Users who are interested in finding out how spell checking will work in Internet Explorer 10 can head over to the test drive website to find out right now. Microsoft has created a test page where users can test Internet Explorer 10′s spell checking capabilities. The page works only if you run Internet Explorer 10 on the Windows 8 Platform Preview. It won’t work in other web browsers or on other operating systems.

Internet Explorer 10 will not only support spell checking but also auto correction of text which works identical to that of Microsoft’s Office suite.

The test demonstrates the web browsers following capabilities:

Auto-Correction: When you enter a misspelled word in a text area form Internet Explorer 10 may auto-correct the entered word while you may continue to type in the form.

Spellcheck: Words that are not spelled correctly will be underlined in Internet Explorer 10 just like they are in other web browsers that are already supporting spell checking. A right-click on an underlined word displays the suggest correction in the context menu where it can be selected. A right-click on an auto-corrected word brings up the option to force the browser to ignore the word from now on to stop auto-correcting it.

The spelling correction uses Microsoft spellchecking engine and dictionaries. It is important to note that spell checking is by default only enabled for text area HTMl elements and not text boxes. Microsoft notes that web developers can override the defaults.

It is not clear if Internet Explorer 10 users will also be able to change the behavior of the web browser’s spell checking and auto-correction capabilities.

The integration of spell checking and auto-correction in Internet Explorer 10 is a step long overdue, especially when you consider that IE is used by many organizations as the primary browser.

Third party tools come to the rescue. One of the most popular spell checkers for Internet Explorer is SpeckIE. The add-on is compatible with all recent versions of the web browser including Internet Explorer 9.

Like other Internet Explorer add-ons it comes as a standalone executable. Just download the program and follow the setup to add the add-on to Internet Explorer.

You are asked to confirm that you want to add SpeckIE to Internet Explorer on first run after installation of the spell checker. Make sure you accept the inclusion. I had to close Internet Explorer afterwards and start the browser anew to get the spell checker to working.

The spell checker works after that on its own with no option to configure it further. You can access SpeckIE’s options via the Tools menu of Internet Explorer or by entering about:Speckie in the Internet Explorer address bar after installation and activation.

Here it is possible to include or exclude installed dictionaries and user dictionaries, turn off the spell checking for single line edit fields and to limit the number of spelling suggestions per dictionary. It is furthermore possible to change the tag style and color of spelling mistakes. The default is a red dotted wave line that’s displayed whenever words cannot be properly identified by the dictionary. This can be because you have misspelled the word or because it is not in the add-on’s dictionary.

SpeckIE comes as a 32-bit and 64-bit edition for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Internet Explorer. It ships with an English dictionary file by default. Other dictionaries are available on the developer website. These additional dictionaries can be installed with a double-click after downloading them.

I suggest you download the spell checker from a software portal like Softpedia, as you need to register an account at the developer website before you can download it from there.

As a developer and a dreadful speller, I’m one of the worst offenders and have been of the understanding it didn’t matter as the mistakes were kept safely under to hood and didn’t affect how the code ran. I’ve never had a single complaint from a snobby compiler or interpreter about my awful spelling.


/// <summary>
/// Defines the code used when emailing user invatations.
/// </summary>
public Guid? InvatationCode { get; set; }


Over the years however I’ve worked with gigabytes of public and private code written by other developers and when I see incorrect spelling in source code it instantly undermines the credibility and professionalism of the whole source.

The problem can get more serious when a contributor or original writer attempts to later correct the mistake as this can lead to mismatches and errors. Sometimes the spelling mistake can be hard to rectify, as is the case if there is a misspelling in an interface, database table or column name.
I have come to value and see the importance of taking the time to correct spelling and grammatical errors and realized nowadays a spell checker is an essential item in the developer’s toolkit.

Some Integrated Development Environments like Xcode and Eclipse have spellcheckers built-in. However Xcode’s checker doesn’t discriminate between words that should be checked (like comments) and syntax that should be ignored (like “*argv[]”). Eclipse is better at recognizing these differences although it does require you to provide your own dictionary.

Visual Studio 2010 has a number of third party spellcheckers that will keep you from getting red faced when you check in your code.

Spell Checker for Visual Studio by ComponentOne is the top of the line option but at 195$ for a license most developers opt for one of the free alternatives.

HTML Spell Checker is written by Mikhail Arkhipov, a Principal Architect at Microsoft and checks HTML as well as code comments. He uses the Microsoft Office dictionary and spell checking engine.

Another popular free option is Noah Richards’s Spell Checker. It can check html, code comments as well as literal strings.

All of the above checkers are able to correct spelling in a number of languages. Now if we could just have a checker (and corrector) for dreadful code…

Both methods are not really practicable. The author of tiny Spell seemed to have the same thoughts and decided to create a software that would work as an universal spell checker in Windows using the least amount of resources possible.

Tiny Spell checks all words typed in Windows against an English-American dictionary with more than 110000 words. This is done on the fly and the program plays a sound and changes its icon in the system tray whenever it discovers a word that seems to be spelled wrong.

The clipboard is monitored as well. It is then possible to take a look at the suggestions by either clicking on the icon in the system tray or pressing a hotkey that lists suggestions. The selected word can optionally be automatically copied to the clipboard or pasted into the document of the misspelled word.

Many Windows applications have built-in spell checking but others do not. TinySpell is convenient software available in a free version and you can use it to add spell checking to any application. There is a paid version available with more features, but the free version will suffice for most practical purposes. The Notepad in Windows 7 is a handy tool but does not feature spell checking, for example. If you want to add spell checking to the Notepad or any other application in Windows, this is a great way to do it.
The download link for tinySpell is as follows: tinySpell Homepage

The installation is simple. Just follow the prompts. After tinySpell has been installed, you will find a shortcut icon on the desktop. You can access tinySpell from this desktop icon or from the System Tray Icon. To begin, examine all of the settings to determine if you would like to make any display modifications. Right-click the System Tray Icon. This opens the Context Menu. Select Settings.

Click Add to include all the applications you wish to use tinySpell with. The easiest way to go about this depends on how many applications you want to enable the feature with versus the number of applications you do not want to use with tinySpell. At the top of the window, if Enabled is highlighted, you will be adding applications with which tinySpell will be disabled. If Disabled is highlighted, tinySpell will only be enabled with applications you add to the list.

Add any words to the dictionary whenever you want to. Go to the context menu and select Dictionary.

The spelling of a word can be checked ahead of time by clicking on Open spelling window in the Context Menu. This will open the spell check window. When a misspelled word is typed in, it comes up red.

If you click the check box to the right of the word entry, it will give you a list of correct spelling options. For more complex words, there may be no suggestions. In this case, you will have to add it to the dictionary. Feel free to experiment with it to get a feel for the different possibilities.