Tutorials Web & EmailInternet and Email: How to add and use Spell Check in Mozilla Firefox

Internet and Email: How to add and use Spell Check in Mozilla Firefox

Written by Marc Roberge | 14 December 2010

ff_spellcheck Mozilla Firefox is by far one of the more extensible internet browsers available. Of course, one of the more useful add-ons for Firefox is the spell check feature which can point out spelling mistakes and typos as you type. It works on any site and in any environment including email, chat (i.e. Facebook or Dodisdodat chat), search, form fills, article and blog submissions, comment boxes, etc.

To install the spell check add-on, launch your Firefox browser and select “Tools>Add-ons” from the menu.

From the “Add-ons” Window, select the “Get Add-ons” tab, type “spell” in the search field and press “Enter”. "The “United States English Spellchecker” add-on should be near the top of the results. This will be your base spellcheck dictionary. We can add more languages after the fact. Select the “United States English Spellchecker” add-on and click the “Add to Firefox…” button.

On the “Software Installation” window, click the “Install now” button.

Installation should take no longer than a few seconds, after which you will be back in the “Add-ons” window. At the upper right, click the “Restart Firefox” button.

Once Firefox has restarted, you can close the “Add-ons” window by clicking the “Close” button or “X” in the upper right corner.

Now, make your way to any web page and right-click in a text field. In the picture below, I have right-clicked on the Google search field. From the contextual menu, make sure that “Check Spelling” is checked. If it isn’t, simply click on it once.

With the Spell checker now active, any word you misspell will be underlined.

Right-clicking on the misspelled word will offer a selection of corrections. Of course, if you know the word is properly spelled but isn’t currently in your dictionary, simply add it by selecting “Add to Dictionary”.

If you need or would like to add other language dictionaries, simply right-click on a text field and select “Add Dictionaries” from the “Languages” option.

There are over 50 dictionaries to choose from. To install, simply click on the “Install Dictionary” link to the right of the dictionary you want.

This brings you to that dictionary’s page. Click the green “Add to Firefox” button to install.

Again, as with our installation of the Spell Checker add-on, we need to click “Install Now” and restart Firefox.

Once Firefox launches, you may have to reactivate the spell checker by right-clicking in a text field and making sure “Check Spelling” is checked. To switch from one dictionary to another, simply right-click and select your desired dictionary from the “Languages” options.