In Word, and nearly most other word processors, with a default US keyboard, it’s harder to type “blasé” and other words with accented characters.
I’ve been able to tickle some dictionary additions to substitute other words, but for some reason for blasé I have to literally copy and paste from Word. This is disruptive to a flow state for writing my novel.
I think it’s a general problem. What’s weird is I’m not sure blase is actually a word, but the Scrivener dictionary seems to think while blasé is a proper word, it doesn’t suggest it if I type blase.
Oddly, if I check the Scrivener dictionary, it thinks blase is a word:
Word just does an auto-correct.
Can we get this fixed somehow in the default dictionary or in some kind of automated auto-correct table?
I was able to add an auto-correction, but the auto-correct kind of freaks me out as it’s literally substitution, not a word substitution. I can’t thing of any words with blase as a substring, but I have a bad feeling there are …
Ok, that was a lot for a fairly uncommon word. Just thinking of the larger issue.
Hi.
I just tried with a few dictionaries, and for those of which that reported a misspell, I had no issue adding it to my personal word list. (Learn spelling)
It would help if you’d clarify your platform. I am running under Windows.
Blasé is indeed a word. (It’s French. Just like déjà-vu.) It means: one who lacks enthusiasm.
Whenever I have issues adding words because of an accent or a curved single quote mark, I have Scrivener learn the word off of the synopsis panel, where the formatting is basic.
I don’t know the situation with Mac Scrivener, but if you’re on Windows–
The Spellcheck dictionary is a different dictionary than the one found at Edit > Writing Tools > Dictionary.
Edit > Writing Tools > Dictionary is the WordNet Dictionary, which L&L probably licenses.
The Spellcheck dictionary is a separate file in Hunspell format. If you like, you can download and install a more robust Spellcheck dictionary then the default provides, instructions here. (That thread is in regards to the v3 beta, but still applies to the production version of v3.)
That doesn’t solve your problem, but now you know about the differences.
Of course, but blase is not and Scrivener won’t suggest blasé. So you have to go into a real word processor, type blase, have Word change it to blasé, and then paste blasé back into Scrivener.
[EDIT] I just tried with blasé, for good measure, and I can’t get it in. I think I see what you mean.
It looks as though it is the dictionary setting that won’t let the accent (é) through.
Investigating…
[EDIT 2] I think that the only thing preventing it from being part of the offered spelling alternatives is that in the specific case of this one word, the list is too long.
I can get words in é to show up otherwise, no problem.
You could just type blase and later use auto-replace. Or set it up for auto-complete.
Or teach Scrivener bblasé (2 b’s) and fix it afterwards.
If you use words like that a lot, meaning you often need é, you could set a substitution, too:
Yup, that’s what I did, but I’m more concerned for the larger case.
Thanks for noticing the problem, I appreciate it.
In general, the auto-correct seems terrible. If you drop a letter, the words it suggests are WAY off, but I’ve noticed Word tends to be incorrect as well. That’s not this issue though, it’s that blasé is in the dictionary but doesn’t get suggested. Something makes Scrivener think the other spellings - which we all think are much worse - are closer than the actual simple substitution of the accented character.
Still - word automatically handles blase to blasé, no muss no fuss. Nothing extra needed. blasé, is, after all, a valid English word (or at least in common enough use it seems English), even if it descends from French. That ease of use is what we should strive for.
I think built in autocorrect should first check for similar letters, but with accent marks. Then do it’s regular check.
