Using usertype.dat as spell checker

admin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:36:01 +0000

There are thousands of classes, structure, functions and constants in the Windows library and it’s often hard to remember the right spelling. Here’s a simple trick to use the usertype.dat as a very simple spell checker.

Usertype.dat?
First, usertype.dat is a file which can be configured in the MS IDE (see help file, because it differs with the versions). Simply activate it and use my usertype.dat as a start. It contains almost 4000 key words from the libraries.

When you now type one of these key words right, it will be displayed in a different color (I prefer gray – to emphasize that I don’t have to pay attention here). Here’s how it can look like.

Example:

Note that all the common things like HICON, LoadImage or LR_DEFAULTCOLOR are written in gray because they’re spelled correct. And other words (variables in this case) like hIcon and IconId1 a printed in white because they’re not predefined. If I had written Load_Image (instead of LoadImage), it would have been printed in white, too, and I know that it might be incorrect.

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Using usertype.dat as spell checker