Some of the applications I use have a spell checker.  Some don’t.  And even when they do, they certainly don’t have all the words I need.  And what if I want a definition?

No problem.  All I have to do is highlight the word and click [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[W].  Low and behold, up pops the definition, and synonyms to boot.  It will even tell me how to pronounce the word - and believe it or not, that comes in handy sometimes.

Even more amazing, WordWeb will differentiate between Canadian, British and US spellings.  Now at last I can spell colour my favourite way!  It’s not exactly a spell-checker, but I use it to check spelling often.  It does give suggestions of “close” words, and it’s lightening fast.

If the definition doesn’t appear, I can click the link and it will automatically find a definition on the web.  Pretty smooth.

The program is called WordWeb.  WordWeb is free for personal, non-commercial use, and only US$19 for the Pro version, in which you can add your own definitions, solve anagrams, and do wildcard searches.  WordWeb will even work on Windows 95.

By the way, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the nifty dictionary I used long before WordWeb.  This one just uses online information, unlike WordWeb which has a built in dictionary.  It’s called the Magical Jellybean Dictionary.  But I prefer the offline abilities and speed of WordWeb.  The nice thing is the ability to press the keys from any application and get it to bring up the word.

WordWeb - dictionary, thesaurus, all at the push of a button.  Visit their website now to get yourself a copy of WordWeb, free!

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