GB2201274A - Word processing apparatus capable of spelling check - Google Patents

Abstract

Numerals and other symbols are ignored in checking the spelling of an input word against words in a dictionary memory. An incorrectly-spelled word is indicated on a display e.g. by means of being enclosed between arrows, and the incorrect letter in the word is further emphasised e.g. by blinking. <IMAGE>

Description

TITLE OF THE INVENTION Word Processing Apparatus Capable of Spelling Check BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a word processing apparatus capable of spelling check, and specifically relates to a word processing apparatus capable of spelling check wherein a wrongly spelled word or a wrongly spelled character of the wrongly spelled word which is detected by spelling check is displayed in a discriminated fashion.

Generally, in word processing apparatuses capable of spelling check, for example, electronic typewriters, when the spelling check mode is set, and characters and symbols entered from a keyboard are displayed sequentially on a display, and at the same time a word which is inputted immediately before is spelling-checked every time a word sectioning key such as a space key or a return key is depressed. Then, when a wrong spelling is found in the inputted word, the operator is informed of the wrong spelling by sounding a buzzer or lighting an alarm lamp.

Furthermore, the word processors are also well known wherein when a wrongly spelled word has been detected, the operator is informed of the wrongly spelled word by raising an alarm and performing an inverted display or a blinking display.

However, in the electronic typewriter as mentioned above, which performs the inverted negative display of the wrongly spelled word, the wrongly spelled word can be discriminated, but, for example, in the case where a display having a small number of displaying elements is attached thereto, there exists a problem of difficulty in clearly reading the wrongly spelled word.

Also, in the one which performs the blinking display of a wrongly spelled word, for example, in the case where a word embellished with bold characters is displayed with a blinking manner, there exists a problem of difficulty in discriminating the wrongly spelled word.

Furthermore, even if the wrongly spelled word can be discriminated, in the case of the word (character string) including symbols and numerals preceding or following it, the range of spelling check as one word cannot be discriminated.

For example, assuming that an inputted character string is "signal3011, it cannot be discriminated that the word "signal" is a wrongly spelled word or the word "signal" has been judged to be wrongly spelled because of the character string "signal30" including a numeral "30" despite that the word "signal" is a correctly spelled word. This means that there exists a problem that which character in the character string is to be corrected is difficult to be discriminated because the range of the wrongly spelled word is not-clear.

For example, in the system for Automatically Proof reading a Document- described in the U.S. ?atent Publication No. 4,136,395, an inputted word is compared with wor-ds in a dictionary memory, and the wrongly spelled word is stored in a memory along with the position of the word on a page, and after finishing input of one page, a carrier (or a cursor of a display) is moved to the position of the first wrongly spelled word, and then after erasing the word automatically by operating a word incorrect key, a correct word is inputted, and this procedure is repeated in sequence, and thereby the wrongly spelled words can be=asily corrected.

In the system described in the above publication, the wrongly spelled word can be discriminated because it is pointed by the carrier or the cursor. However, in the case of the above example "signal30", this character string might be spelling-checked as a word and beudged to be a wrongly spelled word.

Furthermore, since the wronglyvspelled character of the wrongly spelled word is not displayed discriminatively, the operator not familiar with the English language cannot find the wrongly spelled character, and therefore it is difficult to efficiently correct the wrongly spelled word.

SUMMARY OF TEE ENVENTION A first object of the present invention is to clearly display a wrongly spelled word detected by spelling check with a discriminative manner, and a second object is to clearly display a wrongly spelled character of the wrongly spelled word with a discriminative manner.

A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check of the present invention comprises inputting means, an input buffer for storing inputted data, displaying means for displaying characters and symbols in the input buffer, a dictionary memory storing data of a plurality of words, spelling check means for processing spelling check of a character string immediately before division data of character string in response to every inputting of the division data, and display controlling means for controlling the displaying means to display a wrongly spelled word and/or a wrongly spelled character in the wrongly spelled word on the display with a discriminative manner.

A first data memory for storing data of the character string immediately before division data and a second data memory for storing word data excluding numerals and/or symbols in the data of the character string stored in the first data memory are provided in the above spelling check means, and thereby a word excluding numerals and symbols affixed thereto can be spelling-checked.

