… at least for me.
and I found it by accident.
I was playing around with the configuration on my Chromebook and happened to stumble into this.
By default, the keyboard was set to US English and I wanted to switch to Canadian English. That wasn’t a big deal. It was just a matter of selection. There are many options like Dvorak, UK Keyboard, and so much more.
Never forget that we’re operating in a truly global world.
So, I just figured that I’d grab my Canada English keyboard and be done with it.
It was nice that this feature changed to Canadian English spell checking.
But then I hit gold. I was a little puzzled at first when I could select the Canadian English keyboard but a further option to Configure it? What’s in a click?
I had to pause for a second.
We’ve all heard of auto-correct on phones. It stops from making some pretty silly mistakes. (or in some cases, it actually can introduce some so proofreading is crucial). It came as no surprise that it was available with the on-screen keyboard but the physical keyboard as well? And, to throw in an little artificial intelligence at the same time by predicting what the next word might be?
I gave it a try and it’s now my latest favourite feature! I think that we’re all familiar with the squiggly red line under a mis-spelled word you run into while proofreading. Now, because it’s constantly checking my work, I can see it in action as the feature tries to make me a better writer. And, because I blog in the browser, it’s a perfect match.
There are three different settings – Off, Modest, and Aggressive. I’m at a toss up at this point between Modest and Aggressive.
I’m finding it most helpful with two offensives I make while typing:
- transposition of letters – ae instead of ea
- just plain spelling – an activity that I previously used by having another tab open to a dictionary
What a difference it makes to writing at the keyboard. It definitely will cut back on the spelling and other keyboarding errors that I’m prone to make. It’s now up to me to make sure that I’m using the correct words.
The feature is available as an experiment for the desktop version of the browser at chrome://flags Just make sure that you heed the warning.
doug --- off the record 