Spellex Spelling Server Technical Support

Frequently asked support questions

Why does ssceam.tlx contain only 1000 words?

I looked at ssceam.tlx (or sscebr.tlx, etc.) with Notepad, and it only contains about 1000 words. I thought the dictionary was supposed to contain 100,000 words. Where are the rest?

The file ssceXX.tlx (e.g., ssceam.tlx) is a text-format dictionary that contains the most common words in a given language. Text-format dictionaries can be accessed more quickly than large compressed dictionaries. The file ssceam.tlx contains very common American English words like the, of, is, and, etc. These common words are located quickly in ssceam.tlx so they don't have to be located in ssceam2.clx, which is a large compressed dictionary containing about 100,000 words. Both files should be opened, and ssceam.tlx should be opened first. For more information, see "How Spellex Spelling Server uses Dictionaries" in the Spellex Spelling Server User's Guide.

Why don't changes to the registry take effect?

I changed the Options or Dictionaries values in the registry, or I added entries for a new language, but the changes didn't take effect.

Configuration information in the system registry is read only when the spelling server is started. After you make a configuration change, call Spellex Spelling Server's Stop method or shut down your Web server, then call the Start method (after restarting your Web server if necessary).

Why aren't dictionaries available for all language codes?

I notice that the language codes listed in the Spellex Spelling Server User's Guide contain codes for languages like Russian and Polish, but you don't have dictionaries for these languages listed in your catalog. Will these languages be made available?

The language codes listed in the user's guide are there for the benefit of our customers who may have their own word lists. There is no relationship between the language codes and Spellex's product line.

Why are all words reported as misspelled?

Spellex Spelling Server reports that every word is misspelled.

This problem can be caused by a number of configuration problems. The easiest way to diagnose these problems is to examine the event log (see How to access the event log for more information). By examining the event log you can find out what specific problems prevented Spellex Spelling Server from opening its dictionaries.

  • Make sure the configuration information in the registry is set up correctly.


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  • Make sure the file names in the Dictionaries value contain no leading or trailing spaces.


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  • Make sure the file names in the Dictionaries value are separated by semicolons (";").


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  • If the file names in the Dictionaries value contain no paths, make sure the files are located in the same directory as SpellexSpellingServer.dll.


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  • If the file names in the Dictionaries value contain paths, make sure full paths are specified and that the files actually exist in the indicated directories.


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  • Make sure the file names in the Dictionaries value are spelled correctly.


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  • Make sure your license key is entered correctly. If you are evaluating Spellex Spelling Server, your license may have expired.


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  • Often, a related symptom of this problem is that the CheckText method returns -7. See Spelling Server error -7 for more information.

Why aren't misspelled words detected?

Spellex Spelling Server does not detect misspelled words.

If the unreported words are capitalized, make sure the SPX_IGNORE_CAPPED_WORD_OPT option is disabled. When this option is enabled, Spellex Spelling Server automatically skips over capitalized words (e.g., Spellex) without checking them, so they will not be reported as misspellings. Similarly, if the words are in all-caps (e.g., SPELLEX), make sure SPX_IGNORE_ALL_CAPS_WORDS_OPT is disabled, and if they contain mixed upper and lower case (e.g., SpellexCorp) make sure SPX_IGNORE_MIXED_DIGITS_OPT is disabled. (Alternatively, you can leave these options enabled, but be aware that they may cause misspelled words to be missed.)

Unless you are checking German or Finnish text using Spellex's German or Finnish dictionary, make sure SPX_SPLIT_WORDS_OPT is disabled. If this option is enabled, Spellex Spelling Server will consider a word valid if it consists of two or more valid sub-words concatenated (e.g., winterhamster).

Make sure the Dictionaries configuration value for the language you are using contains dictionary files in only one language. For example, don't include American English and French dictionary files in the same Dictionaries value. If dictionaries for more than one language are used at the same time, misspelled words in one language that happen to match words in the other language will not be reported as misspellings.

How can I remove words from the dictionary?

How can I remove words from the dictionary?

