[Under consideration] Integrated spellcheck
 

I have used a few smartphones/PDAs in the past (Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, Psion, etc.) and I find an integrated spellchecker vital on any device with a keyboard. I was expecting the N900 to have one.

I hope I am using Brainstorm in the correct way to propose adding this feature:

Problem: Maemo 5/N900 does not have an integrated spell checker. It does have predictive typing (word completion) as a text input option. I think this function should be adapted to spellcheck within applications.

User scenarios:

1. Email: User responds to a business email. It is very important that the reply does not contain typos. User selects the “Check spelling” option within a message to verify that there are no spelling mistakes.
   
   Additionally, clicking on “Send” activates the options of “Check spelling and send” or “Send without spellcheck” (this is essentially how the Blackberry uses spellcheck).
   
   
2. MaStory: User is composing a blog entry in MaStory. Before posting, user proofs the text by selecting the “Check spelling” option from the menu.
   
   
3. Browser: User is composing a message in a text entry window (perhaps for a webmail message). User selects the “Check spelling” option from the menu. This checks spelling within the window.
   
   
4. Office app: User is updating a text document. User selects the “Check spelling” option from the menu a proofs a document before saving.

Reasons why word completion is not an option:

1. Word completion adds to cognitive load (adds more data on the screen as you type).
2. Word completion aids “fat fingered” typists (by correcting mistakes), but slows down typing for accurate users of the keyboard.
3. Word completion does not help with proofing text that has been copied and pasted from another application.

What do you think? How would this be added to Maemo 5 / N900?

EDIT
Have created a Brainstorm item.

Re: Integrated spellcheck
 

Please create a brainstorm item:
http://maemo.org/community/brainstorm/create/default/

and read the links in my signature.

Re: Integrated spellcheck
 

Thanks - have created an account at garage.maemo.org to post to Brainstorm, but 30 minutes later I still cannot log in.

(I am using a lowercase username)

Re: Integrated spellcheck
 

Might take a little while for your account details to propogate, don't worry too much, and I think spell checking would be a useful addition fwiw.

Re: Integrated spellcheck
 

I agree, spell checking would be a nice feature! I also would like something like Androids word prediction where multiple predicted words are shown above the typing field.

Re: [Proposal pending] Integrated spellcheck
 

... also, as the word completion adds everything I type to it's dictionary, that dictionary fast becomes useless for words I didn't know how to spell in the first place! It only helps me miss-spell words faster!

Re: [Proposal pending] Integrated spellcheck
 

Thank you. Have created a brainstorm item:

http://maemo.org/community/brainstor...ed_spellcheck/

Re: [Proposal pending] Integrated spellcheck
 

@EmmaGx - I did not know that word completion added words to the dictionary in this fashion. Very scary...

Re: [Proposal pending] Integrated spellcheck
 

LOL! ... I use so many made-up and unusual words that it was easy to see this happening with mine ... it has words like "t'internet" and "t'other" already ... which isn't soo much of a problem as I know they're my own stupid interwebby dialect ... it's when it starts adding misspelled words that I have no idea how spell correctly (and there are lot of those!) that I'm going to have serious issues ...

Re: [Proposal pending] Integrated spellcheck
 

I have noticed this behavior as well.
Does anybody know where these new words are stored so that I can delete this file from time to time?
I write a lot of English and Germany emails so my text prediction is already totally Fubar :)