Casady & Greene's Spell Catcher is a respected writing tool beloved by many writers -- and now it's available for Mac OS X. If you often type too fast for your own good, or if you use OS X programs that don't have spelling checkers, this program will be useful. But while its new face is lovely to look at, this isn't a very exciting update -- aside from OS X compatibility, not much is new.

Spell Catcher X is undeniably good at what it does, and it caused no noticeable slowdowns in other applications while it ran in the background. (We used a 600MHz iMac G3 for our evaluation.) It either checks spelling as you type or inspects selected text; it works in almost any text-entry environment, from word processors to instant-messaging programs; and it offers dictionaries, thesauruses, and reference guides for English and several other languages. Its best features are its extensively customizable Shorthand Glossary and Learned Words dictionaries: if you work in a field that involves nonstandard words -- medicine or technology, for example -- and use several programs, Spell Catcher X can certainly make your life easier. And you can import your dictionaries from previous versions to this version.

We found a few shocking grammatical errors in the help documentation -- surprising in a program that promised to help us write better -- and the help was somewhat hard to follow for such a simple application. Also, Spell Catcher still has no grammar checker.

Macworld's Buying Advice

Checking your written work for spelling errors is always a good idea. Although Spell Catcher X is no replacement for a sharp eye, a good dictionary, and plenty of time to carefully reread your text, most writers have very little of that last item. They should consider this sturdy tool.