Spell checking in Freestyler

In the past, we've used a third party application called IESpell for spell checking in Freestyler, which was licenced separately was great in its time.  The application was client side and "install on demand", meaning you'd have to install it on your browser when you needed to use it. 

The reason we never implemented server side spell checking in Freestyler is mainly because we saw the day when Internet browsers would have spell checking built in.  Many people edited in Microsoft Word (where they could access much more advanced spell checking functions) and simply copied and pasted their work into Freestyler, so it didn't make sense to reinvent the wheel.

Well that day has fortunately come and the latest versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer offer this feature.  Most of these browsers enable you to configure different languages in your browser settings.  For us, it means that we don't have another few thousand lines of code to manage.  For you, it just means more convenience and less hassle.

As a result, Freestyler's built in checker admittedly seemed a bit "old school".  So we simply turned it off in the Freestyler 5 series.  We recognise that it does, however, still have benefits.

For example, many Freestyler users are in standard operating environments (SOEs) where Internet Explorer 6 or similar are still being used.

The thesaurus, which isn't yet a built-in function of browsers can also be highly useful.

With this in mind, Freestyler's spell checker can be turned on via your site's configuration.   If you're upgrading, and you still want it, make sure you request this option.