Pages 09, v.4.0.4

Are you a REALLY good speller, but now and then suspect a word just doesn't quite look right?

Instead of running spellcheck for the whole document, highlight the word and with mouse down, press Control. A correct spelling (if needed) shows at the top of the contextual menu. Select it, and the word will be corrected in the file.

If the misspelling could be more than one word, all will be listed. Choose the one you want.
(example, I misspelled "catastrophe" to CATASTROPHIE. Two choices appeared: "catastrophe" and "catastrophic")

If the word is spelled correctly, no alternatives will show up. (BUT, it's up to you to be sure the grammar and usage is OK, as always.)

What will they think of next!!

You could just turn on the live spell check (Edit/Spelling/Check Spelling as You Type) and then misspelled word will be noted automatically with a red line underneath. You can also check grammar as you type by turning on Proofing.

True, Jack. But if your writing has a lot of legitimate abbreviations, proper names, specialty lingo, or other unrecognized but OK items, they would be underlined as well as true errors. Could just be a nuisance - an individual decision, however. Nice to have the choices, though.

Proofing sounds interesting. Haven't tried it yet.

If you use those terms often, you can add them to the dictionary. Yes, a bit of work at first, but once done, you'll be alerted to misspellings you might miss if you rely on always checking the document manually.

Sounds good! I think I was just rather amazed when I tried the method above.
Thanks Jack.