STYLE CHECKER

Besides spellchecking, a scientific writer will often need to verify additional attributes of text such as formats (e.g. upper and lower case), font effects (e.g. sub- and superscripting) and font styles (e.g. bold, italics, underline). For this reason, sciPROOF is equipped with a STYLE CHECKER that verifies these attributes of fonts (i.e. styles). While spellchecking a document, sciPROOF will scan a paragraph first for spelling and then for styles according to the style information stored in active sciPROOF databases.

Style Checker

Styles can be applied to any term and stored in the sciPROOF database. This is very useful for special style requirements such as italics or underline for genus and species. For example, if the user applied italics and underline to "xenopus laevis", typed it in Word and then activated sciPROOF, sciPROOF would suggest "Xenopus laevis" and "Xenopus laevis". Another example is ALL CAPS for acronyms such as DNA, PCR, PAGE, etc., and sub- and superscripts for terms such as chemical formulas (e.g., C₆H₁₂O₆) and radioisotopes (e.g., ³²P). sciPROOF style suggestions/errors are highlighted in blue to distinguish them from spelling suggestions/errors (highlighted in red). The sciPROOF style checker was designed to automate the tedious and time-consuming task of style insertion. Styles are easily overlooked while proofreading making this an invaluable valuable tool, especially when submitting a manuscript for publication.

Setting up styles

Adding style to terms in the sciPROOF database is simple and straightforward. To set up styles, the user needs to select the term in the text, for example "escherichia," and click the "Add Term" button on the sciPROOF toolbar. This will open the "Add Term" dialog where the user can apply upper case to 'e' and italics to 'escherichia'. Once this style is applied, sciPROOF will flag "escherichia" and suggest "Escherichia" while spell/style checking the Word document. Setting up styles is very similar to setting up fonts in Word except the user has the additional choices of "Case," "Subscript," or "Superscript," with sciPROOF, for example H₂SO₄. If the user typed "h2so4" in Word, then sciPROOF would suggest H₂SO₄ while spell/style checking the Word document.

This is an example of setting up a style in sciPROOF. In this case, the user would select “c6h12o6” in the text and click the “Add Term” button on the sciPROOF toolbar. Next, the appropriate style to each letter and number, upper case and subscript, respectively are applied through the “Add Term” interface and stored in the sciPROOF database.
Another example of setting up a style in sciPROOF. Upper case was applied to 'X' and italics was applied to 'xenopus laevis' in this example of a genus and species.
Another example of setting up a style in sciPROOF. The user would apply "upper case" to 'C' and "superscript" to '2+' in this case.
One more example of setting up a style in sciPROOF. The user applies "upper case" to 'GST', 'EN' and 'C' and "symbol font" to 'gb'.

Style Checking

The following examples show the sciPROOF style checker proofreading styles for C₆H₁₂O₆, Xenopus laevis, and Ca²⁺.

Since style was added to C6H12O6 and stored in the sciPROOF database, the style checker will find "c6h12o6" in the text (highlighted in blue in the edit box window) and suggest C6H12O6. This change will be made in Word once the user clicks the "Change" button on the sciPROOF spell/style check dialog.
Since upper case and italics styles were added to Xenopus laevis, the sciPROOF style checker will find 'xenopus laevis' in the Word document and suggest Xenopus laevis.
Since upper case and superscript styles were added to Ca2+, the sciPROOF style checker will find 'ca2+' in the Word document and suggest Ca2+.
In this example, upper-case styles were added to gstgbenac and the sciPROOF style checker subsequently finds this term in the Word document and suggests GSTgbENaC.

These examples demonstrate another important feature of sciPROOF and illustrate how this product will save time proofreading and improve the accuracy of scientific manuscripts.