![\"nine](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ad2buzz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/puppies01.jpg?resize=300%2c200\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
variant spellings take a toll on editors everywhere. the minutes tick away whenever we leave our documents (as we often do) in search of the answer to that age-old question: what\u2019s the preferred spelling of this word?<\/em><\/p>\n the problem is compounded by the fact that many spelling variations don\u2019t count as wrong.<\/p>\n for example, let\u2019s say you\u2019re editing a story about a tsar<\/strong> and his imposter<\/strong> that ends with a promise of more in a future instalment<\/strong> and that thanks everyone in the acknowledgements<\/strong>. because you\u2019ve paid close attention to word\u2019s spelling and grammar checker\u2014and because none of those words got flagged as wrong\u2014you\u2019re not too worried about them.<\/p>\n the good news is that those four words\u2014though none would be considered chicago style\u2014are all in the dictionary. the bad news is that the story includes not only a tsar<\/strong> but a czarina<\/strong>. worse, it gets published like that. and even if everyone manages to do a better job with the second installment<\/strong> (in which the author uses the acknowledgments<\/strong> to thank the editor who replaced you and to explain that an impostor<\/strong> must have written that first story), it\u2019s too late for you.<\/p>\n and there are a lot<\/em> of these words.<\/p>\n microsoft word\u2019s spelling and grammar checker is an essential tool, but it won\u2019t find everything. that\u2019s why editors keep track of what they do with style sheets\u2014lists of words that should be treated a certain way. but that kind of style sheet is best for recording exceptions: words that don\u2019t<\/em> follow your preferred style. they\u2019re not meant simply to remind you that there are only two e<\/em>\u2019s in \u201cacknowledgments.\u201d<\/p>\n enter perfectit, the proofreading add-in for word that we introduced to our readers last year<\/a>. perfectit starts by keeping track of consistency.<\/p>\n for example, perfectit would have found three of the mismatched pairs in the opening section of this post: imposter<\/strong>\/\u200b\u200cimpostor<\/strong>, instalment<\/strong>\/\u200b\u200cinstallment<\/strong>, and acknowledgements<\/strong>\/\u200b\u200cacknowledgments<\/strong>. but it would have skipped over \u201ctsar\u201d and \u201cczarina,\u201d because those words aren\u2019t similar enough to trigger the check.<\/p>\n those two words would also be skipped by each of perfectit\u2019s built-in spelling checks, which are designed to enforce us, uk, canadian, or australian spelling rules. a preference for \u201cczar\u201d over \u201ctsar\u201d (or vice versa) isn\u2019t necessarily regional. but perfectit can help with other words.<\/p>\n for example, of the 900 or so spellings that perfectit will flag as potential errors when you run its us spelling check, more than 200 would be ignored by word. this means that for every five words like \u201cbehaviour\u201d and \u201cfibre\u201d and \u201cgaol\u201d and \u201cpyjamas\u201d and \u201cstorey\u201d\u2014all of which would be caught by the us spelling checks in both word and perfectit\u2014at least one will slip through word without that program\u2019s telltale red or blue underline to remind you it might be wrong.<\/p>\n these include words like \u201cdistil\u201d and \u201cfulfil\u201d and \u201cgrey\u201d and \u201chomoeopath\u201d\u2014and \u201cacknowledgements\u201d and \u201cinstalment\u201d\u2014 that are common in us english but not as common as the first-listed versions of these terms in a us dictionary like merriam-webster (chicago\u2019s preferred source for spellings).<\/p>\n even if you use one of these variants consistently, perfectit\u2019s us spelling check will step in where word does not and suggest what is generally considered to be the preferred variant in us english:<\/p>\n but perfectit\u2019s spelling checks aren\u2019t meant to enforce a particular style. that\u2019s where the chicago manual of style<\/em> for perfectit comes in.<\/p>\n when you choose the \u201cchicago manual of style\u201d option in perfectit, you get some of the advantages of perfectit\u2019s spelling lists but tailored to chicago style and expanded to include more words.<\/p>\n cmos<\/em> recommends using a single dictionary for spelling; this helps ensure a consistent style. its primary recommendation is the dictionary at merriam-webster.com<\/a> (see cmos<\/em> 7.1<\/a>). accordingly, each term in chicago style<\/em> for perfectit has been checked against merriam-webster. for example, if \u201ctsarina\u201d occurs in your document, perfectit will suggest \u201cczarina\u201d:<\/p>\n if you need more information, you can click \u201csee more from cmos 7.1\u201d to get an excerpt directly from cmos<\/em>:<\/p>\n you can follow any of the red links to find out more. click through to merriam-webster.com and you can look up \u201cczarina<\/a>\u201d for yourself:<\/p>\n but again, normally you won\u2019t have to check the dictionary for yourself; the terms in perfectit\u2019s lists have been checked against the latest entries in merriam-webster. this includes the more than 2,000 terms that chicago style<\/em> for perfectit currently checks for spelling. that should save time and help you keep your focus on your document rather than on the dictionary.