How can I spellcheck in gvim?

Question

What is the best way to spellcheck in gvim? Is there an add-on or something?

Update:

I would like it to offer corrections as well.

Answer 1

Use :set spell to turn on spell-checking. If it's source code, gvim is smart enough to only spellcheck comments and string literals.

:help spell will give you all the details. Here are some excerpts:

To search for the next misspelled word:

]s           Move to next misspelled word after the cursor.
             A count before the command can be used to repeat.
             'wrapscan' applies.

[s           Like "]s" but search backwards, find the misspelled
             word before the cursor.  

Finding suggestions for bad words:

z=           For the word under/after the cursor, suggest correctly
             spelled words.

To add words to your own word list:

zg           Add word under the cursor as a good word

Also see :help set spelllang for information on changing your dictionary to include other regions, languages, or word sets (for example, medical jargon).

gvim must be compiled with |+syntax|.

Thanks to rmeador's comments for much of the above goodness.

Answer 2

Do :set spell to turn on spell-checking. See :h spell for help and info about how spell-checking works and how to use different languages and dictionaries and such.

Answer 3

Just a note: you need vim 7 to get spell checking... That shouldn't be a problem, though, because it's been around long enough that even Debian stable uses it.

Answer 4

I started using

aspell

which comes with Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/). (It's a package, but the default install plus manually-added aspell is pretty tiny and quick to download.)

When I want to spell check the current file, I use a function defined in my .vimrc (or _vimrc) that saves the file, runs aspell on it, then reloads the file:

:function! SpellCheck()
:   w!
:   !c:\prog\cygwin\bin\aspell.exe --dont-backup check "%"
:   e! %
:endfunction

to use this function I just do:

:call SpellCheck()

It goes through the file just like Microsoft Word would, I exit, and then the file is reloaded with corrections.

Running aspell externally without having to move my mouse is integrated enough for me. I've never liked on-the-fly spell checking. I find it and things like IntelliSense distracting.