In Mail, how to show misspellings without automatically correcting them?

That's the answer, Eric Root! I did have 'Correct Spelling Automatically' checked. I was only looking at Mail Prefs., and never thought of looking at the Edit menu. I have unchecked it, and now Mail works just like I want it to — with red underscoring, but no automatic correcting. Thank you very much.

Thanks, dianeoforegon — of Portland, I seem to remember from a previous discussion. But you may have missed the following from my post: '…one can set spell-checking either to ask about corrections after one has finished the message and clicks 'Send', or to show each misspelt word and offer a correction as one types. The latter saves a great deal of time…' (emphases added). I knew that one could set spell-checking to occur when one had completed one's message and clicked 'Send', but my point was that that wastes a lot of time, especially if one has used foreign words or unconventional spellings (I like to use 'z' instead of 's' in words with Greek rather than Latin roots, for instance, such as 'energize') which one wants to accept. This method even invariably throws up the addressee's e-mail address as a misspelt word because of the '@' as well as because names are not usually dictionary words.

What one really wants, in my opinion, is a setting whereby each unusual word or spelling is flagged up as one types it, but the version one has typed is the one that is retained by default. That is what happens with the red underscores in Pages, etc. But I realise (realize? no; from Latin 're', not from Greek) that Apple have gone for everyday speed of typing with conventional spelling, not for idiosyncratic writers.

I'm sorry, dianeoforegon, I misread your corresponding suggestion: I was still thinking about Mail Preferences and missed your reference to the top toolbar and the Edit menu. And what's more, I have now discovered that the same procedure works here in Safari, too. But it does give me the red underscores that I am so familiar with.

And thanks for the LocaDictionary suggestion, too.

But now, maybe, it's my turn to provide some information rather than to ask for some. After an unsuccessful attempt to add a word to the local spelling dictionary by opening it, I have discovered the way to do it. It seems not to be by going to LocalDictionary in one's library, though once one or more words have been added, a file named by one's selected language will appear alongside LocalDictionary which one can then edit in TextEdit. This is how to add a word:

1. Open an application that uses the spell-checking facility (e.g. Pages or TextEdit).

2. Type the word to be added to the spelling dictionary.

3. Control-click on the word.

4. Click on 'Learn Spelling'.

I have made one more discovery about the file that is created when a new word or spelling is added. If one has added a wrong spelling, the way to remove it is not to open and try to edit the file in Library > Spelling, but once again to open an application like Pages or TextEdit, type the wrong spelling that one wants to remove, control-click on it and click on 'Unlearn Spelling'.

Btw, those spellings of Greek-derived words with 'z' instead of 's', like 'energize', that I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread are not idiosyncrasies of mine. They are the ones given in the Oxford English Dictionary, and the Apple spelling dictionary for UK English is wrong to include the 's' versions instead. On the other hand I was wrong to insist on 'realise' instead of 'realize': the OED gives the latter.