Speckie v1.0.0 - Spell Check for IE

[mauro]

Hi.

New member here, I discovered these forums after googling Speckie.

I was using Chrome, until reverted back to I.E., however I was in need of a spell checker, then found this Speckie.

First off, Maurizio, great job. Obviously, there will always be problems with anything life, because, well, that's just life. To those that are experiencing difficulties with Speckie, just be patient, and post your problems in order to inform the developer.

I noticed 2 problems so far with the newest version of Speckie.

Before I installed the new beta, Speckie used to work on Google's homepage, in the search bar.

I find it to be very inconsistent with gmail. Sometimes it works briefly, but most of the time it does not work.

For instance, the words underlined in squiggly red, do not stay underlined for more than 10 seconds.

I did a test just now, here's the result. I wrote two sentences, and purposely put mistakes to see if Speckie would work. It did not catch anything, except for 1 word, and the minute I pressed enter to create a new paragraph all the red underlines disappeared.

Speckie works great on forums. It is consistent.

Thanks for the feedback. In the current Beta, I set spell checking of single line edit fields, like the one on the Google search page, to disabled. You can configure this in the Speckie settings, which you can access by typing about:Speckie in IE's navigation bar and hitting the Enter key.

I'll keep working on the Gmail issue. Some of these WYSIWYG editors don't play nice and do all sorts of non-standard things under the hood which make Speckie's task difficult.

This person on another forum has the same problem.

@A Geek Of All, these issues appear to be related to WYSIWYG editors. It would be more helpful if people posted issues on the Versoworks forum so I could actually gather useful information to try and resolve them. Random quotes like these make no useful contribution to Speckie's improvement whatsoever.

[punkierich]

Great work there, means I can actually spell in emails now!

Keep up the good work and hope too see some further releases :) Don't been put down with some of these negative comments & feedback, think people need to realise it is still a working in progress project.

Rich

[mauro]

Great work there, means I can actually spell in emails now!

Keep up the good work and hope too see some further releases :) Don't been put down with some of these negative comments & feedback, think people need to realise it is still a working in progress project.

Rich

Thanks for the support :)

[Bill_Bright]

As for pinned sites, I've added it to the FAQ page that it's a limitation of IE. Clearly you don't believe that, so here's the IE team stating it.

I do believe it. I am just saying other add-ons are able to work with pinned sites.

Also, IESpell does not compare. Speckie works in real-time and that puts it well ahead of IESpell. While I may criticize, I still appreciate.

[mauro]

I do believe it. I am just saying other add-ons are able to work with pinned sites.

Also, IESpell does not compare. Speckie works in real-time and that puts it well ahead of IESpell. While I may criticize, I still appreciate.

@Bill_Bright, I'm choosing to respect the IE team's wishes to not load extensions like Speckie on pinned sites to maintain their security goal. It's up to you to work around that however it suits you.

Have you managed to access the Configuration page ? All working OK ?

[Bill_Bright]

Have you managed to access the Configuration page ?

Yes and no. I am able through about:speckie but not via the Main Menu > Tools.

I did notice something odd in the custom dictionary - multiple entries. For example, Speckie, IE7Pro, and IESpell were in there more than once - same spelling, same case.

[mauro]

Yes and no. I am able through about:speckie but not via the Main Menu > Tools.

I did notice something odd in the custom dictionary - multiple entries. For example, Speckie, IE7Pro, and IESpell were in there more than once - same spelling, same case.

I'll have a fix for the menu issue tomorrow. I've been working hard on bug fixes and localising the Settings page for other languages, hence the lack of releases the last couple of days. Hang tight :)

[Bill_Bright]

I've been working hard on bug fixes and localising the Settings page for other languages, hence the lack of releases the last couple of days

There is no reason to push out a new release for every bug fixed. At this point, it seems Speckie is stable for most folks so every few days or once a week is fine with me.

