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Is there a key shortcut for spell check?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

brynn2
brynn2
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Hello, I have spell checking Disabled in Tools > Options > Advanced. I was recently typing a message in a bulletin board style forum, and suddenly saw the red wiggly line which typically indicates a misspelled word. The forum has no spell check feature. It lasted for 2 or 3 minutes, then stopped.

My current theory is that I accidentally enabled spell checking by inadvertently striking some particular key or keys. However, I can't find any info, which indicates that spell checking can be requested on a one-time basis, via key shortcut. While I think that would be a nice feature, it does not appear to currently exist.

So my questions: Is there such a feature? Does anyone have any idea if this sudden and unintentional spell check behavior might be traced to Firefox?

Thanks for your help :-)

Brynn

Hello, I have spell checking Disabled in Tools > Options > Advanced. I was recently typing a message in a bulletin board style forum, and suddenly saw the red wiggly line which typically indicates a misspelled word. The forum has no spell check feature. It lasted for 2 or 3 minutes, then stopped. My current theory is that I accidentally enabled spell checking by inadvertently striking some particular key or keys. However, I can't find any info, which indicates that spell checking can be requested on a one-time basis, via key shortcut. While I think that would be a nice feature, it does not appear to currently exist. So my questions: Is there such a feature? Does anyone have any idea if this sudden and unintentional spell check behavior might be traced to Firefox? Thanks for your help :-) Brynn

Modified by brynn2

All Replies (4)

dumdidadida
dumdidadida
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Hi,

There could be add-ons that may be able to enable this feature. Another possibility is that certain keyboards have a context right-click menu key and this combined with s could possibly enable/disable spell check.

For a list of Firefox keyboard shortcuts, please see this.

brynn2
brynn2 Question owner
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Thanks dumdidadida

Oh my lord! When you said 'keyboard with a context menu', I thought I didn't have any kind of special keyboard. And I still think it's an ordinary keyboard. But I went back to the forum, opened a new message, and right-clicked. There just as plain as day, provides an option called "Check Spelling"!! (The mouse pointer has to be inside the message field.)

I honestly have no idea where that came from! It could have been there all along (since I started using FF a year or 2 ago) and I just never noticed it. If I right-click, I'm typically copying or pasting something, so I don't spend much time looking at the few other options. Although I usually use Ctrl + C or V, every now and then I right-click for those commands.

Anyway, I must have somehow enabled the spell check from there! I don't have particularly dexterous mouse control, lol. Does anyone else have this option? I see it in this forum as well. I don't remember seeing it in IE, but I might have to fire it up and check, lol. If it shows up there, I guess I might suspect the keyboard thing, although apparently I don't have to click s to enable it. It appears to automatically disengage when I post the message. Or maybe it only lasts for a couple of minutes and automatically goes away? But I can also right-click again, to disable it.

I don't think I listed my add-ons when I posted this message, because I didn't see any that I thought might provide spell checking. But since you mentioned add-ons, I'll list them here:

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Google Earth
  • Google Update
  • Java Deployment
  • Java Platform
  • Shockwave Flash
  • Silverlight Plug-in
  • Windows Live Photo Gallery

and extensions:

  • Adblock Plus
  • Java Console
  • NoScript
  • Personas
  • PlainOldFavorites
  • Zoom Page

I can add the versions of them all, if necessary, but it's rather tedious for me (short term memory problem). Anyway, do any of those provide this right-click Check Spelling option?

You know, as much as I hate default spell checking (because it always identifies things that are spelled properly but aren't in the spell checker's dictionary, and can't identify misspellings if the misspelling is also a word) I think I might find this "on demand" spell checker quite helpful!

HAH!! Who knew?!! LOL!

Thanks again :-D

dumdidadida
dumdidadida
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I think the right-click menu entry has been there for the past few versions. The entries depend on the context. So usually the Check Spelling will b visible only when clicked inside a text box or search box (on the top right of this page) that permits entering text. The underlined S in the Check Spelling is the shortcut key. Some types of keyboards have a special key towards the right side of the bottom row used to activate the right-click menu and could act as a trigger for the S or other shortcut keys. Even otherwise some Windows OS versions have Shift + F10. The listed extensions doesn't seem to have spell check functionality. Please note that there could also be other reasons :)

Spell Checker

cor-el
cor-el
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That entry in the right-click context menu to enable or disable the spell checking has always been there (Firefox 2 already has it).
It shows as default the state of the setting in "Options > Advanced" unless the website disables spell checking via a spellcheck="false" attribute (e.g. Google translate does this: spellcheck="false" autocapitalize="off" autocomplete="off" autocorrect="off").