The above display controlling means preferably displays a wrongly spelled word with a discriminative manner by displaying discriminating symbols at the positions immediately before and after the wrongly spelled word, and the display controlling means preferably displays a wrongly spelled character with a discriminative manner by displaying the wrongly spelled character in the wrongly spelled word with a blinking manner.

As described above, the wrongly spelled word and/or the wrongly spelled character in the wrongly spelled word is clearly displayed with a discriminative manner, and therefore correction of the wrongly spelled word can be facilitated, thus the apparatus of the present invention becoming a word processing apparatus excelling in operability for the operator not familiar with the English language.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Drawings relate to an embodiment in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a typewriter, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a control system of the typewriter, Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a routine of display control, Fig. 4 is a schematic fragmental flow chart of a routine of modified display control, Fig. 5(a) and (b) are an example of displaying inputted data on a display and an example of displaying the inputted data after spelling check on the display, respectively, and Fig. 6(a), (b) and (c) relate to the modified display control, and are an example of displaying inputted data on the display, an example of displaying the inputted data after spelling check, and an example of displaying the state that one character is corrected after spelling check on the display, respectively.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Hereinafter, description is made on an embodiment in accordance -with the present invention with reference to drawings. This embodiment is of the case where the present invention is applied to an electronic typewriter.

As shown in Fig. 1, a keyboard 3 is disposed in the front part of a main frame 2 of an electronic typewriter 1, and a printing mechanism PM is disposed in. the main frame 2 behind the keyboard 3. A liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as LCD) 75 for displaying 20 digits of inputted characters or symbols is installed in the rear part of the keyboard 3.

On the keyboard 3, character keys 10 including alphabetical keys, numeral keys and symbol keys, and various function keys such as a space key 11 and a return key 14 are installed likewise the normal typewriter. Furthermore, a cursor move key 12 for moving a cursor 80 displayed on the LCD 75 and a bold key 13 for changing to a,bold character are installed on the key board 3.

The printing mechanism PM is similar to the printing mechanism of the normal typewriter, and the printing mechanism PM comprises a platen 20 for feeding print paper, a carriage 21 driven right and left along the platen 20, a type-wheel 23 having types 22 extending radially, a ribbon cassette 25 housing a print ribbon 24 and the like.

Next, description is made on the whole configuration of a control system of the electronic typewriter 1 with reference to the block diagram in Fig. 2.

The electronic typewriter 1 is provided with the keyboard 3, the printing mechanism PM, a displaying mechanism D, a controlling apparatus C and the like, and the keyboard 3, the printing mechanism PM and the displaying mechanism D are connected to a main CPU (Central Processing Unit) 30 of the controlling apparatus C through a data bus, etc. The controlling apparatus C is constituted wisth the main CPU 30, and a ROM (read only memory) 40 and:-a RAM (random -access memory) 50 which are connected to the-CPU:30-through the data bus, etc.

A program memory 41 of the%A#ROM 40 stores a control program for controlling the printing mechanism PM and the displaying mechanism D in accordance with code data inputted from the keyboard 3, a control program for spelling check processing and a control program for display control as described later. A dictionary memory 42 of the ROM 40 stores, for example, data of about 70,000 words in an alphabetical classification for spelling check likewise the normal dictionary.

The RAM 50 comprises in addition to various general memories such as memories for storing temporarily the result of processing by the main CPU 30, a text memory 51 for storing inputted data as file data in the memory mode, an input buffer 52 for storing data of characters and symbols which are inputted from the keyboard 3 or read from the text memory 51 and then displayed on the LCD 75, a cursor display position counter 53 for counting in response to a movement of the cursor so as to make the cursor display position correspond to each display position of the LCD 75, a cursor position pointer 54 for pointing an address of the input buffer 52 in accordance with data of the cursor display position counter 53, a bold mode flag 55 which is set when the bold mode performing embellishment with bold characters is set, a first data memory 56 for storing the newest inputted character string data for spelling check when any word sectioning key such as the space key 11 is operated, a second data memory 57 for storing word data excluding numerals and symbols in the character string data stored in the first data memory 56, a start address memory 58 for storing the head character position (address) in the input buffer 52 of the word data stored in the second data memory 57, an end address memory 59 for storing the last character position (address) of above word data, a discriminating symbol display flag 60 which is set when discriminating symbols (" - " and " - ") for discriminating a wrongly spelled word are displayed, a user dictionary memory 61 wherein words not stored in the dictionary memory 42 such as proper words can be stored freely, and a cursor move flag 62 which is set when the cursor move key 12 is operated.

