What Does It Do - The Essentials?

tinySpell provides a simple way of spell checking all your keyboard text input applications and the first word copied to the clipboard. It also provides spelling suggestions and correction of the misspelled word. It monitors your typing “on the fly” and alerts you whenever a spelling error is detected. This latest version, 1.7 beta, has a new visual spelling “tooltip” alert next to the word and a single press of the down arrow key brings up the spelling suggestions dialog. This new functionality is a great leap forward for the program.

N.B. This is a review of a beta stage version and therefore some comments and conclusions may not apply to the final release version.

Summary:

• Spell checks text input to all applications
• Provides spelling suggestions
• Programs can be specifically excluded or included
• Comes with an 110,00 word American English dictionary
• Can be set to run automatically at Startup

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

• Visual and sound alerts
• Separate spelling window
• Small Memory requirement
• Simple to Use
• Versatile & Useful Options

There are also some nice little features and touches which will be mentioned later.

Cons:What’s Not So Good?

• Alternative dictionaries not available (for free version)
• Some minor glitches with autocomplete features
• Visual tooltip doesn’t work with Firefox & Thunderbird (Mozilla products?)*

* Due to the way Firefox and also Thunderbird work

More About What it Does in Detail:

Quote from the tinySpell website:

Occasionally you need to check spelling in an application that does not include a spelling checker and you don’t want to launch your word processor just for that. This is when tinySpell becomes handy. It is a small utility that allows you to easily and quickly check and correct the spelling in any Windows application.
tinySpell can watch your typing on the fly and alert you whenever it detects a misspelled word. It can also check the spelling of text that you copy to the clipboard.
tinySpell installs itself in the system tray for easy access. It comes with an American-English dictionary containing more than 110,000 words.
Operating systems: Windows 2000/XP.

System Tray Icon

Right clicking on the systray icon brings up the following dialog:

While this dialog provides access to the obvious functions I particularly like the quick way to disable the beep without having to go into the options. The dialog text also changes to “Enable Beep” so you can see the current state.

Settings

(Click on picture to enlarge)

This provides a fairly comprehensive set of useful options which can be see in the screenshot above.

The provision of user definable hotkeys is also very useful and the settings dialog automatically recognises the keys pressed when the appropriate hotkey box has focus.

Help

The help files are provided with the download and each topic that can be seen in the screenshot above has comprehensive notes. Personally I prefer this type of onboard help to help systems that run through a browser over the internet.

General Use of tinySpell

When tinySpell is running normally the following icon and tooltip are shown in the systray.
The tooltip shows the last word typed.

When an incorrect word is typed the systray icon turns to yellow
(and the beep sounds if it is switched on).

Now the tooltip shows the misspelled word.

Left clicking on the systray icon brings up the spelling suggestion dialog box from which an alternative can be selected or the word added to the user dictionary.

When tinySpell is disabled the following icon is shown in the systray:

Using the Spelling Tooltip

With the tooltip functionality enabled in options the following tip appears after a misspelled word is typed.

Hitting the “down arrow” key shows the suggestions dialog box and the tooltip is hidden.

The suggestion(s), the “Add to Dictionary” and “Cancel” lines can be selected using the up and down arrow keys. Hitting enter accepts the line selected and hitting the escape key hides the dialog with no action. Alternatively the appropriate line can be selected with the mouse and accepted by left clicking.

The Spelling Window

The Spelling Window provides an additional way of checking spelling and making changes.

As a word is entered into the program you are using it is automatically displayed in the Spelling Window. If the word is incorrect not only do you get the beep and tooltip but also the word is displayed in the Spelling Window and is coloured red. (Words entered correctly are also entered as they are typed but are shown in black)

Clicking on the “Tick” icon to the right of the word shows the spelling suggestions dialog and selection of the alternative word etc. is as previously described.

Dictionary

This screen lets you add new words manually or remove words added earlier. It does not provide access to change a the default American English dictionary.

Applications

The Applications dialog allows specific programs to be included or excluded from being checked by tinySpell. These can be identified by their process name or the window header name. he dialog also provides the ability to remove and edit programs that have already been identified.

One of the nice touches is that the application with focus on the system is displayed (provided the “Current” option box is ticked). However clicking on the down arrow shows a complete list of all of the processes currently running on the system.

A further refinement is the ability to exclude certain behaviours - the beep and the spelling tooltip - when tinySpell interacts with specific programs

When an excluded application has focus the systray icon changes to:

About

What are the Technical Details & Compatibility?

What is the My Free Review Experience?

I find tinySpell very useful for spell checking outside of my mainstream writing applications (MS Office, OpenOffice, Live Writer, etc.). The fact that applications can be excluded or some functionality, such as the beep, is also very good. However, the icing on the cake for me is the Spelling Tooltip option which puts the functionality where I am working rather than in the system tray or a separate window. Personally I rate this highly as:

Simple - Powerful - Stable - Good focused options

What Could Make it be Better?

Option to ignore URL’s when typed or copied

Alternative free dictionaries

or

Ability to change or override standard dictionary

Interact with Thesaurus software or web based provider

Spelling Tooltip functionality to work with Mozilla

What Other Posts are Relevant?

Why I decided to Write This Blog

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Freeware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.