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Managing Your Dictionary and Formatting Checks (Online)

Shane
Updated

PERRLA Online remembers the words you add to your dictionary and saves them to your account, so they follow you to any computer you sign in on. It also checks your paper's formatting as you write, flagging anything that breaks your format's rules.

Adding a Word from Your Paper

Right-click menu on a red-underlined word with Add to Dictionary

  1. Right-click a word with a red underline. 
  2. Click Add to Dictionary. 

PERRLA stops flagging the word right away.

Managing Your Full Dictionary

Spellcheck dictionary section in Preferences with the Manage button

  1. Click your name in the top-right corner. 
  2. Select Settings. 
  3. Click Preferences. 
  4. Find Spellcheck dictionary and click Manage. 

The dictionary page shows your full word list with a search box, plus an Add a word box for adding words directly. Long lists get an A–Z bar so you can jump straight to a letter.

To remove a word, delete it from the list. A deleted word stays crossed out for a few seconds with an Undo button, in case you change your mind.

Importing a Word List

If you have a list of terms from a class or program, you can add them all at once instead of typing them in one by one.

  1. Go to the dictionary page.
    See Managing Your Full Dictionary above if you need help finding it.
  2. Drag a .csv or .txt file onto the import area, or click it to choose a file. 

PERRLA shows how many new words it found before adding anything. Words can be listed one per line or separated by commas. If a line contains more than one word, PERRLA splits it into separate entries.

Note: PERRLA reads the file in your browser and saves only the words – the file itself is never uploaded.

What Counts as a Match

Adding a word also covers its common variations. For example, adding Zolpidem means PERRLA also recognizes zolpidem, ZOLPIDEM, Zolpidem's, and Zolpidem-based.

Note: Plurals aren't covered automatically. Adding Zolpidem does not cover Zolpidems, so a genuine typo like an extra letter is still caught. Add a plural separately if you use it often.

Adding a word that's already in your dictionary, in any form, does nothing. Importing a list skips any words you already have.

Catching Format Issues as You Write

Purple wavy underline beneath a word in a paper

A purple wavy underline appears in your paper when something breaks your format's rules – as you type, not just when you click I'm Finished. This works in APA, MLA, and Turabian papers.

These checks catch issues like:

  • Double spaces or extra spaces around punctuation
  • Missing periods or commas in "et al.," "e.g.," and "i.e."
  • Contractions
  • Ampersands used in your writing instead of "and"
  • Punctuation placed outside quotation marks
  • Numbers that should be spelled out, or spelled-out numbers that should be numerals

MLA and Turabian papers also check for "o'clock" and date endings. APA does not include these checks.

Right-click a purple squiggle to see the rule it's flagging, along with a one-click fix where one is available. For example, in an APA paper, "The 5 nurses agreed" flags the "5," since APA spells out numbers zero through nine. You can also choose Ignore.

Note: These checks don't catch every instance of a rule. For example, a number sharing a sentence with other numerals is left alone.

Format checks are on by default. Here's how to turn them off:

  1. Click Edit in the menu bar. 
  2. Click Disable Style Checks While Writing.
    If checks are already off, this option reads Enable Style Checks While Writing instead.

See Using the I'm Finished Button to learn more about the full set of checks PERRLA runs when you're ready to turn in your paper.

Things to Know

  • PERRLA Online only. The PERRLA for Word Add-in and the Google Docs add-on use Word's and Google's own spellcheck and grammar tools, so the custom dictionary and format checks don't apply there.
  • Your writing stays private. Spell check and format checks run entirely in your browser – your writing is never sent anywhere to be checked. Only the words you add to your dictionary are saved to your account.
  • Grammarly and QuillBot affect spelling, not formatting. If you use one of those alongside PERRLA, spelling checks hand off to that tool instead of your PERRLA dictionary. Format checks keep running either way, since Grammarly and QuillBot don't know the rules of your paper's format.
  • Added words work offline. A word you add without an internet connection works right away and saves to your account once you're back online.
  • Older papers aren't included. APA 6 and MLA 8 papers use an older spellchecker and don't support the custom dictionary or format checks.

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