#K12 Disable spell check for writing test

[jacob_salmela]

Every year, we do a GRAD writing test and need spell/grammar check disabled. Unfortunately, developers have built spell checks into everything--the OS, apps, and browsers. I have run into a lot of difficulties trying to disable all layers of spell checks.

We use Google Docs and I would like to disable spell check there, but it is not a global setting we can set administratively.

Currently, we are using TextEdit on the Macs and disabling spell/grammar check there, but students can still just go and turn it on.

Does anyone use a specific program or have any ideas for this? I plan to see if it can be put in as a feature request with Google, but thought I would see if anyone else needs to do anything similar.

[boberito · Accepted solution]

We just had to do this for students taking the SATs.

You can't do it within Google Docs as far as I know but you can remove it within TextEdit.

Here's the link we followed - http://www.chromescreen.com/disable-spell-checker-in-mac-osx-system-wide/

[jacob_salmela]

Der boberito:

Thanks for the link. I put in a feature request with Google to make it an option to disable the spell check in the admin control panel.

Sincerely,

Jake Salmela

[jacob_salmela]

Der boberito:

Thanks for the link. I put in a feature request with Google to make it an option to disable the spell check in the admin control panel.

Sincerely,

Jake Salmela

[chris_kemp]

I found another way that appears to work (definitely works in TextEdit), at the end of this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2577594?start=15&tstart=0

Under System Preferences -> Language & Text -> Text: 1. Un-check "Correct spelling automatically" 2. Spelling: select "Set Up...", then un-check all the dictionaries. It will require one to be checked - leave the last one, Polski, checked.
3. Spelling: set to "Automatic by Language"

Now, the red lines for misspelled words do not appear. :) I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure you should be able to find the plist where this is set & deploy it as needed, then restore it when testing is done.

[Niels_Illem]

1. Open Actvity Monitor and a Finder window showing System:Library:Services
2. Search in Activity Monitor for process AppleSpellService, Quit the process,
3. Go to the Finder window and remove AppleSpellService, also remove the OpenSpellService.
4. System Wide all the red lines removed!

[jacob_salmela]

Thanks for all of the responses. It looks like all the methods work. Unfortunately, there is nothing stopping students from going in and turning it back on...

[Chris_Hafner]

We do this regularly. I can't remember off the top of my head (will check and post for you). As I remember we simply nuked the dictionaries on the OS itself. We setup a few machines that are only used for this sort of testing (SAT in our case). Saved it as a separate OS image so we can swap back and forth as needed.

[jacob_salmela]

Interesting about the separate image...We only do the test once a year, so I don't want to put a ton of work into but, but at the same time, all layers of the system try to help you with the spell check. There are spell checks in the OS, in the apps, and in the browsers. Making sure each of those are disabled and unable to be changed by students isn't always the quickest or easiest of tasks.

[kenergy]

Can you just add AppleSpellService to the blacklisted apps? So if the app tries to run it would just quit.

[Chris_Hafner]

Also a good idea. I figured that I had to chip back in and correct my previous response. It turns out that we forced our students to use word and blacklisted everything else via parental controls (including textedit) and then deleted all of the MS dictionaries. Sorry to mislead you. Blacklisting AppleSpellService is a good way to go.

With that said, creating separate images is super easy and useful. Simply take an image you've already made, modify it as mentioned above and create a new image to store and use randomly.

[john_bailey]

The following script will set the spelling language to ONLY Korean, disable all of the auto text replacement features (except for "on my way") and open a TextEdit window.

#!/bin/sh
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin export PATH

# Disable text auto-replacement
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSAutomaticCapitalizationEnabled -bool false
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSAutomaticDashSubstitutionEnabled -bool false
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSAutomaticPeriodSubstitutionEnabled -bool false
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSAutomaticQuoteSubstitutionEnabled -bool false
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSAutomaticSpellingCorrectionEnabled -bool false
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSAutomaticTextCompletionEnabled -bool false
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSSpellCheckerAutomaticallyIdentifiesLanguages -bool false
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist WebAutomaticSpellingCorrectionEnabled -bool false
defaults delete ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems -array
defaults delete ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist AppleLanguages
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist AppleLanguages -array-add "en" "ko"
defaults delete ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSLinguisticDataAssetsRequested
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSLinguisticDataAssetsRequested -array-add "en" "en_US" "ko"
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSPreferredSpellServerLanguage "ko"
defaults delete ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSPreferredSpellServerVendors
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSPreferredSpellServerVendors -dict "ko" -string "Apple"
defaults delete ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSPreferredSpellServers
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist NSPreferredSpellServers -array-add "ko" "Apple"

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder"' -e 'set rrr to get bounds of window of desktop' -e 'end tell' -e 'tell application "TextEdit"' -e 'activate' -e 'set bounds of window 1 to rrr' -e 'end tell'

[Chris_Hafner]

@john.bailey I got a pretty good chuckle out of that. I like your thinking.