The main CPU 30 controls the printing mechanism PM to print characters and symbols corresponding to the inputted data in accordance with the control program in the typewriter mode. In the memory mode, it controls the input buffer 52 to store the inputted data of one print line, and also controls the LCD 75 to display that data, and controls the text memory 51 to store that data of one print line in response to an operation of the return key 14.

The displaying mechanism D is constituted with an interface 70, a CPU for display 71, a character generator 72, a display controller 73 and the LCD 75. The character generator 72 stores about 400 kinds of dot-matrix display data corresponding to code data for displaying characters and symbols on the LCD 75. The CPU for display 71 reads out display data from the character generator 72, and outputs the display data to the display controller 73. The display controller 73 writes the display data to a RAM for display 74, and simultaneously outputs a display signal corresponding to the display data to the LCD 75, and makes it display the commanded display data with a blinking manner on receiving a blink command.Furthermore, the CPU for display 71 also performs cursor move control directing a destination address of the cursor 80 to the display controller 73 in response to cursor move data from the main CPU 30.

In the spelling check mode, when any one of the word sectioning keys (including symbol keys such as period, comma, colon and'semicolon) such as the space key 11 and the return key 14 is operated after inputting of character string data (word), a word having the same spelling as the inputted word is searched for by means of checking against each word data in the dictionary memory 42 and the user dictionary memory 61. In addition, when numeral data and symbol data is contained in the inputted character string data, the dictionary memory 42 and the user dictionary memory 61 are searched for the word data excluding that numeral data and that symbol data. Then, when any word having the same spelling as the inputted word is not present, the operator is alarmed of a wrong spelling.Detailed description on this spelling check processing control is omitted because it is similar to the existing one.

In addition, inputted data is stored into the text memory 51 through input buffer 52 in memory mode. When processing spelling check of character string data in the text memory 51, the character string data is read out from the text memory 51 into the input buffer 52 and displayed on the LCD 75, and each character string indicated by the cursor is spelling-cheked one by one.

Next, description is made on a routine of display control displaying the discriminating symbols which is performed in the controlling apparatus C of the electronic typewriter 1 based on a flow chart in Fig. 3. In addition, in this control, the spelling check mode is assumed to have already been set, and the description is made including a control performing blinking display of the inputted character when the bold mode has been set by operating the bold key 13.

When the power switch of the typewriter 1 is turned on, this control is started, and in step S1 (hereinafter, represented simply as S1, and the same is true of the other steps), the control program stored in the program memory 41 of the ROM 40 is read into the main CPU 30, and initialization such as resetting of the respective flags 55 and 60 is performed, and in the next S2, an key-input is waited for, and if a key-input is made, processing proceeds to S3, and judgment is made on whether or not the operated key is the bold key 13, and if YES, processing proceeds to S4, and judgment is made on whether or not the bold mode flag 55 has been set on the basis of the data of the bold mode flag 55, and if YES, in the next S5 the bold mode flat 55 is reset, and processing returns to S2.Also, if judged to be NO in S4, processing proceeds to S6 to set the bold mode flag 55, and processing returns to S2.

Then, when the character key 10 is operated, processing proceeds to S7 through S2 - 53. If judged to be YES in S7, proceeding proceeds to S8. In S8, the inputted data is stored in the input buffer 52. In the next step 9, judgment is made on whether or not the bold mode flag 55 has been set, and if it has been set, processing proceeds to S10, and the inputted data is displayed with a blinking manner on the LCD 75, and processing proceeds to S12. For example, as shown in Fig. 5(a), a character string "CPU" is displayed with a blinking manner because of bold characters. Also, if judged to be NO in S9, processing proceeds to Sll, and the inputted data is displayed with a normal manner, and processing proceeds to S12.

In S12, judgment is made on whether or not the discriminating symbol display flag 60 has been set on the basis of the data of the discriminating symbol flag 60, and if it has not been set, processing returns to 82.

When S2 - S12 are repeated and a word (character string) is inputted, and thereafter when a word sectioning key is operated, processing proceeds to S13 through S2, S3 and S7.

