Why It’s So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos

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AnnaMarie

Well-Known Member
Feb 16, 2012
7,068
29,564
Other
When I worked as a secretary I had a word processor and I always told people PROOF READ--IT'S YOUR NAME GOING ON IT.

I always used spell check, and I usually did a manual proof read, but occasionally so,etching would slip through. Sometimes it was funny. Once it was embarrassing.
 

Grandpa

Well-Known Member
Mar 2, 2014
9,724
53,642
Colorado
I'm sure you guys have seen this, but...

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
I'm sure you guys have seen this, but...

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
Gonna steal this for the Grammar thread...
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
5-video-games-title-typos-thatd-change-everything-20120122081959682.jpg
..."I'll kill for some mascara!!!!"......
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
However, my phone thinks it knows better than me what I am trying to text.
My computer is doing that! I didn't know computers could have predictive text, but I keep coming across posts or noticing just before I hit 'post' that what my post says is not what I intended, and they're not typos. I need to figure out how to turn the damn thing off, because there are words (generally slang) it refuses to recognize every time, and it changes them.
 

Walter Oobleck

keeps coming back...or going, and going, and going
Mar 6, 2013
11,749
34,805
...because they run so fast and they hide well?

I've read some curious...typos?...on the kindle. Went to look for an example just now but could not find it. But the...mistakes?...I've seen can possibly be explained...how? How are stories formatted on the kindle? The mistakes I mean seem to be explained by a merging of two letters...or say like an "h" being read? as a "d"? Again, a real example would work great. The one in particular I'm thinking about...I was reading it as a real word...a character gets in/out of a car...a character steps onto a step...can't think of the word that was used to convey action...and as I read it I thought it was an...archaic manner of expression...it did make some sense but it made me pause. And then toward story's end it dawned on me that it is likely a typo of sorts...which made me wonder...again...how story is formatted on the kindle. Does a machine read them, a computer, scan it but it makes a mistake...maybe the type is blurred on the page and the machine does the best it can? Then too, I think some of the "free" stories available...stories that have been around a long time...I think those were typed up by volunteers. I dunno...wish I could find the one I am thinking about...action verb for something the feet do...bomp, stomp, jump...bebop..a "b-word" I think...that's what I recall. Kinda like misplacing something...a hammer...a wrench...I know it is somewhere in the house but I'll be tied if I can find it. The only solution is to start at one end turning all upside down till it shakes out of something. :confused:

...and too, juest...just...jest...red a post in The Under The Dome thread about software that reads, scans so forth so on...so...information. still haven't found the darn thing.
 

Moderator

Ms. Mod
Administrator
Jul 10, 2006
52,243
157,324
Maine
...because they run so fast and they hide well?

I've read some curious...typos?...on the kindle. Went to look for an example just now but could not find it. But the...mistakes?...I've seen can possibly be explained...how? How are stories formatted on the kindle? The mistakes I mean seem to be explained by a merging of two letters...or say like an "h" being read? as a "d"? Again, a real example would work great. The one in particular I'm thinking about...I was reading it as a real word...a character gets in/out of a car...a character steps onto a step...can't think of the word that was used to convey action...and as I read it I thought it was an...archaic manner of expression...it did make some sense but it made me pause. And then toward story's end it dawned on me that it is likely a typo of sorts...which made me wonder...again...how story is formatted on the kindle. Does a machine read them, a computer, scan it but it makes a mistake...maybe the type is blurred on the page and the machine does the best it can? Then too, I think some of the "free" stories available...stories that have been around a long time...I think those were typed up by volunteers. I dunno...wish I could find the one I am thinking about...action verb for something the feet do...bomp, stomp, jump...bebop..a "b-word" I think...that's what I recall. Kinda like misplacing something...a hammer...a wrench...I know it is somewhere in the house but I'll be tied if I can find it. The only solution is to start at one end turning all upside down till it shakes out of something. :confused:

...and too, juest...just...jest...red a post in The Under The Dome thread about software that reads, scans so forth so on...so...information. still haven't found the darn thing.

I don't know the mechanics of how files are converted for Kindles so can't help you there.

OCR stands for optical character recognition. When you scan a page using that software it converts it to a digital file but sometimes the recognition piece isn't the best and if someone doesn't go through to correct those errors, you get the odd formatting.