Help with spelling in your browser

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Help with spelling in your browser

Post by Erik_Kowal » Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:09 pm

We are all familiar with this scenario: you have just pressed the 'Submit' button to post a blog comment, and when it appears on the site you realise that the text you typed contains the misspellings 'definately', 'Englsih' and 'youll'. But by then it is too late for corrections.

There are two simple tools that can help to prevent this situation from arising:

1) If you are using Firefox, go to Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Check my spelling as I type. Place a tick in the box next to this option and click the 'OK' button.

2) Both Firefox and Internet Explorer users: download and install the Google tool bar (http://www.toolbar.google.com). Once it is installed, go to Settings > Options > Features > Spellcheck. Place a tick in the box next to this option and click the 'OK' button.

There is nothing to prevent you from using both solutions at the same time.

To use the Google spellchecker, click the button on the Google toolbar labelled 'ABC Check'. The spellchecker highlights unrecognised words in red. When you click on a highlighted word a menu appears with suggested corrections which can be selected. You can also tell the spellchecker to ignore all instances of a highlighted word or to add it to Google's dictionary.

To exit the spellcheck mode, click the toolbar button again (or click anywhere in the editing window except on a highlighted word) and select "Stop spell checking" from the pop-up menu that appears.

Words that are unrecognised by the Firefox spellchecker's dictionary will be marked for your attention with a red underscore without your having to do anything further. Right-clicking each of those words will force the display of suggested alternatives.
Last edited by Phil White on Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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