News Archive

This is primarily a maintenance release. Some of the more significant fixes and new features are:

• NEW - Allow user to change the location of the custom dictionary (either copy or move) in the "Edit Custom Dictionary" dialog.
• NEW - Added persistent window placement (survive shutdown) with a user override option (default is on).
• NEW - add installer switch to set a custom user dictionary location during installation.
• FIX - Make Default button is no longer enabled when a selected custom dictionary is READ-ONLY.
• FIX - Bug that cause ieSpell to think that a non-existent custom dictionary is read-only.
• FIX - Memory leak in spell checker - options object not freed at shutdown.
• FIX - Improved support for optional language packs.

Firstly, apologies for the long delay in the releases. The team has been working hard on a port to Mozilla based browsers as well as more advanced features such as "Check-as-you-type". Unfortunately, both projects are not ready for public consumption hence this is considered an interim bug-fix cum minor new features update. Some of the more significant fixes and new features are:

• NEW - Multi-language support! The core application has been revamped to support localization. i.e. Not only will you be able to spell check in other languages, the UI itself will displayed in that language. We will be releasing language packs for the various European languages shortly. (starting with French)
• NEW - Users now have the option to choose their preferred online reference dictionary to check the meaning of an unknown word.
• NEW - Users can add on their own online reference dictionaries to the list provided.
• NEW - Users can choose to show or hide the ieSpell items in the browser's right click context menu. (This feature is especially useful for users with multiple logon accounts on a PC as the default install only sets up the right click options for the windows account that performed the install.)
• NEW - Users now have the option to remove all the custom dictionaries during the uninstall process.
• FIX - checkdocumentnode does not work for INPUT type=text elements.
• FIX - IE7 beta2 does not show the word highlighted until the doc is forced to redraw. This is considered a temporary fix as contents in a DIV tag are still not refreshed by this fix. We are monitoring the developments over at the Microsoft camp and will provide a more comprehensive fix closer to the IE7 launch date.

This release adds the much sought after support for DIV tags as well as ShowModalDialog. In addition, script friendly features such as the ability to ignore certain text fields, hiding the "spell check complete" dialog as well as detecting if a user has cancelled the spell check have been added. For more details, please check the change history page.

For existing users of ieSpell, you do not have to uninstall the older version. Simply run the new installer and it will take care of the rest. Yes, really... its that simple!

Yep... Bad news. The server hosting our web and mail services bombed and took some of our data with it. If you have sent us mail in the last 24 hours and we have not replied you, it probably means that we have lost it and will need you to send it again.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused!

Ever wished that you can spell check your Microsoft CRM activities? Well, now you can!
Our friends over at c360 has created a patch for Microsoft CRM that allows ieSpell to be called directly in the activity pages via a button. Thanks guys!

This is a bug-fix release. It fixes a critical bug that causes the browser to crash when ieSpell is used at certain sites. This problem is considered remote as only 4 sites have been reported so far. However, you are advised to upgrade to this version to avoid such issues in the future.

Version 2.0 is finally here! New features found in this release include:

• major code refactoring to facilitate upcoming features
• allow user to create/add/remove custom dictionaries
• allow user to edit contents of custom dictionaries easily thru' built-in UI
• allow user to select more than one custom dictionaries
• custom dictionaries can be located anywhere in the file system hence you may even share them over the network using UNC!
• share your custom dictionary with Microsoft Word!
• new spell check option added - ignore words with numbers (e.g. Win95)
• new spell check option added - ignore html markups and escape sequences (e.g. <br>, &nsbp;)
• added online lookup of word feature (Useful if you have always wondered what that strange looking word in the suggestion list means!)
• ieSpell now ignores html text boxes that are hidden on the page
• added a licensing module for users to register their licensed copy of ieSpell.
• and a whole lot more!

Along with this new release, we have also revised our licensing policy alittle; ieSpell is still FREE for personal use, but all other use requires a commercial license.

Oh, did I mention that v2.0 is a free upgrade for our v1.x commercial users? YES! If you have purchased ieSpell previously and do not hear from us within a week, please drop us a mail to get your personalised key.

Apologies for the downtime over the last 2 days; I busted my bandwidth limits for the month cuz everyone was grabbing the downloads from this server after one of the mirrors went dead. Well, everything is back up again. Thanks to a new mirror kindly offered by kingnothing.com and of course eFacilitatorsCom for generously relaxing the bandwidth limits till the end of the month.

BTW, I'm still looking out for more mirrors to share the load so if you have spare bandwidth, consider donating some to me.

Bad news... It appears that one of my primary mirrors may be gone for good. Hence if you have some bandwidth to spare and you wish to help out, please drop me a line.

Thx!

