This is a gender-neutral, non-partisan and multicultural public service announcement that is intended to slightly improve the quality of the blogosphere.
If you're a male, female, intersexed, transgendered, Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian, authoritarian, capitalist, communist, socialist, fascist, Nazi, anarchist, imperialist, isolationist, red-stater, blue-stater, swing-stater, gay, straight, bi-sexual, asexual, liberal, conservative, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Satanist, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, Scientologist, devout, doubter, atheist, agnostic, activist, apathetic, progressive, regressive, pragmatist, rationalist, generalist, propagandist, flame baiter, etc, blogger and/or blog commenter of any shape, size color or style you must check your spelling for the betterment of the blogosphere.
None of us are above the occasional spelling or typographical error. And since there are several freeware, browser extension utilities available to help us to catch those little mistakes and avoid the bandwidth-wasting wrath and flames of the legions of self-appointed spelling police who inhabit the blogosphere and other forums, there are no excuses other than perhaps, "I'm too lazy to be bothered with such trivialities as proper spelling and accurate typewriting."
SpellBound is a port of the spellchecker code and user interface from the Mozilla Suite's Composer that enables spell checking in web forms such as html textarea / input elements (html input password elements are not checked by SpellBound) and rich text form elements. This allows you to spell check forms (e.g. message board posts, blog entries, wysiwyg, etc.) before submitting them when using your Mozilla Firefox or Mozilla Suite browser.
ieSpell is a[n] Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes on a webpage (form fields). It should come in particularly handy for heavy web mail and/or forum users. The program installs as a new button in the IE toolbar - after filling a form, just hit the ieSpell button and it pops up a dialog, similar to the MS Word spell check.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Aaman
Nice - very nice - many easy and convenient web services can be spun up for combining these services.
Not sure of the need or relevance of the dissonant pseudo-pc statement with the tech services, though
2 - Margaret Romao Toigo
Actually, I was just looking for attention via keywords in the hope that others will tune in and offer their recommendations for/against other spell checking programs, thus creating a helpful resource.
The topic of proofreading and spell checking came up on the message boards at Blogcritic's Yahoo! group and someone asked a question about spell checking solutions for blog posts and comments, so I replied with a link to SpellBound.
I received an appreciative reply and realized that there are some knowledgeable people out there who are simply not aware of the existence of free browser based or independent spell checking programs.
Minor inspiration struck and the result is the article above. Ideally, there will be no real controversy -- although some of us computer geek types can get into real scorched Earth style holy wars over hardware, software and operating systems -- on this thread, but rather a listing of spell checkers with commentary on their various features and bugs.
3 - Aaman
Will sample these tools and report back.
On the note of the attention-getter para, it is indeed superfluous, and by that yardstick, every post should have it with the hope of boosting search ranks. Google expressly frowns on this and it can cost blogcritics (I have some familiarity with the Big G, having designed some of their processes)
If you're a male, female, intersexed, transgendered, Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian, authoritarian, capitalist, communist, socialist, fascist, Nazi, anarchist, imperialist, isolationist, red-stater, blue-stater, swing-stater, gay, straight, bi-sexual, asexual, liberal, conservative, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Satanist, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, Scientologist, devout, doubter, atheist, agnostic, activist, apathetic, progressive, regressive, pragmatist, rationalist, generalist, propagandist, flame baiter, etc, blogger and/or blog commenter of any shape, size color or style you must genuflect before Juju
4 - jarboy
good advice, and easy to install. lettz see hwo it wroks
5 - Jeremy
How about a purple-stated Seikh? Do they have to worry about spelling too?
Nice touch, I liked that.
Something should be said that one or two typos on occasion should not be dwelled upon. One of the things that irks me to no end is when people will completely ignore the point of your article simply because you did something simple like the their, there, they're debacle.
6 - Aaman
You misspelled Sikh :)
7 - Margaret Romao Toigo
Well, a spell checker isn't going to help with their, there and they're or to, two and too, here and hear or your and you're, but there are a few tricks that help people to remember.
Their, which is the possessive form of they, contains "heir" which refers to people who inherit possessions.
There, which refers to a location, contains the word, "here," as in here, there and everywhere (note the "ere").
They're is a contraction of "they are" and the apostrophe reminds us of that. The same type of thinking pattern is helpful to distinguish you're, the contraction of "you are," from your, the possessive form of "you."
Too means also or more than enough, so it needs the extra "o" to illustrate that point.
Hear means to perceive (sound) by ear and appropriately contains the word, "ear."
To many people, this is elementary school stuff and these explanations might seem a bit condescending, but it is not because there are some intelligent and well-educated people with huge vocabularies who cannot seem to get the knack of remembering how to spell common, 2-5 letter homophones.
