Background
Implementing a spell check on web pages can be a difficult thing to do. Two
solutions are possible - a server side solution or a client side solution.
A server side solution means that the web server is responsible for
doing all of the processing. Such a solution requires a very fast computer to
handle potentially a very large number of concurrent spell checks. Users of
Microsoft's Hotmail facility would be familiar with this technique. Unless you
manage your own web server, have lots of computing hardware, have a web site
that no one uses or have lots of programming talent, then this solution is
probably inappropriate for you.
A client side solution is a more appropriate way of solving the
problem in the majority of cases. A client side spell checker uses the CPU and
existing software of the computer running the web browser. This decentralized
model means that the web server does not have to be especially powerful. Also
the web master can implement and deploy the spell check with a minimum of effort
in a variety of ways that fully integrates with the look and feel of the rest of
the site.
Languages, Dialects and Custom Dictionaries
Client side solutions have another advantage in that the language and dialect used to do the spell check
can be set by the user. Since the spell check runs locally on their computer, it
is up to the user to select their own language and dialect. In a server-based
solution this functionality is either very difficult or impossible to
implement.
Most companies have words and terminology unique to their industry. Often a company
will have a corporate custom dictionary and each user will have a personal custom dictionary.
The Web Browser Spell Check by default has access to this information and will incorporate
these dictionaries into the spell checking.
A client side spell check is not without disadvantages. Users are required to
have spell checking software installed on their computer, they need certain
versions of a web browser and may need to lower their security settings in order
for it to work. However, with the current trends in computing, the vast majority
of users will readily satisfy these requirements.
Requirements
| Microsoft Office 97 or later |
WBSC utilizes Microsoft Word's inbuilt spell checker. It accesses this
functionality through Microsoft's ActiveX technology. When WBSC first runs, it
initially checks that Office is installed. If it is not installed then it
displays a message to the user, otherwise it loads Word invisibly in the
background does the spell check and then closes it.
Due to a quirk (bug) in some versions of Microsoft Word, the WBSC actually
attempts to load Microsoft Excel very briefly. If this operation succeeds then
Excel is unloaded and WBSC is then in a position to load Word. As such, the
requirement is that Office 97 or later is installed, not simply Word 97 or
later. On first inspection you may think that this would be a tremendous
performance hit to any computer. However, after the first spell check is
complete the programs are generally cached and successive spell checks occur
very fast, even on the slowest of computers. |
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| Internet Explorer 4.0 or later |
As previously mentioned, WBSC uses ActiveX to communicate with Microsoft
Word. WBSC runs on every browser that supports ActiveX. However, the only
browsers that do use this technology are Microsoft's Internet Explorer Version
4.0 or later. It is not supported by any version of Netscape's Navigator. This
should not be considered a problem as Internet Explorer is now inherently part
of all Microsoft's operating systems. |
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| Modification to the Browser Security |
In some instances, Internet Explorer's security settings are set too high for
the WBSC to work. WBSC initially detects your security settings and if they are
too high then it suggests that the user may like to lower them for it to work. A
useful animation is provided to show users one
way of configuring their security.
The documentation in the evaluation version
describes in depth all of the issues of security and discusses the various
secure ways to run the Web Browser Spell Check.
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Freeware Versions
If you have studied the client side spell checker market you will have found
that there are some unsupported freeware versions of software that appears
similar to the Web Browser Spell Check. We invite you to evaluate this
freeware software and compare it against Web Browser Spell Check. During
your evaluation be sure to note whether the software leaves copies of Word
running in the background. After a couple of spell checks, go to the task
manager and you may notice multiple copies of Word running consuming many tens
of megabytes of RAM. We put a lot of effort into the code to ensure that
this does not happen with the Web Browser Spell Check.
It is this and other features that place the Web Browser Spell Check ahead of
the competition.
Download
 Web
Browser Spell Check Download
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