Closed Bug 374352 Opened 18 years ago Closed 18 years ago

Obama not in spellchecker dictionary

Categories

(Core :: Spelling checker, defect)

Product:
Core
Component:
Spelling checker
Version:
1.8 Branch
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: stevecoh2, Assigned: mscott)

Details

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2 Partially tongue in cheek but I find this annoying. Go to some site that allows you to enter text. Try typing in the names of political figures. "Clinton" is okay as is "Edwards" but not "Obama". You probably ought to add this word to the dictionary as the Senator from Illinois seems to be gaining a following. And by the way "okay" is not accepted, either, nor is "ok". Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3.
Seriously, shouldn't proper nouns (capitalized words) be allowed by default?
Assignee: nobody → mscott
Component: General → Spelling checker
Product: Firefox → Core
QA Contact: general → spelling-checker
Summary: Spellchecker has political bias → Obama not in spellchecker dictionary
Version: unspecified → 1.8 Branch
We're not adding names of random political figures. There's some discussion on another bug (I forget which one) about ignoring capitalized words, although I also think that's a bad idea. If you type Obama a lot, I recommend you add it to your personal dictionary.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 18 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
It was just something I happened to notice. I'm not even an Obama supporter. But it does raise a question: why are the capitalized words that ARE in the dictionary there? What is an "Edwards"? Of course I really don't think there's anything political in what's in the dictionary and what's not, but I don't think you guys have thought it through all that well. Why is ignoring capitalized words such a bad idea? I can think of one reason. Sometimes a capitalized word is just a word at the beginning of a sentence. Is that why you say that? On balance though, I think it's a good idea. How about turning the spell checker off? I fancy myself a good speller. I typically turn it off wherever I can. I couldn't see how to do it here. Is it an option in Firefox? Perhaps it should be.
You can turn the spell checker off using a checkbox in Options > Advanced > General.
Preferences->Advanced->Check my spelling as I type will turn off the spelling checker if that's what you'd like.
Actually, now, I do find "Check my spelling as I type" on the General subtab of the Advanced tab, but the "Personal Dictionary" feature has not made itself visible to me yet. I did find how to add different language dictionaries but not how to add your personal dictionary.
Right-click on a word that Firefox thinks is misspelled.
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