When judged to be YES in 813, processing proceeds to S14, and processing corresponding to the inputted sectioning key is performed, for example, if it is the space key, the space code is stored in the input buffer 52 and displayed on the LCD 75, and the cursor 80 is moved rightward by one digit.

In the next S15, the newest inputted word (character string) sectioned by two sectioning codes is stored in the first data memory 56 in accordance with data of the input buffer 52 and data of the cursor position pointer 54.

Next, in S16, only the word data to be spelling-checked which is the data excluding numeral codes and symbol codes among the data of the first data memory 56, is stored in the second data memory 57. For example, as shown in Fig. 5(a), when a character string "The CPU reset signol30" is inputted, the newest inputted character string "signol30" is stored in the first data memory 56, and a word "signol" is stored in the second data memory 57.

In the next 817, according to dat##0f the input buffer 52 and data of the second data memory 5 4 tfie address of the head character in the input buffer 52 of the word to be spelling-checked stored in the seconds data memory 57 is stored in the start address memory 58,tzand an address set by adding two to the address of the last character of the word to be checked is stored in the end address memory 59. Then, in S18, by searching for data of the dictionary memory 42 and data of the user dictionary memory 61, the word to be spelling-checked stored in the second data memory 57 is spelling-checked, and in the next Sol9, judgment is made on whether or not any wrong spelling exists.

When judged to be YES in S19, processing proceeds to S20, and in accordance with data of the start address memory 58, data of the end address memory data 59 and data of the input buffer 52, the discriminating symbols " - " and " - " are inserted and displayed at the positions on the LCD 75 corresponding to the positions immediately before and after the word to be spelling-checked, that is, the wrongly spelled word. Furthermore, alarm processing for sounding a buzzer is performed. In the next S21, the discriminating symbol display flag 60 is set, and processing returns to S2. In addition, if judged to be NO in Sol9, processing returns to S2.

For example, as shown in Fig. 5(b), since the character string "signol" is inputted instead of the correct word "signal", judgment is made to be a wrong spelling, and the discriminating symbols " ~ " and " c n are displayed immediately before and after the wrongly spelled word "signol". It is understood that judgment has not been made to be a wrong spelling for the inputted character string "signol30", but the word "signol" has been wrongly spelled.

To correct a character "o" in the wrongly spelled word "signol" to a character "a", the cursor 80 is required to be set to the display position of the character "o", and therefore the cursor move key 12 is depressed, and thereby control proceeds to S22 through S2, 83, S7 and 813.

In S22, judgment is made to be YES, and processing proceeds to S23, and the cursor 80 is moved in the moving direction of the operated cursor move key 12, and in the next S24, the cursor move flag 62 is set, and processing returns to S2. At this time, even if the cursor 80 is moved, the symbol " - " and the symbol " + " are kept displayed intact, and the operator can make sure of the range of the wrongly spelled word.

Subsequently, by operating the character key 10 for correction, control proceeds to S12 through S2, S3, S7 - Sll, and judgment is made on whether or not the discrimination symbol display flag 60 has been set, and if YES, processing proceeds to 825. In 825, judgment is made on whether or not the cursor move flag 60 has been set, and when it has not been set, that is, when the cursor 80 is not moved to correct the wrongly spelled word and input of data is continued after the wrongly spelled word, processing returns to S2.When judgment is made to be YES in 825, that is, when the cursor 80 is moved to the position of the character to be corrected to correct the wrongly spelled word, processing proceeds to S26, and the symbol " -e " and the symbol " - " on the LCD 75 are erased, and in accordance with data of the input buffer 52, data of the start address memory 58 and data of the end address memory 59, the character string containing the correct word after correction is displayed at the original position. In the next S27, the discriminating symbol display flag 60 and the cursor move flag 62 are reset, and processing returns to S2.

In addition, after inputting the character for correction, the corrected word is spelling-checked again as shown in the above S15 - S21, and thereby, even if the operator makes a wrong correction again, he can notice his mistake.

If judged to be NO in S22, processing proceeds to 828, and key processing corresponding to the operated function key is executed, and processing returns to S2.

As described above, even if numerals and symbols are contained in the inputted character string, when a wrong spelling is detected in the word excluding them, not only an alarm is raised, but also the discriminating symbols are displayed immediately before and after the wrongly spelled word, and therefore the range of the wrongly spelled word becomes clear, and the wrongly spelled word can be easily discriminated and corrected.

