Hallo The List,
I should begin by confessing myself a shameless list lurker! I borrowed a
MacBookPro, from college, last year and have since returned it. At the moment,
I am working solely with an iPhone 4, a couple of BT keyboards and a
BraillePen. So, no actual PC or Mac. I remain on this list to monitor the
progress of Vo accessibility and, also, in the hopes of Lion offering a more
"user friendly" GUI, as I found my brief flirtation with Snow Leopard to be
rather confusing and unpleasant.
So much for my background here: I wish merely to explain why an, apparently,
silent, person should choose to contribute to this thread which is because I am
finding it to be both offensive and incorrect for the following two reasons:
1. Mention of the spell checker has been vaunted here as the solution to
miswritten links or Program names. I took a look at Gordan's original post on
this topic and then Lyn's follow up posts and found that the issue in question
was one of potentially sending people off to wrong virtual destinations or by
wasting members time with misnamed apps etc. I would like to point out that a
spell checker will not help in either of these cases. A spell checker cannot
recognise correct names for apps or links.
2. I note that the list owners are proud and gratified by the increasingly
global membership of this list. This is announced whenever a new member joins
the list. However, if more and more people, for whom English is a second
language, are to be welcomed here, should we not also be generous and, indeed,
admiring of their attempts to contribute to our body of knowledge while having,
at the same time, to do this in a foreign tongue? I have been studying Italian
for some years now, but have to admit, my fluency in that language is severely
lacking, nevertheless, I do contribute as best I can, when I feel I have
something of worth to offer. My Italian virtual friends are always wonderfully
encouraging and take the time to make sure that the substance of my
contributions is fully understood. It is, then, the substance of what I have to
offer which is the important thing and not the style by which I attempt it.
Finally, as a teacher myself, I am passionate about literacy and am
personally convinced that the spell checker phenomenon, while being incredibly
useful at times, is also, singlehandedly, destroying our ability to spell
without the aid of a computer. So, speaking personally, I don't use it,
preferring merely to listen to my message and, if it sounds understandable via
a screen-reader, am quite happy to send it.
Please stop mortifying list members here or, I am sure, the list will lose
people, such as myself, who are, normally, happy to read and learn.
Sorry for taking up list time with something that really should never have
occupied us to begin with!
Thanks,
Sandy.
Sent from my iPhone
On 27 Jul 2011, at 23:56, Dónal Fitzpatrick <[email protected]> wrote:
> That is a superbly written mail. I've discarded three drafts trying, and
> failing, to say something similar.
> On 27 Jul 2011, at 23:51, Nicolai Svendsen wrote:
>
>> Hi Linda,
>>
>> If you don't want to read an email, and if you do not think the spelling
>> mistakes apply to you, you can always delete it. If the subject line isn't
>> very clear regarding the issue, read the first mail in the thread then
>> decide if you want to continue reading. If Lynne and Gordon have deemed it
>> necessary to send it out on the list, then you'll be clogging up the list
>> traffic by essentially attempting to extricate yourself from the issue.
>>
>> Since apparently, people have decided to make it into an argument, I'm going
>> to throw in my two cents.
>>
>> It's a simple advice, particularly if you use a Mac, to use the built-in
>> spellchecker. To use the spellchecker, a simple method is to use
>> Command-Semicolon which highlights a misspelled word and allows you to edit
>> or delete it. Using Command-Colon invokes a dialog which allows you to
>> correct your mistakes via a table which displays possible suggestions. If
>> you are running Mac OS X 10.7, Lion, and have typing echo turned on, such as
>> having it set to either words or characters, you will hear a bubble sound
>> which indicates a popup bubble. If you wish to display the information of
>> the bubble, hit down arrow. VoiceOver will announce how many suggestions are
>> available, as well as spell them for you as you move through them with left
>> and right arrow keys. To select a suggestion, hit return.
>>
>> I honestly have no idea why people seem to be getting so incredibly offended
>> over this. Lynne and Gordon aren't accusing you specifically, but simply
>> sending a gentle reminder to everyone to please use a spellchecker. Everyone
>> can make mistakes, whether you type too fast or you just can't spell a
>> particular word, and I'm sure that some of us are guilty of forgetting the
>> spellchecker even exists. I'll be the first one to admit that I sometimes
>> forget it is there, mainly because I'm confident in my typing skills. But
>> that doesn't mean this email doesn't apply to me, even if my mistakes are
>> minor or very rare. I think that is the point Gordon and Lynne are trying to
>> impart.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Nic
>> On Jul 27, 2011, at 9:12 PM, Linda Mumford wrote:
>>
>>> My two cents about this email is that it was inappropriate to send it to
>>> everyone on the list because:
>>> 1. By sending this email to everyone on the list it comes across as if you
>>> are berating (yes, berating) us for mistakes I suspect only a few have
>>> made .
>>> 2. . If a email is so badly typed that most of the words are nonsense, why
>>> not save yourself a lot of frustration and the rest of us the
>>> inconvenience of redding emails that don't apply to us by sending this
>>> email OFF LIST to whoever it actually applies to. Speaking for myself, I
>>> certainly would not be offended if I had sent a unreadable email out and
>>> you pointed it out to me off list.
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>> Linda Mumford
>>> On Jul 27, 2011, at 6:17 AM, Gordon Smith wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi all
>>>>
>>>> When people on list reply to others who ask for advice, assistance,
>>>> whatever, would you please check your spelling and typo errors before
>>>> posting. Replying to requests with badly typed messages as have appeared
>>>> on list recently cause more confusion than anything else. Please take a
>>>> little care rather than just sending nonsense which, effectively, is what
>>>> you're doing when you make a mess of spelling.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you.
>>>>
>>>> <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net --->
>>>>
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>>>> [email protected]
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net --->
>>>
>>> To reply to this post, please address your message to
>>> [email protected]
>>>
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>>> Mac-Access forum at the following URL:
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>>
>> <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net --->
>>
>> To reply to this post, please address your message to
>> [email protected]
>>
>> You can find a monthly formatted archive of all messages posted to the
>> Mac-Access forum at the following URL:
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>
> Dónal Fitzpatrick
> [email protected]
>
>
>
> <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net --->
>
> To reply to this post, please address your message to
> [email protected]
>
> You can find a monthly formatted archive of all messages posted to the
> Mac-Access forum at the following URL:
> <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html>
>
> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and
> worm-free!
>
> Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting
> the list website at:
> <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
<--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net --->
To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected]
You can find a monthly formatted archive of all messages posted to the
Mac-Access forum at the following URL:
<http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html>
The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and
worm-free!
Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the
list website at:
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