<\/p>\n sometimes you may be working for an author or publisher who follows the chicago manual of style<\/em> in most things but not spelling, as a number of uk publications do. but even with uk spelling preferences, you\u2019ll still get help from perfectit. that\u2019s because many terms that count as spelling variations in chicago style<\/em> for perfectit would need attention whether you\u2019re writing in us or uk or another variety of english.<\/p>\n here\u2019s a small sample of the words it would flag:<\/p>\n coup d\u2019\u00e9tats (should be<\/em> coups d\u2019\u00e9tat) some of those words are plurals that can be formed in more than one way. in most such cases, the preference will be the same in us and uk english. when you\u2019re finished running the checks for chicago style, run perfectit a second time but checking only for uk spelling.<\/p>\n if you disagree with any of perfectit\u2019s suggestions, click \u201cnext\u201d to skip it and move to the next item. or maybe your publisher (or an author whose work you\u2019re editing) prefers \u201ctsar\u201d over \u201cczar.\u201d then you can use perfectit to create a new style<\/a>\u00a0based on chicago but edited to reflect those preferences. many of perfectit\u2019s power users keep not just a house style sheet but a style sheet for each project.<\/p>\n you could create a custom dictionary in word<\/a>, but it\u2019s generally easier to work with perfectit\u2019s lists.<\/p>\n the world doesn\u2019t stand still and neither do dictionaries. one reason cmos<\/em> recommends merriam-webster is that it\u2019s frequently updated to reflect the latest usage. but perfectit isn\u2019t directly synced to merriam-webster, so there\u2019s a chance that one or more of its recommendations will fall out of date.<\/p>\n in the six months following the release of the chicago manual of style<\/em> for perfectit, we\u2019ve been made aware of one such occurrence. since well before the publication of webster\u2019s third new international dictionary<\/em> in 1961, merriam-webster\u2019s dictionaries have listed \u201cax\u201d before \u201caxe.\u201d they\u2019ve always been equal variants\u2014and therefore about equally common\u2014but editors who follow chicago know to pick the first-listed term.<\/p>\n chicago style for perfectit was therefore configured to look for \u201caxe\u201d and suggest \u201cax.\u201d<\/p>\n in the latter half of 2021, things changed. merriam-webster.com now lists \u201caxe or<\/em> ax<\/a>,\u201d the newly ordered entry having appeared sometime after september 14. (we looked at the wayback machine to figure this out. compare this entry from september 14<\/a> with this one from november 1<\/a>.)<\/p>\n thanks to a perfectit user on social media who reported the \u201cax\/axe\u201d problem, perfectit has now updated its software to prefer \u201caxe\u201d\u2014a change that will be reflected in a forthcoming perfectit update.<\/p>\n most editors have come to depend on spell-check as a kind of safety net, like the ones used by acrobats. but spell-checks are designed for the average user and can\u2019t be edited to enforce a specific style without a lot of work. the chicago manual of style<\/em> for perfectit won\u2019t catch everything, but it is designed for a professional audience that applies chicago style and needs more than spell-check.<\/p>\n to learn more about chicago style<\/em> for perfectit or to apply it on your next document, click for details<\/a>.<\/p>\n puppies in wagon<\/a> by chrt2hrt<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0adobe stock<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" variant spellings take a toll on editors everywhere. the minutes tick away whenever we leave our documents (as we often do) in search of the answer to that age-old question: what\u2019s the preferred spelling of this word?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[218],"tags":[21,37,214,72,97],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nsupplementing word\u2019s spell-check with perfectit<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ad2buzz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/distill00.png?resize=409%2c141\")
<\/p>\nchicago style<\/em> for perfectit: a bigger, more targeted list<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ad2buzz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/czarina00.png?resize=409%2c277\")
<\/p>\n![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ad2buzz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/czarina01.png?resize=409%2c283\")
<\/p>\n![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ad2buzz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/czarina02.png?resize=300%2c130\")
<\/p>\nchecking for chicago style but uk spelling<\/span><\/h2>\n
\ncurriculums (should be<\/em> curricula)
\nexpresso (should be<\/em> espresso)
\ngingko (should be<\/em> ginkgo)
\nrestauranteur (should be<\/em> restaurateur)
\nseraphs (should be<\/em> seraphim)
\nshwa (should be<\/em> schwa)
\nthesauruses (should be<\/em> thesauri)<\/p>\nwhen \u201cax\u201d gained an e<\/em>: moving at the speed of dictionaries<\/span><\/h2>\n
learn more<\/span><\/h2>\n
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