Furthermore, even in the case of the typewriter wherein bold characters are displayed with a blinking manner or the typewriter provided with a display wherein the number of display elements is small and the inverted negative character is hard to be read out the display, the range of the wrongly spelled word can be clearly discriminated because of displaying the symbols before and after the wrongly spelled word.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, and " + " are displayed as discriminating symbols, but the discriminating mark is not limited to these symbols, and, in essence, has only to be able to display with a discriminative manner as a wrongly spelled word.

Hereinafter, description is made on a modified example of the display control.

It is also possible that in the routine of display control in the above embodiment, as shown in Fig. 4, 830 S35 are provided in place of S12, S25 - 827 and 540 - S44 are provided in place of S21 in a manner of partial change, and thereby a wrongly spelled character in a wrongly spelled word is made to blink for discriminating display For this purpose, the program memory 41 stores a candidate word search control program which, when a wrongly spelled word is detected, searches the dictionary,memory and 42 and the user dictionary memory 61 in a sequential and repeated manner for detecting of a word which has the same number of characters as that of the wrongly spelled word by means of replacing each character constituting the wrongly spelled word with each alphabetical character, and thereby detects a correct spelling associated with the wrongly spelled word.

Description is made on this candidate word search control program. The above-mentioned dictionary memory 42 and user dictionary memory 61 are assumed to have data of the number of characters at the head of each stored word.

In the case where any word agreeing with the word to be checked does not exist in the both dictionary memories 42 and 61, that is, in the case where a wrongly spelled word is found, first, to set a group of words having the same head character as the head character of the wrongly spelled word as a candidate word search range, the head address and the last address of that group of words are stored in a first work register. Subsequently, a word having the same number of characters as that of the wrongly spelled word is picked up in that candidate word search range, and each of picked-up words is compared with the wrongly spelled word, and the number of disagreeing characters and the dictionary address of the compared word are stored in a second work register, respectively.Then, according to data of the second work register, a word that the number of disagreeing characters is "one" is selected out, being set as a candidate word. At this time, when there are a plurality of words that the number of disagreeing characters is "one", a word that the position of disagreeing character is nearer to the word end has priority of the candidate word. This is because the position nearer to the word end is more liable to cause a wrong spelling.

In addition, in the case where there is no word that the number of disagreeing characters is "one", the candidate word is selected from among words whose number of disagreeing characters is "two". In the case where no candidate word can be selected even in the above procedure, the candidate word is selected by increasing the number of disagreeing characters one by one. This selecting step is performed until the number of disagreeing characters exceeds half the number of characters of the wrongly spelled word.

Furthermore, the RAM 50 is provided with a candidate word memory for storing correctly spelled candidate words associated with the wrongly spelled word, a wrongly spelled character address memory which, by comparing the wrongly spelled word with the candidate word, stores code data of the wrongly spelled character in the wrongly spelled word and the address of code data of the wrongly spelled character in the input buffer 52, and a wrongly spelled character blinkdisplay flag which is set when the wrongly spelled character is displayed with a blinking manner on the LCD 75.

Description is made on a routine of display control of this modified example with reference to a flow chart in Fig.

4. However, description on S1 - Sll, S13 - S20, S22 - S24 and S28 is omitted because they are similar to those of the flow chart in Fig. 3.

When processing proceeds from S10 or 811 to S30, judgment is made on whether or not the wrongly spelled character blink-display flag has been set in S301 and since it has not been set during input of a character string, processing returns to S2.

Then, S2 - 811 and S30 are repeated, and, for example, as shown in Fig. 6(a), a character string "segnol30" is inputted. Subsequently, when a sectioning key is operated, processing proceeds to 819 through S13 - S18, and if judged to be YES, processing proceeds to S40 through S20.

In S40, on the basis of the data of the dictionary memory 42, the data of the user dictionary memory 61, and the data of the second data memory 57, a candidate word having the same number of characters as the number of characters of the wrongly spelled word is stored in the candidate word memory. In the following S41, by using the data of the second data memory 57 and the data of the candidate word memory, the wrongly spelled word is compared with the candidate word, and processing proceeds to S42, and code data of the wrongly spelled character in the wrongly spelled word and the address of the code data of the wrongly spelled character in the input buffer 52 are stored in the wrongly spelled character address memory. In the next S43, according to the data of the wrongly spelled character address memory, the wrongly spelled character is displayed with a blinking manner on the LCD 75.In addition, in the apparatus wherein bold characters are displayed in a blinking manner, the period of blinking display of the wrongly spelled character differs from the period of blinking of bold characters.

