Software Gadgets

I try to avoid using Internet Explorer, but I know many people still use it. iespell is a spelling checker for IE (for when you are writing webmail, commenting on a blog, writing a message in a forum, etc.) It's a fairly well-known program. If you use IE, you probably know of it. I've selected it today because a major new version has just been released. iespell will now work with languages other than English -- both its interface and its spelling checking features. This required a major rewrite of the program which was just released today.

For those who aren't familiar with this program, here s the description from the iespell website:

ieSpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes on a webpage. It should come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of web-based text entry (e.g. web mails, forums, blogs, diaries). Even if your web application already includes spell checking functionality, you might still want to install this utility because it is definitely much faster than a server-side solution. Plus you get to store and use your personal word list across all your applications, instead of maintaining separate ones on each application.

The program installs as a new button in the IE toolbar (as well as a new menu item under "Tools") - after filling in a form, just hit the ieSpell button and it pops up a dialog, similar to the MS Word spell check. ieSpell also works (right-click menu only) on other IE based browsers such as SlimBrowser, CrazyBrowser, MSN, MyIE, etc.

And here is the list of new features in the latest version:

Multi-language support! The core application has been revamped to support localization. i.e. Not only will you be able to spell check in other languages, the UI itself will displayed in that language. We will be releasing language packs for the various European languages shortly. (starting with French)

Users now have the option to choose their preferred online reference dictionary to check the meaning of an unknown word.

Users can add on their own online reference dictionaries to the list provided.

Users can choose to show or hide the ieSpell items in the browser's right click context menu. (This feature is especially useful for users with multiple logon accounts on a PC as the default install only sets up the right click options for the windows account that performed the install.)

Users now have the option to remove all the custom dictionaries during the uninstall process.

Check write permissions on custom dictionaries, if its READONLY, disable the add/delete function in the edit custom dic dialog.

If you use Internet Explorer much, iespell is a must have.

Rating: 5.0
Operating System: Windows
License: Freeware (for personal use)
Price: Free
Version Reviewed: 2.2.0
Web Site: http://www.iespell.com/