[mauro]

Speckie Beta v1.6.8 Released. Details: http://bit.ly/gs10cW

Don't forget, in the current Beta version, you can access the Speckie Settings page by navigating to about:Speckie OR by using the Tools > Speckie Options menu item (you may have to hit the Alt key to see the Tools menu)

Also, if you'd like to see the Speckie menu items and configuration page translated to your native language and are able to translate a few words/lines, contact us http://bit.ly/erOdkO

[Hawk999]

Excellent work mauro. Thanks a lot. :)

[Bill_Bright]

From latest beta page,

Removed requirements for the VC++ Runtimes.

Please explain. Does that mean they can now be uninstalled?

[Bill_Bright]

FTR, I uninstalled all the C++ stuff that previous Speckie versions required, rebooted - no problems.

Also note that I chose to uninstall the old Speckie version before installing 1.6.8 and when prompted, I opted to removed all my customizations and settings. However, when I installed the new version and checked Speckie options (Tools menu works now, BTW), I see words I added to the custom dictionary with the old version are still there. This suggests the uninstall feature is not completely thorough at removing all traces of Speckie.

[mauro]

From latest beta page, Please explain. Does that mean they can now be uninstalled?

The general answer is yes, but there may be other software on your system that uses them, so beware. What I did is compile the runtimes in to Speckie which eliminated a number of issues on network installs.

FTR, I uninstalled all the C++ stuff that previous Speckie versions required, rebooted - no problems.

Also note that I chose to uninstall the old Speckie version before installing 1.6.8 and when prompted, I opted to removed all my customizations and settings. However, when I installed the new version and checked Speckie options (Tools menu works now, BTW), I see words I added to the custom dictionary with the old version are still there. This suggests the uninstall feature is not completely thorough at removing all traces of Speckie.

I'll look in to that.

[Bill_Bright]

but there may be other software on your system that uses them, so beware.

Right - I should have been more clear for others reading. In my case, I knew on my machines the binaries were installed to support the previous versions of Speckie, and only Speckie. Therefore, I knew it was only Speckie that required them and it was safe to uninstall them.

To me, 168 is a stable, totally useful product I am already dependent on. Well done! I might suggest you update the download link on your Speckie page with the newest version - assuming 1.6.0 via that link is still what you get.

Also, since it has been established that IE7Pro's real time spell checker came out several years before Speckie, I urge you to change your claim that Speckie is the first and only. IE7Pro was first, and until Speckie, the only "real-time" checker for IE that I am aware of. IE7Pro claims to support IE6 and later, and it does that. Yes, IE7Pro has other features too, so "dedicated" may be the distinction, but it's real-time spell checker was the main feature. The other perhaps was it's ad-blocker and Simple Adblock works fine for that. So while IE7Pro has lost it's uniqueness, and perhaps even it's usefulness for me, it still was the first.

That said, I do think it fair and appropriate to say that Speckie is the first and only real-time spell checker written to support Internet Explorer 9. Regardless who was first - that's immaterial. What matters is what works the best, and Speckie is it. I hope you keep it free, at least for home, non-commercial use - and of course, adware/spyware free.

****

Ummm, it seems I just found another little bug - but I am having a hard time replicating it exactly. Above when I typed: adware/spyware, I first noticed spyware was tagged but not adware. I thought it was odd that one would be in the dictionary but not the other. So I inserted a space after the slash and adware/ was still not tagged. Removed the slash and it still was not tagged. Even as I continued typing and new words were tagged, adware remained untagged - not until I refreshed the page (hit preview button) did adware finally get tagged. In playing with the "/" symbol before, after, and in between words, it seems sometimes a unrecognized word is tagged fairly quickly, and then at other times, something delays the tagging.

****

I'll look in to that.

Thanks. Purging the custom dictionary is actually pretty important from a security standpoint. Since personal names, places, and other "keywords" can be added it "could" become a privacy or personal security issue if a [admittedly] determined badguy got ahold of the computer/drive. Since computers (especially notebooks) grow legs and disappear all the time, security must always be a top priority. There's no need for DoD encryption, a DBAN "wipe" or anything to those extremes, but it needs to be so another user cannot accidentally stumble on it, or easily find it if snooping around.

What you need to do is get with Piriform and get them to buy you out for $10 million (a modest 10% consultation fee for me, of course), and have them put Clean Speckie Dictionary Entries in CCleaner's Clean History options. ;)

[mauro]

@Bill_Bright, I'll be releasing a new final version soon, I just have to tidy up a few things.