8 - jarboy
i remember, marg, i just don't think about it when i'm writing quickly. if i take the time to proofread i usually can catch it, but i often don't take the time. i think this is the case with many other educated people, they know what is correct, but are in a hurry. so you sweet little rules won't help.
9 - Margaret Romao Toigo
You're right, jarboy, memory games and spell checkers don't do much for people who are in too much of a hurry to have time to use them.
But people who wish to avoid the distractions (from content) that such spelling and typographical errors sometimes cause should consider making the time to proofread and spell check.
And then there is that question of credibility, how can we trust that writers have checked their facts for accuracy if they do not appear to have bothered with checking their spelling?
10 - jarboy
i don't trust anyone in a blog such as this to have their there they're facts right. i don't know who the fudge they are, why should i trust anything they say? i could just as easily call myself margaret romao toigo as jarboy. i don't even trust most of the media to have their there they're facts right.
11 - james mclafferty
Question:Are spelling b's a compulsory thing in american schools or a bit of fun?.And if compulsory do you think they are a bit on the unfair side for kids who's vocabulary isn't as strong as others?.(does that make sense?)
12 - Duane
Well, James, let's see. I think a little visit from the Comment Police is in order.
(1) b's should be bees, and lose those unnecessary apostrophes
(2) there should be a comma after the second occurrence of "compulsory"
(3) who's should be whose
(4) others should be others'
Where's Clubhouse Cancer when you need him?
That's a very helpful post, Margaret, but I don't use spellcheckers, becuase I never make spelling mistakes. In other words, even if I make a typo, I always catch it just by a coursory reading of what I typed. Typos just seam to jump right off the page when I read.
13 - james mclafferty
Ah but duane my dear man,being english we don't have spelling BEES, so wouldn't know whether it was b's or bees(got any wasps lol!).And i don't know if your using the american spelling but who's is definately spelt that way office 2003 finds no fault with it.And again others is fine english as well i think you need to check you spellchecker on office or whatever your using but remember there are subtle differences in the english and american spelling of certain words,colour for example over your side of the pond it's color.
14 - DrPat
Ah, Duane, but "cursory" is the one that means "brief" - not sure what "coursory" means...
The point is, we ALL make mistakes (although MINE are always due to the gremlins in my keyboard.) And Spellbound, which I just installed today after reading Margaret's note in Yahoo group, helps me avoid posting them.
15 - james mclafferty
Duane what the hell is whose?Hi Dr pat:-), He slightly embarrassed himself there did he not, my english as far as i can see is fine.His post sort of backfired but as you say everybody makes mistakes when typing,otherwise office wouldn't need a spell check no harm done.;-)
16 - Duane
Good points, James, my most esteemed fellow blogpostcommenter. But as I have always said, what do the English know about English spelling and grammar? Ha! Just kiddng, old sport. Now, down to cases, as it were. The word who's is a contraction of who is, as in "Who's coming to tea besides Ian and Beatrice?" The word whose implies ownership, as in "Whose Yorkshire pudding recipe did you use?" I think you will see, by referring back to your post #11, that "whose" is correct. Right! Now, as for others vs. others', your post reads "... kids who's vocabulary isn't as strong as others?", which implies ... kids whose vocabulary isn't as strong as other kids' vocabularies? Note the apostrophe on the kids' to show ownership. So, for example, to make the distinction a little clearer, you could say, "I'll leave picky discussions about grammar to others." On the other hand, you could say, "It's the others' problem to sort out." Or, if you're referring to a single person, "It's the other's problem to sort out." As for the bees, what do you call them across the pond?
17 - Duane
Ah, Duane, but "cursory" is the one that means "brief" - not sure what "coursory" means...
Yes, DrPat, you have a keen eye. But I see that my little stab at self-deprecating humor went nowhere.
18 - Cerulean
Movable Type could use a spelling and grammar check.
19 - Aaman
"ghoti"
20 - SFC SKI
Aaman, are you trolling for comments?
21 - Brooke Lee
Wait, what if you're lazy AND an idiot?
In my defense I make most of my spelling errors when I'm wasted. You shouldn't drink and blog, but I do it anyway -- I'm less interesting sober.
22 - Duane
Well, I am lazy, and I'm an idiot, but never both at the same time.
23 - Duane
Aaman, do you like ghoughpteighbteaus with your ghoti?
24 - Aaman
SFC - "ghoti" is pronounced fish - re G B Shaw - used to show the fallacies of English spelling and pronounciation.
Duane, I prefer potatoes.
25 - SFC SKI
Aaman, that is why I asked if you were "trolling" or are you not familiar with the ways one catches a "ghoti"?