In S44, the wrongly spelled character blink-display flag is set, and processing returns to 82. For example, as shown in Fig. 6(b), the symbols " ~ #" and " -- #" are displayed immediately before and after the wrongly spelled word "segnol" and the wrongly spelled characters "e" and "o" are displayed with a blinking manner.

Then, to correct the wrongly spelled character, when the cursor move key 12 is operated, and S2, S3, S7, S13 and S22 S24 are executed, and the cursor 80 is moved to a desired position of the wrongly spelled character.

When the character key 10 corresponding to the correct character is operated, judgment is made to be YES in S7, and processing proceeds to S30 through S8 - Sll. If judged to be YES in S30, processing proceeds to S31. In S31, by using the data of the cursor position pointer 54 and the data of the wrongly spelled.character address memory, judgment is made on whether or not the wrongly spelled character has been corrected, and if it has been corrected, processing proceeds to S32. In S32, the data (code data and the address data thereof) of the wrongly spelled character having been corrected is deleted from the wrongly spelled character address memory, and the blinking display of the wrongly spelled character is stopped. For example, as shown in Fig.

6(b) and (c), a corrected character "i" is displayed in place of the wrongly spelled character "e", and the blinking display is stopped.

In the next S33, according to the data of the wrongly spelled character address memory, judgment is made on whether or not the wrongly spelled character data exists, and if the wrongly spelled character still exists, S2, S3, S7 - 811 and S30 - S33 are repeated, and when the wrongly spelled character data of the wrongly spelled character address memory has been removed, processing proceeds to 834. In addition, at this time, all the wrongly spelled characters have been corrected, and therefore any character is not displayed in a blinking manner on the LCD 75.

In 834, the symbols "#" and " < ~-" on the LCD 75 are erased, and on the basis of the data of the input buffer 52 and the data of the start address memory 58 and the end address memory 59, the character string containing the correct word after correction is displayed at the original position, and processing proceeds to 835, and the wrongly spelled character blink-display flag is reset, is-#reset, processing returning to S2.

As described above, symbols are 'displayed immediately before and after a wrongly spelled word and the wrongly spelled word is displayed with a blinking manner, and therefore the range of the wrongly spelled word is made clear and the wrongly spelled character is also made clear, and thereby the correcting work can be facilitated and the operability is improved.

In addition, in the above embodiment, discriminating display is performed by making the wrongly spelled character blink, but this display is not limited to blinking, and it is also possible that, for example, symbols " < " and " > " are inserted immediately before and after the wrongly spelled character, and in essence a discriminating - display as a wrongly spelled character has only to be able to be performed.

Also, the number of characters, of the wrongly spelled word and the number of characters of the correctly spelled candidate word are the same, but the both numbers maybe not necessarily the same. This means that in the case where a candidate word of the same number of';"'c;haracters as that of the wrongly spelled word cannot be seected, first the candidate word is searched for from among words of the number of characters smaller by one than the number of characters of the wrongly spelled word. For example, in the case where a wrongly spelled word is "foix", the dictionary memories 42 and 61 are searched for "foi" which is produced by eliminating the last one character from the wrongly spelled word, and any word agreeing with this is searched for.In the case where no word agreeing with exists, the dictionary memories 42 and 61 are search for "fox" which is produced by eliminating the second character counted from the last of the wrongly spelled word, and then for "fix" which is produced by eliminating the third character counted from the last in that order, and the candidate word is searched for. In the case where a candidate word was able to be found, an extra character and "*" are displayed alternately. Also, in the case where no candidate word was able to be found, the candidate word is search for from among words of the number of characters larger by one than the number of characters of the wrongly spelled word.For example, in the case where a wrongly spelled word is "efect", it is checked that whether or not a word agreeing with each word which is produced by adding an arbitrary character (a - z) after the last character of the wrongly spelled word exists in the dictionary memories 42 and 61. Or a character (arbitrary character) at the position of addition of an arbitrary character is checked without comparison. Then, in the case where no agreeing word exists, whether or not an agreeing word exists in the dictionary memories 42 and 61 is checked in sequence while the insertion position of an arbitrary character (a - z) to be added is changed one by one toward the head character. Then, in the case where a candidate word has been found, a character at the position into which the character is to be inserted and "?" are displayed alternately. In this case, "f" and "?" are displayed alternately. In addition, in the case where any candidate word was unable to be selected after all, all characters of the wrongly spelled word may be displayed with a blinking manner.

