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Archive for April, 2010

Easy online spell checking

April 30th, 2010 Niels No comments

One of the most important things when it comes to writing and publishing stuff on the Internet is spell checking. Spell checking can with the right tools be done in a few minutes and it it will increase the credibility of your work tremendously. No need to say that spell checking is even more important for non native English speakers like myself.

In this post I have collected the best tools for precise, fast and easy spell checking.

Online spell checking

Orangoo spell check is my favorite online spell checker. I just copy all my text from my code editor, paste it in the Orangoo and start the spell checker. When done, I copy the edited text and paste it back into my editor. Very easy and intuitive to use, and a great example of a simple online web application, that does the job in an easy way. No complicated configurations and choices to make. Just pure functionality.

Orangoo online spell checkers handles close to 30 different languages.

Alternatively Orangoo also offers a complete spell checking scan of your website. Type in the URL of your site and your e-mail, and you’ll receive a complete report of the entire website for spelling mistakes and typos.

Browser spell check

Spell checking in your browser is a lot easier that the online counterpart. It makes it a lot simpler to spell check blog posts, online articles, web-based emails and  posts on forum, facebook, myspace or whatever social networks and online communities you’re using.

Firefox has been offering build-in and inline spell checking since Firefox 2.0. It’s easy to change language of the spell checker and to download new language packages. All is done with a right click in your browser on the text area you wanna check for mistakes and typos. The Firefox spell checker performs a live spell checking. Just like we know it from our word processing software.

For Internet Explorer I highly recommend the ieSpell. ieSpell is a free Internet Explorer browser plug-in, that spell checks text input boxes on webpages. Opposed to Firefox ieSpell does not perform live spell checking, but need to be activated from the browser menu or a tool bar.  I have used this easy tool in many years and only have nice things to say about the plug-in.

Alternatives

When in doubt I sometimes use the Google search for a simple test. Their  “did you mean”-service is brilliant if you wanna spell check a single word or a simple phrase.

I also like to mention WordWeb. WordWeb is a English dictionary, thesaurus, and word finder software for Windows. The application is free for private use and is a great tool when you’re working with the English Language.

Feel free to add a comment if  I missed out on other easy spell checkers or methods.

Blog name generator

April 10th, 2010 Niels 1 comment

A friend of mine suggested that I made a blog name generator. Why? I already have a great blog name generator.  ;)

Code Name – Blog Name Generator?

No reason to start all over. The  Code and Blog Name Generator makes cool  ideas for blog names.  By design it of course is originally a code name creator, but  the results is useful in a wide variety of areas. And many of the generated code names would also work great as blog names. What would you say to blog names like:

  • Rough Heart
  • Scarlet Moving Pens
  • Autumn Confidential
  • Subtle Knife

I think they could be pretty cool blog names. So from today instead of  reinventing the wheel, I simply claim the code generator to also be a Blog Name Generator.

Making names

The names are made by 2 and 3 word combinations from word list specially chosen for making code names. Words with lots of  meaning a strong ability of creating  images. The results is powerful, inspiring and creative code and cool blog names.

An algorithmic program gives variation and up to 5 million different code or blog names.

Whats in a good blog name

Well it really depends on the he subject of the blog and the personalty of the blogger. But a good blog name could be

  • describing for the content of articles and subjects
  • content important keywords
  • memorable
  • catchy and cool

A blog name generator can’t do much for you if you’re looking for specific and descriptive title like the title of my blog. But if you’re looking for catchy, cool, funny, subtle or humorous names a blog name generator can help you in the process.

Idea generator

Don’t expect too much. A name generator is basically an idea generator. It does not necessarily make the perfect names. A simple artificial intelligence of a rather simple script don’t get the subtle meanings in certain word combinations. And it’s often  the subtle nuances and meanings that separates the good blog name from the bad one.

The strength of a generator is that it can come up with endless combinations, cool ideas and a lot of suggestions.

You just have to take the good ideas and form them into you personal blog name.

Go to the Code and Blog Name Generator.

Make your own blog name generator

If you are not happy to use the code name generator as a solution, it has never been easier to make you own blog name generator. You just have to download the full functional name generator script, and add you own word lists.

In a  few minutes you can have a simple blog name generator up and running. And if you put a little more work into it, you can very easily make a full blown blog name generator.