When I type a post (like this one), is there some way that the vBulletin software on the server manages to do the spell-checking as I type? That seems impossible – it would have to download the entire dictionary to my machine. (And I run my browser with JavaScript disabled anyway.)
Is the spelling dictionary part of my installed operating system? (Ubuntu in this case.)
Or is it installed as part of my browser (older version of Firefox in this case.)
Or is it part of the X-Windows and/or the Gnome GUI system?
Is it some kind of system-standard behavior for all text-boxes?
I am asking because I am noticing that the spell-checking happens according to British rather than American spelling. Words ending with -ize (like realize) are marked wrong, -ise (like realise) is okay. color and behavior are wrong, colour and behaviour are right. And I just noticed in a recent post that even airplane is wrong, but aeroplane is right.
Not sure about every version of Firefox on Linux, but in my Firefox 5.0 (under Windows) I can right-click in the text field and use the pop-up menu to fiddle with the spell checker. There’s an on-off menu entry and a submenu to choose or add languages.
As above: any spell check that is instantaneous is likely part of the web browser, or an add-on to that web browser*.
The reason you might think it’s a vBulletin thing is if you don’t normally type in multi-line text boxes. The way all the browsers I know of are set up, spell check doesn’t work on single line text boxes. I think the logic is that these are just as likely fields where you are supposed to type in your name, email, username, etc.–all things that wouldn’t be in the dictionary. Those red lines would get rather unsightly rather quickly.
*Exception: on a Mac, I believe there may be a system wide spell check built into the OS. I haven’t used a Mac in a long time, so I am unsure of this.
This explains how to change the Firefox spell check language. I assume it should default to your system’s locale - have you set Ubuntu to en-us (and not en-gb)?
BigT, yes, OS X has a system-wide spell check built in that works in most applications.
It sounds like you somehow downloaded the wrong version of Firefox, ie Firefox en-gb rather than Firefox en-us. As tellyworth explained it’s very simple to change in Preferences.
THIS.
Thanks, Heracles, this proved to be exactly the solution.
My browser (Firefox 3.6.something, but this part of it is the same as you describe) was set to English/Australia.
No offense to Aussies, of course. Not knocking Southern Spelling or British Spelling, it just wasn’t MY spelling. (Not that I really cared – I was previously dealing with the problem by just ignoring it.)
Mostly, I was just curious. Now, if only I had a Greek dictionary, I could write: Thanks, Ἡρακλῆς
Because if you sit on other side of the fence, you’ve been fighting it for years.