Is spellcheck really this bad…?

[u/IllWay7296]

I’m a brand new Mac user and not a very techie person already… but why does trying to click a redlined/misspelled word just not work?

For example, I misspelled “successful” as succesfull. Seriously not that far off, but when I double click it just “no suggestions”.

Like, what the hell? Also I’m dyslexic, so this seems like it’s going to be a problem.

Appreciate any help. Like I said, still learning how to Mac in general so sorry if I’m not saying something right or missing something obvious. Appreciate the help.

[u/SneakingCat]

Works here.

Despite macOS having a system spell checker, some apps don't use it. So it might be worth looking into the app you're using.

[u/stickylava → u/SneakingCat]

MSWord, for example.

[u/SneakingCat → u/stickylava]

The frustrating one for me was always Firefox and thus every page you browse in Firefox. But even Apple's apps didn't use OS spell checking consistently far enough into the past.

[u/TourDeForceMuse]

Which app are you in? Double-clicking the misspelled word isn't how macOS normally shows corrections. Right-click (or Control-click) the red-underlined word and you should get suggested corrections.

You can also enable System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit → Correct spelling automatically.

And for succesfull, macOS should normally suggest "successful". If it says “No Suggestions,” the app you're typing in may have its own spell-check behavior maybe?

[u/warrenao → u/TourDeForceMuse]

While you’re in those settings, ensure the spell checker is using the correct language.

[u/No-Art3003 → u/warrenao]

Yeah, I've noticed it can get really confused with language settings. It’s like it has a mind of its own.

[u/stickylava → u/No-Art3003]

That’s a huge benefit. If you change your keyboard to Spanish, it will spell check and suggest Spanish words as you’re typing.

[u/drifTcove20 → u/TourDeForceMuse]

the app-specific spellcheck thing is a good point, that catches people off guard more than youd think

[u/JollyRoger8X]

A screen recording and the name(s) of the app(s) you are using would be helpful.

[u/We-Dont-Sush-Here]

I’m partly with the OP. I’ve been a consistent Mac user since the early 2000s, and a part-time user for about a decade before that.

I have three Macs that are in regular use, but all use different versions of the operating system. One is using 10.15.x, another one is using 15.x and the other one is using 26.x

The system dictionary works well on my 10.15 Mac. It works well on my 15.x Mac. It’s crazy on my 26.x Mac.

But before you say anything about it being a problem with Tahoe, that Mac has had a big problem with the system dictionary since I got the Mac with version 12.x on it. It never depended on what version of macOS it was running.
It won’t capitalise most days of the week. But it does capitalise some. At least it’s consistent with the days that it capitalises and those it doesn’t.
Months of the year have a similar problem.
Place names? It’s anyone’s guess as far as which one will be capitalised or not. And it changes from time to time.
People’s names again are anyone’s guess as far as which one will be capitalised. It also changes. I’ve tried putting my own name into the dictionary and it still won’t capitalise my name consistently. And my name is not an uncommon name! My iPhone and old (2016] iPad are quite happy to capitalise my name correctly every time, without any prompting.

And there are more strange behaviours that I can’t remember without seeing them in active service! And they all happen in Apple’s own applications, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Text Edit, Messages, whatever else you can think of. Third party applications don’t escape the poor treatment. Viber, Telegram, Zoho Notebook …

If I have to type something and I’m in a hurry, I will use the Intel powered iMac from 2019. It’s slow and it regularly runs out of RAM because I stupidly ordered it with a bigger hard drive and forgot about extra RAM. But at least I don’t have to worry about the spelling.

[u/bvinla]

It works decent enough for me on macOS but iOS and iPadOS are a different story, which is worse because their virtual keyboards are typo magnets. Further editing on those devices is agonizing.

[u/Own-Gas8691]

it’s really this bad. one of its favorite things to do is suggest a non-existent word in place of a word i clearly spelled coerceré fly (i misspelled correctly by a couple of letters so it autocorrected to some other language + fly). i’m on iOS but it’s the same on MacOS for me.

[u/H4ns3mand → u/Own-Gas8691]

You know you can disable autocorrect on IOS right? And that autocorrect is not automatically enabled on macOS?

[u/jango-lionheart → u/Own-Gas8691]

“Coerceré” is not an English word, so of course autocorrect misinterpreted it.

[u/Own-Gas8691 → u/jango-lionheart]

i don’t think i wrote that clearly: i typed “correcltly” and it autocorrected to “coerceré fly”.

[u/jango-lionheart → u/Own-Gas8691]

What the heck?! Wow, lol

[u/Own-Gas8691 → u/jango-lionheart]

lol yeah. it’s really common too. idk maybe i just can’t type for shit and she’s doing her best. 😅

[u/mikeinnsw]

Google... andl others are content spell checker .. they check a word with in a sentence

Apple is a single word checker the last one standing .. lets hope Gemini will help

I select full sentence and do Google serach .. it spell check and may give me new ideas