Patent Document ID: 6131102
Application ID: 09094955

Base Claim:
1. For an electronic system for spell-checking an electronic document, a method for generating a numerical cost in association with a suggested word for replacing a misspelled word, the method comprising the steps of: comparing the suggested word to the misspelled word to determine the transformation between the suggested word and the misspelled word and assigning a cost to that transformation, wherein the cost is based on determining whether the transformation is stored in a built-in string list; and if so, retrieving a built-in string numerical cost from the built-in string list and if the transformation matches one of a plurality of generic transformation types comprising a generic numerical cost stored in association with the matching generic transformation type, then retrieving the generic numerical cost.

---

Claim 2:
2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of generic transformation types comprises a substitution, a deletion, an insertion, and a transposition.