Hi, our knowledge base articles detect your current OS, but in forum threads, we usually look at the poster's OS, so in that case, you'll probably see a lot of advice to Windows users.

For Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences

Now... regarding spellcheck: if you right-click (or Mac equivalent) the field that isn't spellchecking, can you find "Check Spelling" and see whether it has a checkmark indicating that it is active?

By default, Firefox enables spell checking in multiline textarea controls like this one, but not in single-line text input controls. If that's the problem, you can change a hidden setting to check both. Here's how:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste spell and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the layout.spellcheckDefault preference and enter your preferred page:

• 0 => don't spell check at all
• 1 => spell check multiline textarea controls
• 2 => spell check multiline textarea AND single-line text input controls

By the way, here is the source for additional dictionaries, if needed:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/language-tools/

Yes Options is for Windows. On Mac you use "Firefox > Preferences" or the Preferences button in the "3-bar" Firefox menu button drop-down list.

You can see which dictionary is selected if you right-click in a text area and open the Languages submenu. At least one dictionary should be installed and have a check mark to indicate that it is selected.

• Open the "Add Dictionaries" link to install a dictionary if you do not have one.
• Make sure that [X] "Check Spelling" in the right-click context menu is check-marked.

You can enable or disable spell checking globally:

• Firefox > Preferences > Advanced : General: Browsing: "Check my spelling as I type"

You can look here for dictionaries:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/language-tools/

Were you able to stop the crashes?

I have no idea what the "'3-bar' Firefox menu button drop-down list" means. I've used FF for years, but that's not a term I'm familiar with.

And when I select Firefox preferences on my Mac (Mavericks), I do not see any area where spellcheck options are available.

I do have spellcheck ticked in my contextual menu, but it seems to work randomly.

I'm having other problems with FF31.0 as well - failing to display site content, etc. Session Manager )one of my favourite add-ons) seems to come and go as a menu option (without restarts).

I've used the about:config option to make sure spellcheck is active

Thanks for the info

On your main toolbar, at the right end, you should find a menu button with three parallel lines on it. That's the one I call the "3-bar" menu. Some people call it the hamburger. All suggestions for a better name are welcome.

The right-click context menu shows whether spell checking is turned on or off for that specific field/control. Sites may disable it on a field-by-field basis, so if you find it randomly not doing anything, you might check the context menu for that field/control.

Regarding site content not loading, can you give specific details: for example, do you get a blank page, partial page, error message, etc. If you reload bypassing the cache using Command+Shift+r, will the content load correctly? If there is a pattern with particular sites, URLs are welcomed.

See also:

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/learn-more-about-the-design-of-new-firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/common-questions-after-updating-to-new-firefox