Notes 8.5.1: New spell check engine

February 18 2010

I've been meaning to blog about this for quite some time, because I think it's cool engineering and an important step for Notes that may have been mostly overlooked.

In Notes 8.5.1, we changed the client's spell check engine.  The new engine is also used by Symphony and Sametime.  It is based on IBM's own LanguageWare tools, and gives us a lot more flexibility.

A number of additional languages are available to plug into the new spell check engine.  Technote 1411732 explains how to find those and install them.  They are basically provisioned through the same approach as sidebar plug-ins and other updates to the Eclipse-based Notes 8 environment.

Almar Diehl saw the technote and suggested using the widget catalog as another way to distribute additional dictionaries.

Now that the new engine is in place, there is an opportunity to support many more local languages inside of Notes.  While it's true we won't be translating the whole UI, at least the editor will correctly spell check these additional languages.  For example, a business partner called Filosoft has built a spell check dictionary for Estonian.  Another business partner developed a spell check dictionary for Bahasa Malaysia.  

You can find more information on the new dictionaries in the developerWorks wiki.  Let me know if you know of additional languages and dictionaries that you're using with Notes 8.5.1.

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category:  notesdomino lotusnotes 8.5 lotus  Add/View Comments [14]

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  1. 1  Stephan H. Wissel http://www.wissel.net/ | 2/19/2010 2:28:52 AM

    Hi Ed,

    where can one get the Malay engine?

  1. 2  Andras Horvath http://lotusszoftverek.blogspot.com | 2/19/2010 5:35:02 AM

    I tested it with Lotus Notes 8.5.2 B2 (integrated Symphony & Sametime), Lotus Symhony 1.3 B2, Sametime Connect 8.0.2. Hungarian spell checker works well.

  1. 3  Mark Hughes http://hughesconenct.com | 2/19/2010 7:27:03 AM

    I wrote "LostuSphere" and the spell check suggestion had the trademark circle r on it. Pretty cool.

    Now if we could just get it to auto-correct lower case i to uppercase I, that would be great.

  1. 4  Chuck Hauble  | 2/19/2010 8:11:12 AM

    Got this question in a demo yesterday. With the new engine, is there a way to auto-complete/auto-text short expressions to full words? For example MN to Minnesota

  1. 5  chris  | 2/19/2010 9:05:29 AM

    one slight problem i have a pmr for, it ignores your signature. So if you are one of those that has a signature

    Hi

    Regards

    Bob

    best get a paper dictionary.

  1. 6  Nikolay Vlasov http://www.ibm.com/ | 2/19/2010 9:24:46 AM

    Hi Ed! This is cool feature. Really good news. I suggest to do a next step and add an ability to choose more then one primary language in instant spell checker. Here is the link on the survey in IdeaJam with more details and a lot of responses from the community: { Link }

    The people in different countries and regions really need this!

  1. 7  Mark Hazlitt  | 2/19/2010 9:43:05 AM

    Ed

    Any plans to distribute add-on dictionaries with IBM product/trade names? e.g. Lotusphere, Sametime etc?

    Or is this already built in?

  1. 8  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/19/2010 9:46:49 AM

    @7 I believe they are already in there in the 8.5.1 dictionaries.

  1. 9  Thomas Adrian http://www.notessidan.se | 2/19/2010 9:51:37 AM

    More info here

    { Link }

  1. 10  Olaf Boerner http:\\www.bcc.biz | 2/19/2010 11:51:35 AM

    What about AutoCorrect. This is "feature" is very important and would improve user productivty a lot.

    Best regards

    Olaf

  1. 11  Lissette Arenas  | 2/19/2010 5:39:22 PM

    Adding to 5. Chris' comment, if your signature has returns at the beginning and you start typing within one of the returns, being a part of the signature, all the text is ignored for spell checking.

    Have already received a few complaints about this from clients.

  1. 12  Christian Henseler  | 2/22/2010 7:11:22 AM

    Problem with the XTAF_Dictionaries when I'd last checked them is that they are not proberly signed (at least the Win version). So, you have to resign them or adjust signed plug-in policies accordingly to avoid user pop-ups. Hope this will be corrected with 8.5.2.

    I think it is not a good idea to deploy general purpose plugins (plugins used by every user) using a widget catalog, especially in multi-user and/or roaming user scenarios, but this is not a dictionary specific issue.

  1. 13  Bill Brown  | 2/22/2010 1:01:47 PM

    @11 At one time, it was recommended that signatures always start with a tear line consisting of 2 dashes and a space. This was used by mailing list software such as Listserv (TM) and (IIRC) newsgroups to identify signatures.

    I don't remember the last time I actually saw one though.

    Advantage is you always know where your signature starts.

  1. 14  Abraham  | 2/26/2010 12:03:20 PM

    I just tested it with the "capitalize first letter of a sentence" and this also applies when using the domino administrator client.

    this looks dangerous!