The main dictionary files used by Spellex Spelling Server (with a .clx extension) are binary files that cannot be edited. However, it is still possible to effectively remove words from the main dictionary by marking them as "excluded" using the following procedure:

  1. Using NotePad or a similar text editor, create a new file in the same directory on your server as
  2. Make the first line of the file look like this:

    #LID lid

    where lid is a language id (see "Language ids" in the "Reference" section of the Spellex Spelling Server user's guide for a list of language ids. For example, American English is 24941).
  3. Enter the words you want to remove on the second and subsequent lines, one word per line, in the following format:

    word<TAB>e

    word is the word you want to delete, and <TAB> is a tab character (i.e., press the <TAB> key on the keyboard). In NotePad, the entry will look like this:

    word e

    Note that each form of a word must be removed. If you want to remove "dog" and "dogs," you will need to enter both forms, each on a separate line.
  4. When you have entered all the words you want to remove, save the file.
  5. Using regedit, open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spellex\Spelling Server\Languages, then open the key associated with the language from which you want to remove words (e.g., open 24941 for American English).
  6. Edit the Dictionaries string value, and insert the name of the file you created previously in front of the existing entries. Be sure to separate your file name from the other file names with a semicolon (;). For example, if your file is named "delete.tlx" and you want to remove words from the American English dictionary, edit the Dictionaries value so it looks like this:

    Dictionaries="delete.tlx;ssceam.tlx;ssceam2.clx"

    The file containing deleted words must appear before the dictionary file containing those words, or the deletions will not work.
  7. Restart Spellex Spelling Server so it will re-read the dictionary files.

Why do HTML character entities appear in suggestions?

When I check spelling in non-English languages, characters with diacritical marks (e.g., ø) are converted to HTML character entity references (e.g., &oslash;).

This behavior is by design, although it was removed in version 1.7. It occurs when the SPX_IGNORE_HTML_MARKUPS_OPT option is enabled. When this option is enabled, the text being checked is assumed to contain valid HTML, and any changes made to the text must not corrupt the validity of the HTML. Any non-ASCII characters (such as characters with diacritical marks) are converted to HTML character entity references, such as "&oslash;" so that if the suggested word is used to replace a misspelled word, the text will still contain valid HTML.

Because Spellex Spelling Server's user interface is implemented in VBScript or VB code, it is possible to modify the behavior by modifying the code. Look for places where the Suggest method is called (for example, if you're using ASP Example 6, the Suggest method is called near line 73 in AppletServer.asp). You can convert any character entity references back to characters inserting the following code after the call to the Suggest method:

suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Agrave;", "À")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Aacute;", "Á")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Acirc;", "Â")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Atilde;", "Ã")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Auml;", "Ä")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Aring;", "Å")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&AElig;", "Æ")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Ccedil;", "Ç")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Egrave;", "È")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Eacute;", "É")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Ecirc;", "Ê")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Euml;", "Ë")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Igrave;", "Ì")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Iacute;", "Í")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Icirc;", "Î")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Iuml;", "Ï")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&ETH;", "Ð")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Ntilde;", "Ñ")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Ograve;", "Ò")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Oacute;", "Ó")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Ocirc;", "Ô")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Otilde;", "Õ")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Ouml;", "Ö")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Oslash;", "Ø")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Ugrave;", "Ù")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Uacute;", "Ú")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Ucirc;", "Û")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Uuml;", "Ü")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&Yacute;", "Ý")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&THORN;", "Þ")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&szlig;", "ß")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&agrave;", "à")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&aacute;", "á")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&acirc;", "â")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&atilde;", "ã")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&auml;", "ä")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&aring;", "å")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&aelig;", "æ")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&ccedil;", "ç")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&egrave;", "è")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&eacute;", "é")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&ecirc;", "ê")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&euml;", "ë")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&igrave;", "ì")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&iacute;", "í")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&icirc;", "î")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&iuml;", "ï")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&eth;", "ð")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&ntilde;", "ñ")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&ograve;", "ò")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&oacute;", "ó"
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&ocirc;", "ô")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&otilde;", "õ")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&ouml;", "ö")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&oslash;", "ø")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&ugrave;", "ù")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&uacute;", "ú")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&ucirc;", "û")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&uuml;", "ü")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&yacute;", "ý")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&thorn;", "þ")
suggestions = Replace(suggestions, "&yuml;", "ÿ")

The code above replaces HTML character entity references (e.g., &oslash;) with non-ASCII characters (e.g., ø) in the "suggestions" variable. The same code will work in other places in Spellex Spelling Server, although be sure to check the name of the variable which receives the suggestion list from the Suggest method, and substitute that variable's name for "suggestions" in the code above.

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