In many Mac OS X applications (such as Mail, iChat AV, and TextEdit), you can have the application automatically check your spelling as you type. When you mistype or misspell a word, it’s underlined in red so you can quickly spot errors and correct them.

To enable it:

1. Open an Apple app
   (so far, I know it works in Safari, Mail, iChat, TextEdit, Pages, iPhoto, and iWeb)
2. Control-Click or Right-Click in the area you’re typing in and select:
   Spelling > Check Spelling As You Type
3. Alternatively you can go to the menubar and select:
   Edit > Spelling > Check Spelling > As You Type
4. Or just use keyboard-shortcut, Command + Semicolon (Thanks, Adam)

Frank adds you can do this in almost every form field in Safari. Thanks Frank!

Bonus Tip: Control+click on a misspelled word and Mac OS X will show a list of correctly-spelled suggestions. Thanks to Mark at DDO.

This week, I was madly working on wireframes for a new health care web-application. In haste, I sent it out daggered with stupid spelling errors. “Ashtma” instead of “Asthma” and “Preffered” instead of “Preferred”. It was careless, unprofessional, and totally embarrassing.

Since I like to create wireframes in InDesign, I should’ve remembered two little-used InDesign features: Dynamic Spell Checking and Autocorrect.

Turn them on

Just like Microsoft Word, these features let InDesign underline misspelled words and automatically correct common ones. To turn them on:

1. In the menubar, go to Edit and select Spelling.
2. Then select Dynamic Spelling to enable it.
3. Repeat Step 1, and select Autocorrect.

Add your own bad words

To make Autocorrect even better, add your own list of commonly mispelled words and their replacements:

1. In the menubar, go to InDesign, select Preferences, and then Autocorrect.
2. Below the list of words, click the Add button
3. In the pop-up window, type in a misspelled word then its corresponding correction. Press OK

The moral of the story? When designing, don’t be a loser idiot like me.

Save yourself from shame and extra work by turning on InDesign’s built-in spelling features.