In regards to the marketing spiel on the website, the distinction is the word dedicated, as you mentioned. I'm not going to argue the semantics of that because it's just marketing, so take it for what its worth.

I'll look in to the issue with the backslash.

The user dictionary not being wiped is an interesting issue which I'm yet to resolve. Stay tuned :shiftyninja:

[Bill_Bright]

Well, sadly, I found another bug. It seems the last word typed does not get checked immediately if there is a punctuation mark immediately following it, such as the last word in a sentence - often it takes many seconds, a refresh, or unchecking Check Mail then Checking again. With that in mind, I would like to call again for a manual check option in the right-context menu - to force Speckie to recheck.

[Raa]

I must agree with Bill. At least an option to manually check "just for peace of mind", and a message confirming the result. (Eg. Word auto checks, but I can do a manual check and have it tell me no spelling errors were found.)

Not a biggie as I spell check myself, but handy to have!

[mauro]

Well, sadly, I found another bug. It seems the last word typed does not get checked immediately if there is a punctuation mark immediately following it, such as the last word in a sentence - often it takes many seconds, a refresh, or unchecking Check Mail then Checking again. With that in mind, I would like to call again for a manual check option in the right-context menu - to force Speckie to recheck.

This issue is similar to the backslash issue you reported previously and will be resolved in the next release.

If you want Speckie to check the entire field, toggle the Check Spelling menu item on the field off and on

[Lion and Lamb Ministry]

Hi Mauro,

Ok, downloaded 1.7, and it works GREAT on IE9. However, I did want it as well for my IE9 pinned sites.

On your webpage under changes made to 1.7 you have: ? Resolved an issue with Speckie not loading with pinned sites (see FAQ page). However, it is not working on my pinnned sites.

What am I doing wrong?

[mauro]

Hi Mauro,

Ok, downloaded 1.7, and it works GREAT on IE9. However, I did want it as well for my IE9 pinned sites.

On your webpage under changes made to 1.7 you have: ? Resolved an issue with Speckie not loading with pinned sites (see FAQ page). However, it is not working on my pinnned sites.

What am I doing wrong?

Hi, thanks for the feedback. The issue is marked as resolved because a reason has been established. It's a limitation of pinned sites; Speckie is a Browser Helper Object (BHO) and IE does not load BHO's on pinned sites for security reasons. It's therefore up to you how you work around the issue.

Just my 2 cents, but I think if enough people communicate to the IE team of their displeasure about this limitation and suggest they make it an option to load extensions and BHO's on pinned sites, they just might listen. You can communicate directly with the IE team via twitter

[Marshall Veteran]

Nice work mauro, I downloaded the latest version and the slow loading of pages bug is gone that I discussed with you in the other thread.

You're the man! Thank You for your hard work.

[mauro]

Nice work mauro, I downloaded the latest version and the slow loading of pages bug is gone that I discussed with you in the other thread.

You're the man! Thank You for your hard work.

Thank you for your kind words and support !

[Bill_Bright]

If you want Speckie to check the entire field, toggle the Check Spelling menu item on the field off and on

Right, I said that. But that is (1) not intuitive, and (2) kinda "clunky". A right click option to "Check Mail", even if it merely disables and re-enables again is intuitive.

Also, I am getting a little confused over version. The beta page says 1.6.8 is the latest but you download page has 1.7.1.

[mauro]

Right, I said that. But that is (1) not intuitive, and (2) kinda "clunky". A right click option to "Check Mail", even if it merely disables and re-enables again is intuitive.

Also, I am getting a little confused over version. The beta page says 1.6.8 is the latest but you download page has 1.7.1.

You must be seeing a cached version of the Beta page, try refreshing.

[Bill_Bright]

You must be seeing a cached version of the Beta page, try refreshing.

Ummm, no. As can be seen now on the beta page, you went from 1.6.8 as I mentioned above to 1.7.2 which you just posted a couple hours ago. No big deal, it was just odd to see the final release a later version than the beta.

I notice Speckie ignores words containing digits and foreign characters - can that be extended to words in URLs and email addresses?