no idea whether such spelling permissions are project-specific or global, nor whether there is somewhere to go to edit such permissions.)

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Heya - thanks for the reply. Double-tapping on the word on my system gets me a context menu that doesn’t have a “Permit” option. However, I have discovered that the Text Replacement method does work after all - I just have to close out of Scrivener and then restart it for the change to be reflected.

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Haha, you’re right. The ‘Permit’ item was just a suggested replacement. The name I used to test with was close to that. <[facepalm]>

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…aaaand, I was wrong - turns out, when you restart Scrivener for iOS, it doesn’t highlight old typos, so the words that I added to Text Replacement in iOS Settings aren’t added to the Scrivener dictionary, they’re just not marked as typos if you restart the app. They are marked as typos if you use them again in your current session, though. I tested this by typing a few sentences of gibberish, and when I restarted the app, the sentences were just fine - not marked as typos - unless I go back and modify them again. Even then, it’s only the individual words that are marked; the gibberish around them are still fine, apparently.

This is a bug, right? The app should mark typos as typos all the time, and it should allow me to add words to the dictionary that it uses, so that my character names aren’t typos.

It’s a distraction, and I have a hard enough time not getting distracted already. Spell checking is a pretty basic feature, that the app should certainly be capable of doing correctly.

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  1. There are two distinct places where Check Spelling enable/disable switches may be found. There is one in ipadOS system settings, under General settings. There is another under Scrivener’s own app settings. Just to make sure no stone is left unturned, do make sure both of these are turned on.

  2. I am pretty sure Scrivener is (like virtually any app) relying on the spell check functionality provided by the operating system. On my iPad spell check seems to be a dynamic affair — it us done during typing. For example, if I tap away from a doc in which I just typed some non-words which were duly flagged, when I tap in the Binder back to that doc, the non-words are no longer flagged. Does it not work this way on your iPad??

  3. There is at least this. Put a character name in the iOS settings Keyboard > Text Replacements area as a Phrase. Then when you type that name it will no longer be flagged as a misspelling. In my installation, this would seem to do the whole trick, since the names would not get flagged afresh, and already typed names just aren’t flagged at all when I return to a doc.

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  1. Spell checking is turned on - I wouldn’t be having an issue with it highlighting character names, otherwise.
  2. Yes, that’s the way it works. And that’s why it’s a bug. Using the underlying iOS checking isn’t the point here - most apps on iOS aren’t word processors, so using the system checker in a rudimentary manner is fine. Scrivener should be checking every page on load, in my opinion. Spell checking is a O(log(n)) process (pretty much) once you’ve paid the cost of loading the dictionary. Other word processors that I’ve used on iOS (Pages, for example) spell check every time a page is loaded up, so previous typos are highlighted. Pages also uses the iOS spell checker, it just uses it better.
  3. Yes, that does work - in my original post, I didn’t realize that I needed to shut down Scrivener to have it load the changed dictionary set. So, that’s fine… it’s a clumsy process and, again, other word processors don’t behave that way, but that’s a minor thing.

I’m going to submit the lack of highlighting previous typos as a bug.

Again, thanks for responding. I appreciate your time and effort in helping me figure this out.

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Despite my best efforts I’m struggling to solved the problem of characters’ names being highlighted on my MacBook Air. It’s extremely annoying! When I right click or double click on a name none of the options mentioned in this thread appear. Any suggestions much appreciated.

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Well, this is the iPad area; you would have better luck asking under Mac…

On iPads, there’s a settings area called Text Replacement, which lets you ‘ok’ spellings just by listing them there. You can also add a short-form.

Maybe it’s under such a name, or Dictionary/Dictionaries, perhaps, on a Mac?

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Ah ha! My daughter would say that’s because I live in Boomerland. Many thanks for pointing out. I shall attempt to post my question in the right place.

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If you are running into issues with the Mac spell check engine not working in a fashion that it feels like it should, then refer to this thread. It has been buggy for a few years now, and we’re waiting for them to fix it while they instead work on making more kinds of Emoji and “AI”.

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