X

Spell check may be Internet Explorer's Achilles' heel

Firefox, Google Chrome, and nearly every other browser not named Internet Explorer check your spelling as you type and suggest corrections when you right click.

Dennis O'Reilly Former CNET contributor
Dennis O'Reilly began writing about workplace technology as an editor for Ziff-Davis' Computer Select, back when CDs were new-fangled, and IBM's PC XT was wowing the crowds at Comdex. He spent more than seven years running PC World's award-winning Here's How section, beginning in 2000. O'Reilly has written about everything from web search to PC security to Microsoft Excel customizations. Along with designing, building, and managing several different web sites, Dennis created the Travel Reference Library, a database of travel guidebook reviews that was converted to the web in 1996 and operated through 2000.
See full bio
Dennis O'Reilly
3 min read
A reader named Lenny responded recently to a about browser spell checkers to ask whether Internet Explorer 8 finally has a built-in spell checker. Unfortunately, the only way to get spell check and suggested corrections in IE 8 is by relying on the spell check built into the site you're visiting or by installing a third-party extension.

But even then, Firefox and Chrome out-spell-check IE in a landslide.

The earlier post compared Firefox's built-in spell-check feature with the spelling checker in the free IE7Pro extension for Internet Explorer. It seems IE7Pro is no longer being supported by its developer, but several other IE add-ons offer to check the text you enter into Web pages. Perhaps the most popular of these is ieSpell from Red Egg Software.

The place I need as-I-type spell checking the most is in Gmail. Unfortunately, ieSpell doesn't check your Gmail messages as you type the way Firefox and Google Chrome do, nor does it let you right-click a misspelling to see suggested substitutes. The ieSpell option the program adds to IE's right-click menu checks the entire document, starting at the top.

Not even the Bing Toolbar (formerly the MSN Toolbar) offers a spell-check option. The only way I found to check my e-mail messages as I typed in IE was to use Hotmail. And since I forward the messages sent to my Gmail account to Hotmail, that's not a problem. (Google provides instructions for forwarding mail to and from Gmail on the service's Help site.)

Google Toolbar's modest upgrade to the Firefox spell checker
To enable Firefox's spell-check option, click Tools, Options, Advanced and select "Check my spelling as I type" under Browsing. The Google Toolbar for Firefox adds three options, the first two of which are checked by default: ignore all caps, ignore words with numbers in them, and ignore unrecognized words that appear repeatedly.

Google Toolbar's Tools options
Firefox's all-or-nothing spell checker is enhanced with three settings in the Google Toolbar for Firefox spell-check feature. Google

Chrome extension adds more precise spelling and grammar checks
The spell checker in Google Chrome is on by default, and as far as I can tell, there's no easy way to disable it or adjust it. The new After the Deadline extension for Chrome not only highlights potential spelling and grammar errors, it also critiques your prose, hunting for passive voice, cliches, biased language, double negatives, jargon, and redundancies (I wonder if it also spots run-on sentences).

After installing the free extension, an "AtD" icon is added on the right side of Chrome's search/address field. The icon also appears in the bottom-right corner of forms and other text windows in Chrome. Click it to activate the spelling and grammar checks.

Multicolor lines appear under potential errors. Click the item to see suggested alternative spellings or the reason for the bad-grammar warning. The extension supports French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese in addition to English.

After the Deadline's grammar suggestion in a text window
After the Deadline adds a grammar critique as well as a spell check to the text you enter in the Google Chrome browser. rsmudge

Sadly, After the Deadline doesn't work with Gmail. And while the AtD icon appears when composing a message in Hotmail, I wasn't able to run the spelling and grammar check in that webmail service, either. But when the extension works, it can be a shaky writer's best friend.

Two full-featured online spell checkers
Several sites offer to scan your text for spelling errors and suggest corrections on a paste-as-you-go basis. Two of the best of these are SpellChecker.net and Spelljax, although neither is as convenient as having your spelling checked on the fly.

Services and Software Guides

VPN
Cybersecurity
Streaming Services
Web Hosting & Websites
Other Services & Software
Services and Software Coupons