Blogging on Chrome OS: optimizing foreign-language texts linguistically

Introduction

If you run a foreign-language blog, it can be useful to have a tool that checks your posts for spelling mistakes and correct grammar as you type. Especially if, like me, you are not at the highest language level in your development 😉

In this post, I want to introduce you to a few tools that I have been using for this purpose on Chrome OS enthusiastically over a long period and can warmly recommend them to you!

Since I am a native German speaker and this blog is in English, I use German as an example. You can transfer the procedures described here to other languages.

The spell-check of Google Chrome

If you use the browser Chrome, e.g., as a client for WordPress to write your posts, you can activate the integrated spell-check:

By default, the “Basic spell check” is enabled:

It’s free of charge and also suitable for German texts:

You can also activate an “Enhanced spell check:”

If you do so, you will be notified that your input will be sent to Google to provide you with this feature.

I tested both. Especially the enhanced spell check is excellent, and it’s free.

But don’t you want that the browser sends your entries to Google? Or are you looking for a tool that works without an internet connection? That’s possible with the following tool on Chrome OS!

The spell-check of Google Docs

A free alternative is Google Docs. As a web application, but also offline, as an Android app.

So you can continue writing your post at the airport, even if the provided WiFi is overloaded:

The app comes with a pretty good spell-check:

The spell-check of Microsoft Word

Do you have a Microsoft 365 subscription? Then you can use Word as a web application or offline as an Android app.

The app also has an excellent spell-check:

If you mark the text as German, if your standard language is a different one, you will initially be offered to have Word download the German spelling so that you can carry out a spell-check.

Here it’s already done, and you can see the result:

Speech errors in your document are marked, and suggestions for improvement are offered:
Have a look here!

The spell-check of LanguageTool

Overview

I like to write my posts directly in WordPress via the browser Chrome, and some extensions provide a powerful spell check.

When I was working on the basics of blogging, I became aware of LanguageTool during my research.

The free, unrestricted version contains only a simple spelling and grammar check. That doesn’t sound that exciting. 😉

However, the premium version also checks the readability of your text and suggests an extended vocabulary for the respective text passage. These are potent functions, but their use is not free. At the moment, the price for a yearly subscription is €59, which means €4.92 per month.

The usage

Once you have installed the LanguageTool extension in Chrome and logged in with your Premium account, the extension will start working:

I have used the same text passage here again. If you click on the red symbol at the bottom right, as shown in the screenshot, a selection dialog will appear that helps you to optimize linguistic inaccuracies.

I have been using LanguageTool for several months, and I can only recommend it! Just give it a try! 🙂

Besides German, it offers you some languages, such as English, French, and Spanish, so that you can also use it when writing texts in other languages.

The spell-check of SoftMaker Office TextMaker

SoftMaker Office is a powerful office suite from Germany. On my blog “chrome your life-defining experience,” I described how to install and use it in the Linux of Chrome OS: link. There you can also find information about the versions and prices of SoftMaker Office.

The professional version includes a Duden corrector, which is very good! On slower devices, you will notice that a lot of computing power is needed after activating all available features, but it is worth it!

Here is a screenshot with the setting options of the Duden Korrektor:

And this is how to use the Duden Korrektor:

The Thesaurus included in the delivery is also very helpful:

I like to use the online tools mentioned in the previous sections while writing my posts in via Chrome.

Nevertheless, when I’ve finished it, I do a cross-check in TextMaker before publishing. To accomplish this, I copy the text of the post in TextMaker and have it checked again for grammar and spelling errors, thanks to the Duden Korrector. Now and then, a few linguistic inconsistencies come up that would irritate you and other readers.

Of course, you can also use TextMaker without an Internet connection!

If SoftMaker Office is too expensive or you don’t write in German, you can use LibreOffice on Chrome OS, for example. I have described how this works on my blog “chrome your life-defining experience” in this post: link.

Conclusion

There are several ways to check the linguistic quality of your texts on Chrome OS! 😉

The results are not perfect yet, which you can see in my posts, because I’m blogging despite a lack of time. :p (Blog overview) However, technologies are constantly evolving. I find it very impressive what is already possible in this way.

Have a look at my presented tools and check if you like the usage and results. Then you can decide for one or use several tools like me.

Are you using another tool that you are enthusiastic about? Then put it in the comments! 🙂

Back to the series “Everything you need to know about blogging on Chrome OS.”

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