Internet Explorer spell checker Speckie 6.0 released

Martin Brinkmann
Sep 29, 2013
Internet Explorer
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5

Spell checking is an essential feature for many Internet and computer users, and it has been integrated into nearly every web browser and many other applications that accept text input.

For me, it is one of the essential tools that I do not want to miss, as it helps to avoid many spelling mistakes that I would make otherwise, considering that English is not my native language.

Internet Explorer 9 and earlier do not have spell checking components built-in. Microsoft started to add spell checking capabilities to Internet Explorer 10 and newer only.

Tip: To enable the native spelling correction in Internet Explorer 10 and newer, click on the menu icon in the browser's address bar, and select manage add-ons from the context menu. Click on Spelling Correction under Add-on Types, and check the "Enable spelling correction" box here. You may also want to add spelling dictionaries here as well.

The free Internet Explorer add-on Speckie added spell checking to Internet Explorer, so that users of the browser can benefit from the feature as well.

Internet Explorer spell checker

spell check speckie internet explorer

Speckie 6.0 was released a couple of days ago by Versoworks. It is interesting to note that it is compatible with all recent versions of Internet Explorer, including Internet Explorer 10 and newer, on all versions of Windows but Windows 8.

The installation should not pose any troubles whatsoever. Newer versions of Internet Explorer will display a prompt on the next browser start that acts as an installation confirmation prompt. You need to click on enable to activate the extension and use the spell checking capabilities in Microsoft's web browser.

Speckie works automatically from that moment on. It supports both single line and multi line text fields and will highlight - potential - spelling mistakes with a red underline. Just right-click on it to display the suggestions instead.

If you find one that you want to use, left-click on it and it will replace the current word or phrase in the editor.

Options

Here you find a link to the options of Speckie as well. You can alternatively load about:speckie in the address bar to get there right away.

speckie 6.0 spell checking settings

You can use the preferences to add or remove dictionaries, change the number of suggestions, how spelling errors are highlighted, and if the add-on should check both multi and single line text fields or just one of the two.

Dictionaries can be downloaded form the official Speckie website. It is alternatively possible to add user dictionaries to Speckie.

Changes in version 6.0

Version 6.0 of Speckie adds support for Internet Explorer 11, and improved support for rich editors. Internet Explorer 8 and older users benefit from an update in spell checking functionality as words are no longer tagged with each key stroke made.

It is interesting to note that the non-commercial version of Speckie does not support Windows 8 anymore. The company suggests to use the WinSpell alternative instead which is also available as a non-commercial use version.

Verdict

If you are using Internet Explorer 9 or earlier, or want to migrate your custom Speckie dictionaries to IE 10 or newer, or prefer how the add-on handles the spell checking, then it is definitely worth the upgrade or installation. It is a lightweight application that does not appear to slow down Internet Explorer a whole lot while it is running.

Note that you need administrative privileges in the non-commercial version to use the spell checker.

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Comments

  1. Hans van Aken said on September 30, 2013 at 8:25 pm
    Reply

    People preferring Firefox as browser may use this one: American English Spelling Checker
    https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/american-english-spelling-c/?src=ss.
    It’s brand new, working fine. There are also add-ons for other languages.

    1. Erica said on October 1, 2013 at 3:24 pm
      Reply

      this is really helpful thank you

  2. YB said on September 29, 2013 at 7:28 pm
    Reply

    The best spell checker is WordWeb. You install it and leave it running in the background. If you need to spell a word or know the meaning you just select the word and wordweb will pop up. Great tool.

    1. Swapnil said on September 30, 2013 at 6:39 am
      Reply

      Software like WordWeb can help you if you want to look for a word’s spelling. Most of the times I need a spellchecker, is when I know most of the spellings but accidentally there can always be mistakes while typing. So to identify them, a spellchecker is required – WordWeb cannot act as a substitute in this case. Also a spellchecker is required in cases like – I might remember a wrong spelling such as “accidentially” (English is not my native language too) and type it. I won’t refer to WordWeb in this case as I believe it’s correct – but a spellchecker would catch the wrong spelling.
      So, you can’t substitute a spellchecker with anything else like WordWeb.

  3. ilev said on September 29, 2013 at 4:53 pm
    Reply

    Couldn’t uninstall previous version and couldn’t install over it either.

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