Reader Jim (Gil) Gillivan seeks assistance with his typing. He writes:
I am a LOusy typist. I am FOrever hitting double CAps when I type in MAil. Microsoft Word has an autocorrect function that SEems to work just fine. I can’t find this kind of option in Mail. Is there anything built into the Mac OS that can help me?
Regrettably, no. Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) includes a Text Substitution feature (found in the Text tab of the Language & Text system preference) that can help ensure that, when referring to yourself, you type “I” rather than “i,” but it can’t identify and correct double caps.
However, Rainmaker Research’s Spell Catcher X can. Available in lite ($30) and full ($40) versions, Spell Catcher X includes an interactive component that can automatically fix doubled capitals (as well as “smarten” quotes and punctuation, turn consecutive hyphens into em dashes, capitalize proper names, capitalize a sentence’s first word, prevent double-spaces, and convert fractions from something like 4/5 to a more petite version). You can configure Spell Catcher X so that each application uses its own set of these features—Mail will correct double caps but not convert fractions, for example.
I understand that paying $30 or $40 is a lot for this one feature, and if that’s the only typing mistake you ever make, let me suggest that slowing down or trying a different keyboard may solve your problem. But it’s likely that you’ll find uses for Spell Catcher X’s other features—auto-complete, key-logging, spell-checking more powerful than that offered in the OS, and reference tools—as well. I’ve used it for years and continue to find it a helpful tool.