Also, in the case where it is judged that the candidate word selected first by the operator is not suitable, for example, by operating the next candidate key, the next candidate word is searched for, and the wrongly spelled character may be displayed with a blinking manner on the basis of the candidate word selected thereby. Also, the candidate word may be displayed along with the blinking display.

Furthermore, it is also possible that a word to be spelling-checked and the data of the both dictionary memories 42 and 61 are compared sequentially from the head character, and the characters not agreeing with each other and the following characters are displayed with a discriminated manner.

Claims (11)

1. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check comprising: inputting means for inputting data of characters and symbols, division data of a character string consisting of characters or symbols and various function data, an input buffer for storing the data inputted from said inputting means, displaying means for displaying characters. and symbols on a display on receiving data of said input buffer, a dictionary memory storing data of a plurality of words, spelling check means having a data memory for storing word data excluding data of numerals and/or symbols among data of a character string immediately before said division data stored in said input buffer in response to every detection of said division data, and for processing spelling check of a word stored in said data memory using data of said dictionary memory in response to every inputting of said division data, and display controlling means for controlling said displaying means to display a wrongly spelled word on said display with a discriminative manner- < to discriminate -a wrongly spelled word when the wrongly=g;; spelled word is detected by said spelling check means.

2. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check in accordance with claim 1, wherein said display controlling means controls said displaying means to display discriminating symbols at the positions immediately before and after said wrongly spelled word.

3. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check in accordance with claim 2, wherein said display controlling means comprises a start address memory for storing an address of the head character of word data stored in said data memory in said input buffer, and an end address memory for storing an address -set by adding two to an address of the last character.

4. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check in accordance with claim 1, 2 or-3, wherein said spilling check means comprises a candidate word searching means for detecting a correctly spelled candidate word associated with said wrongly spelled word from said dictionary memory.

5. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check in accordance with any preceding claim, wherein said display controlling means further controls said displaying means to display a wrongly spelled character in said wrongly spelled word with an emphasized manner.

6. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check comprising: inputting means for inputting data of characters and symbols, division data of a character string consisting of characters or symbols, and various function data, an input buffer for storing data inputted from said inputting means, displaying means for displaying characters and symbols on a display on receiving data of said input buffer, a dictionary memory storing data of a plurality of words, spelling check means for processing spelling check of a character string immediately before said division data in response to every inputting of said division data, in accordance with data of said input buffer and data of said dictionary memory, and display controlling means for controlling said displaying means to display a wrongly spelled character with a discriminative manner to discriminate a wrongly spelled character in a wrongly spelled word when said wrongly spelled word is detected by said spelling check means.

7. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check in accordance with claim 6, wherein said spelling check means comprises a candidate word searching means for detecting a correctly spelled candidate word associated with said wrongly spelled word from said dictionary memory.

8. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check in accordance with claim 6 or 7, wherein said spelling check means further comprises2character address memory for storing code data of said wrongly spelled character of said wrongly spelled word and an address of said code data of said wrongly spelled character in said input buffer, by means of comparing said candidate word detected by said candidate word searching means with said wrongly spelled word.

9. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check in accordance with claim 6, 7 or 8, wherein said display controlling means comprises means for controlling said displaying means to display a wrongly spelled character stored in said character address memory on said display with an emphatic manner.

10. A word processing apparatus capable of spelling check comprising inputting means, an input buffer for storing inputted data, displaying means for displaying characters and symbols in the input buffer, a dictionary memory storing data of a plurality of words, spelling check means for processing spelling check of a character string immediately before division data of character string in response to every inputting of the division data, and display controlling means for controlling the displaying means to display a wrongly spelled word and/or a wrongly spelled character in the wrongly spelled word on the display with a discriminative manner.

11. A word processing apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawyings.