The Enid Blyton Society

IceMaiden wrote: I know, the autocorrect function on this tablet is driving me crazy! Apostraphe's seem to confuse it completely, it is determined to alter their/they're your/you're and insert random words to the end of others which I forget to check as my last one didn't do it. Even more annoying is the fact there doesn't appear to be a way of switching it off either .

Dunno if you've got the same Fire as me, I've got the 5th gen, but I've had a look at the settings and found how to sort out the autocorrect.

Go to Settings > Keyboard & Language > Current Keyboard and then Keyboard Settings. Then select Text Correction, and there's an option in the list for Auto-correction. If you select that, you can choose the level of auto correct, right from switching it off altogether up through Modest, Aggressive or Very Aggressive. I suspect yours is on V.A.
Modest might be better. Mine was on V.A when I checked just now, but I don't seem to have as many problems as you're having.

Rob Houghton wrote:I've found that some keyboards are more accurate than others, too. The current laptop I have has an awful keyboard - it doesn't seem to be able to keep up with my typing, even though I'm not that fast! It often gives me two capital letters at the start of a name (eg ENid) as if I have typed too quickly for it, and it often misses letters off, or adds letters!

The laptop I had previously was much better - the keyboard rarely made a mistake, but the laptop before that was very much like this one and caused lots of errors. The only thing I can think of is that I paid around £400 for the better keyboard laptop, and only around £200 for the present one. But really price shouldn't make a difference when it comes to accuracy!

Rob, I know that (at least in my case) it's definitely not the keyboard.
I'm near-sighted and for the past 7 or 8 years am using a special white keyboard with large keys and large black letters on top of these keys (called KeysUSee for only $ 35). Since the typing went much better (less typos), because I can see which letter I'm touching (I can't do 10 fingers typing). Better even than before 2009 when I still used a black keyboard with small white letters.

However, the autocorrect function sneaked up on my computer after one of the browser changes. I think it was not yet happening with Windows Explorer or Google Chrome, but it happens every day since I am using Mozilla.
Whenever I post something or type a long e-mail to a friend, I need to take the time to proof read, before I send it. It's such a waste of time to tunr everything back into the correct spelling that the autocorrect mis-spells, but nothing can be done about it.

Chrissie why not type it in Word then copy and paste it into the email? That would stop it autocorrecting anything.

Carlotta King wrote: Dunno if you've got the same Fire as me, I've got the 5th gen, but I've had a look at the settings and found how to sort out the autocorrect.

Go to Settings > Keyboard & Language > Current Keyboard and then Keyboard Settings. Then select Text Correction, and there's an option in the list for Auto-correction. If you select that, you can choose the level of auto correct, right from switching it off altogether up through Modest, Aggressive or Very Aggressive. I suspect yours is on V.A.
Modest might be better. Mine was on V.A when I checked just now, but I don't seem to have as many problems as you're having.

Thank you Carlotta. I've just tried that and I don't think mine is the same fire as yours as although it will go to auto-correction option, it will only allow me to switch it off or on. They must have removed the levels in other models which is a great pity as it would have been a useful feature to keep. It does seem a little better now though - at least it appears to recognise the apostraphe!

Chrissie's right, you can't remove autocorrection altogether as it must be programmed into the computer as a 'helpful feature'. Personally I think it's more off a hindrance than a help! I also think it's a big reason why spelling has gone poor, people relying on it to check their work instead of looking and correcting it themselves. Anyway, sorry for going off topic Anita , back to the main subject....

I've almost finished my re-read of Find Outer books and every one has been a joy to read from cover to cover. Recalling that thread where somebody in an article had said Enid had no humour, all I could say to that is whoever it was had obviously not read the FO books! I think their full of humour and thanks to Fatty's antics winding up Goon, I would consider them to be one of the funniest series. I am in the middle of Missing Man and Fatty has hidden Goon's bike then phoned him to report it stolen. I love the fact Mr Goon just can't get the better of him no matter what

Personally I've never seen autocorrect on a PC or laptop, not in a browser anyway. Word usually corrects very common misspellings (and double captitals) but that can be turned off for individual words or entirely.

IceMaiden wrote:I've almost finished my re-read of Find Outer books and every one has been a joy to read from cover to cover. Recalling that thread where somebody in an article had said Enid had no humour, all I could say to that is whoever it was had obviously not read the FO books! I think their full of humour and thanks to Fatty's antics winding up Goon, I would consider them to be one of the funniest series. I am in the middle of Missing Man and Fatty has hidden Goon's bike then phoned him to report it stolen. I love the fact Mr Goon just can't get the better of him no matter what

Ah yes - the thread was 'Enid's Rare Flash of Humour' and it contained a link to a book-listing in which someone claimed that The Mystery of the Hidden House was "Enid Blyton's only book that displays a sense of humour" Besides the Find-Outers series, I think the two Blyton titles that made me laugh most as a child were The Adventures of Binkle and Flip and The Rilloby Fair Mystery. There are humorous scenes in many of her books though, not to mention numerous stories about comical characters like Meddle and Twiddle.

Very true. FFO, Meddle and Twiddle series. These series have comical characters and incidents. I have always attracted to funny series. I love humour.

Plus Snubby and Loony characters to provide comic relief.

Mr Twiddle has to have the most consistently comedic books, IMHO! Every story is a funny one, but there is plenty of humour to be found in other books between the drama, adventure or other elements.

Fiona1986 wrote:Chrissie why not type it in Word then copy and paste it into the email? That would stop it autocorrecting anything.

Fiona, that's really a very good tip, I should do it, but I just never think of it.
I click on "reply" and answer every message that I get and then struggle with the autocorrector.
Maybe I'll start doing that with long answers to my German friends from now on. It sure would save me a lot of back-correcting in order to beat the autocorrecting system.
Thanks!

Fiona1986 wrote:Personally I've never seen autocorrect on a PC or laptop, not in a browser anyway. Word usually corrects very common misspellings (and double captitals) but that can be turned off for individual words or entirely.

I agree with Fiona, there are many programmes installed on my Internet-PC, but it doesn't include active autocorrect-options. The email-software I use (Mozilla Thunderbird) offers a spell-checking, but it doesn't change words to things it supposes to be right automatically, it allows me to make my own mistakes.
MS-Word has auto-correct, but you can switch it off (at least in the options I use).

I agree. The browsers in PC or laptop do not have autocorrect option.

I agree the Find Outer books are some of Enid's most comical. Also agree about Binkle and Flip. I always found Amelia Jane comical as a child, too.

I have to agree with Anita about Rilloby Fair - in fact, this qualifies as by far the most comical book Enid ever wrote in my opinion! The humour is so natural, and grows out of the characters and what they say and do. Definitely the funniest book!

Wolfgang wrote:

Fiona1986 wrote:Personally I've never seen autocorrect on a PC or laptop, not in a browser anyway. Word usually corrects very common misspellings (and double captitals) but that can be turned off for individual words or entirely.

I agree with Fiona, there are many programmes installed on my Internet-PC, but it doesn't include active autocorrect-options. The email-software I use (Mozilla Thunderbird) offers a spell-checking, but it doesn't change words to things it supposes to be right automatically, it allows me to make my own mistakes.
MS-Word has auto-correct, but you can switch it off (at least in the options I use).

Wolfgang, thanks for trying to help me.
I believe you have a MAC computer, don't you?
Mine is a simple Energy Star Windows 7. I refuse to change to Windows 10 as many of my friends complained about the changes between Windows 7 and Windows 10.
My husband assumes it's the fact that I still have Windows 7 and even though he switched this auto-correction program off so many times on my PC, somehow it always sneaks back up on my computer (we assume it happens when the computer needs to be turned off for his many updates which used to come 2 or 3 times a year and now come 2 or 3 times a month ).

I just have to accept to live in a constant state of having to correct everything back into the way I typed it before. Or like Fiona suggested to type it into Microsoft Word if it's a long answer. It's not worth doing it for short posts like the ones on EBS, I just re-read everything and correct it back, before I post it (and I bet I even miss a typo or two).

Why did I ever expect that life would finally get less complicated the older I get? It just doesn't...

Tearing us away from computer/IT issues, i thought this would make a great caption comp picture!