This is another bug-fix release (sorry!). The last 2 releases did not work on Windows 95 and NT systems due to the use of a few Win32 APIs that were not available on those platforms. This issue has been resolved in this release.

Also included are some minor features:

• Custom install directory! You may now choose where you want ieSpell to be installed on your system. Note that this option is only available on a fresh install. If you have a previous version installed, ieSpell will automatically install over it.
• The installer now checks (and warns) if a previous version of ieSpell is running during the installation process.
• XP friendly icons! Yep, thanks to Steve Smith (a fellow ieSpell user), we now have a much nicer toolbar icon on XP and the other OSs.

This is a bug-fix release. A minor uninstall bug (ieSpell fails to remove its shortcuts from Internet Explorer's menu bar) managed to slip into the v1.1 (build 532) release. Sorry about that.

You do NOT need to upgrade to this version if you are already running build 532. You will only need to upgrade should you wish to uninstall ieSpell v1.1 completely from your system.

Version 1.1 released. New features found in this release include:

• support for Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) and Lotus iNotes!
• improved multi-user support
• added multi-language support
• German and French language packs now available! (More language packs will be released later)
• limited server-side support (control ieSpell through javascript!)

Yes. Version 1.0 is finally here. Having survived more than a month in the public domain with over 8000 downloads, coupled with the inclusion of a few major features, I figured its about time ieSpell goes the big 1.0.

Major features added in this release include:

• support for IE based browsers such as AOL, MSN, NetCaptor, NeoPlanet and others through the context (aka right-click) menu,
• support for "rich-edit" modes (i.e. text boxes where you can change the font size and styles),
• support for customization of ieSpell options. (Among other things, you can now choose between UK, US or Canadian English! More dictionaries will be made available later)
• and more!

It almost happened again... server overload that is. ieSpell was featured in the segment "call for help" on TechTV last Wednesday (5/8) and the number of downloads skyrocketed shortly thereafter. Thankfully, the servers at eFacilitatorsCom are more than capable of taking this load and those great guys even upgraded my hosting plan twice when my bandwidth usage exceeded the originally agreed monthly limit. What can I say... you guys are the best!

More good news... Two download mirrors have been added thanks to the good people at Par ExcellAnce and Fusion3k.com. So if you find a particular download site too slow or congested, try one of the others.

This is minor release. Its main purpose is to fix a nasty IE crash when ieSpell is triggered on a webpage with frames and empty documents. In addition, a new feature which spell checks a selected block of text in an input field has been added.

I am holding back on a much requested feature (access ieSpell through IE's context menu + a hotkey) from this release because its implementation is still buggy; no thanks to the highly restrictive context menu API which IE exposes.

I have also provided a smaller update installer (only 89kb!) to save you guys from downloading the whole 2+MB again as well as to conserve my server bandwidth usage!

Yes, it happened again. HostDepartment decided to drop my account due to the traffic caused by the downloads. (Apparently they have a 2 gig bandwidth limit and I managed to hit that in 24hrs. Wow! Thanks for the support guys!)

Well, ieSpell is back online thanks to those kind folks over at eFacilitatorsCom. I did receive a few other offers to host my site (Thanks people!) but I've decided to go with eFacilitatorsCom simply because they got back to me first.

Oh, and one last thing. I've decided to invest in this domain name so this should be the last time you will need to update ieSpell's URL. HURRAY! (well, for the next 365 days anyway!)

Apparently, ieSpell has gained quite a following (thank you guys and gals!) such that it has exceeded freewebz's monthly bandwidth limit. As such, I've decided to find a new home for it.

Well, after a couple of hrs of intensive search (and signups), I've finally found one thats ad-free + no bandwidth limit (can't find anything about that in its terms and conditions so I'm just assuming
here). The only gripe I have is the not-so-easy-to-remember URL: http://free.hostdepartment.com/iespell

But hey, its free so no (further) complains here.

So remember to update your bookmarks people! (or join the mailing list to be kept informed of such unfortunate events in the future) And lets hope this one last longer than a month! (current record)

Main enhancement in this release is the ability to handle documents with frames. This will fix the problems some users are having when using web mails/forums that use frames (such as yahoo mail).

This release also fixed the problem of highlighting partial or incorrect words on the page (the word being checked by the spell checker is correct though).

Another cosmetic change involved the use of "Tahoma" font instead of "MS Sans Serif" font by the dialog boxes so that they look better on XP systems with ClearType turned on.

As always, suggestions and bug reports are greatly appreciated.

This is the first public release of ieSpell. All the core functions have been implemented and verified working. Currently in the process of implementation the customization features (the "Options" dialog) such as selecting a different dictionary and personal word list.

Suggestions and bug reports will be greatly appreciated.