70413 - Cannot access spell check personal dictionary

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Core :: DOM: Editor, defect)

Description

[bobj]

If I want to add or edit the spell check personal dictionary, the only way
to access it is by (1)edit a document, (2)deliberately misspell a word, and
click on the Spell button which will pop up the spell check dialog.  I should
be able to access this without these gyrations.

Suggestion:  Add a dropdown triangle to the Spell button that would list
"Spell..." which would pop up the spell check dialog. This is similar to the
"Print..." dropdown triangle for the Print button.

Comment 1

[kinmoz]

This should go to [e-mail].

Comment 2

[Charles Manske]

Sounds like a good idea to me. Fairly easy to do.

Comment 3

[jglick]

I think Composer preferences would be a more appropriate place for this. The 
menu buttons on the toolbars are used for alternate versions of the same action, 
such as "Forward:  Forward Inline, Forward As Attachment, Forward Quoted", not 
to access settings.  Or maybe a menu item?  "Edit Spelling Dictionaries"?

Comment 4

[bobj]

he "Print..." dropdown on the Print button seems to be a precedence.  It
pops up the Print dialog which is not an alternate action.

Modifying the personal dictionary is not a preference, so it seems 
inappropriate for it to be in the Composer preferences.  If we want to add
another menu item, that seems more appropriate to me.  I suggested the
dropdown off the button to limit the UI real estate used...

Do you have an alternate suggestion on how to pop-up the spell dialog?  menu 
item?  toolbar button?  Currently,
the only way to do this is to mispell a word and click on the Spell button. 

Comment 5

[bobj]

Whoops.  I prematurely committed my previous comment.  Here is how 
I intended it to read:
===================================================================
The "Print..." dropdown on the Print button seems to be a precedence.  It
pops up the Print dialog which is not an alternate action.

Modifying the personal dictionary is not a preference, so it seems 
inappropriate for it to be in the Composer preferences.  If we want to add
another menu item, that seems more appropriate to me.  I suggested the
dropdown off the button to limit the UI real estate used...

Comment 6

[jglick]

>The "Print..." dropdown on the Print button seems to be a precedence.  It
>pops up the Print dialog which is not an alternate action.
That was a marketing, revenue generating driven design, but point taken!  :-)

>Modifying the personal dictionary is not a preference,
No, it not a pref, but its sorta related and seems to be where other apps are 
sticking it.  I looked at some other products that have spell check.  In Word, 
modifying you Dictionaries is a dialog opened from "Options--> Spelling and 
Grammer".  Frontpage doesn't appear to let you modify or change dictionaries.  
Outlook Express has "Edit custom dictionary" as an item  on the "Options dialog, 
Spelling tab".  Eudora doesn't let you edit/change dictionaries.  Sorry mostly 
MS products.  If anyone has other examples, please provide.

A Menu is another possible place as you mentioned.  

I don't think it is a feature that is used often enough to need to be a button 
menu.

cc'ing German for other ideas.

Comment 7

[Charles Manske]

Adding a menu item seems reasonable as an alternative, but I now notice a
not-so-good difference between the "regular" Compose and Message Composer:
Latter has "Check Spelling" on the "Options" menu; former has it in the "Edit"
menu (we don't have an "Options" top level menu). I don't see how it belongs in
"Options". Edit (or maybe "Tasks"?) seems better to me.
Whereever it is, another menu item below it for "Spelling Dictionaries..."
seems good to me.

Comment 8

[jglick]

Instead of adding a Toolbar button menu or adding extra menu items, what about 
just implementing spell check the way 4.x did?  The Spelling dialog Always opens 
when spelling is requested, even if no mispellings are found. The dialog opens 
and the "Done" button is enabled.  (We could add the text "No mispellings were 
found" if desireable).  And on this dialog is a button "Edit Dictionary" which 
allowed users to add/edit/remove entries from their dictionary. This keeps 
things simple.

Comment 9

[Charles Manske]

Because it really seemed silly and confusing to bring up an entire dialog
with most everthing disabled just to show a "No misspelled words found"
message. That logic, of course, was before the accessibility of the Dictionary
dialog was considered.

Comment 10

[Charles Manske]

I now favor jglick's last suggestion. I thought of another reason: For users
that use mulitple languages, we only support one "current" language at a time,
so by showing the entire Spell Check dialog when no misspelled word is found,
the user can switch to a different language and recheck while in the dialog.
Anyone else object?

Comment 11

[bobj]

I like it.  Simple and adds no clutter to the UI.

Comment 12

[Kathleen :Brade]

Jennifer is right:  the reason we have to open the dialog is to allow access to 
the personal dictionary as well as allowing people to change dictionaries.  There 
was a well-thought out rationale for the 4.x design and it should be emulated 
unless there is a good reason not to do so.

Comment 13

[Charles Manske]

Currently, when there is no more misspelled words, we display the text:
"Completed spell checking" at the top of the spelling dialog.
Does this message seem ok in the case where dialog is launched but no misspelled
words were found? Or should we use the message we displayed in the small dialog
we currently use: "No misspelled words were found" for that one case?

Comment 14

[bobj]

I find the different message, more informative and usable.  But I'd shorten it
to just "No misspelled  words."

Comment 15

[timeless]

'Completed spell checking' or soemthing very much like that sounds correct.
however i think i we are using Done in the rest of the browser... german?

Comment 16

[jglick]

Adding Robin Foster, tech pubs.

Comment 17

[bobj]

If we can detect the 2 different states/conditions, I think it improves the
usability to provide different feedback.  That's why I'd favor a different
message for the "No misspelled words." case.  But I ain't a UI designer...

Comment 18

[Charles Manske]

Attachment: Load Spell Check dialog even when no misspelled words found

Comment 19

[Charles Manske]

Message at top of dialog when no misspelled words found is:
"No misspelled words"
brade: please "r"
kin: please "sr"

Comment 20

[Charles Manske]

Attachment: Oops! Previous diff included stuff for other bugs

Comment 21

[Charles Manske]

Fix is ready and straightforward. Would like to checkin soon. Changing to 8.1

Comment 22

[Charles Manske]

Attachment: Better fix: Put all spell checker startup code in dialog startup

Comment 23

[timeless]

r=timeless. danm, should "_blank" be a named window ("spellChecker") ?

Comment 24

[kinmoz]

sr=[e-mail]

Comment 25

[Charles Manske]

Checked in.

Comment 26

[sujay]

verified in 4/6 build.

Comment 27

[bobj]

Attachment: missing dialog button labels when doc is empty

Comment 28

[bobj]

If the document is empty, several of the spell dialog buttons have not labels.
See attached image.

Comment 29

[Charles Manske]

That issue is new, different and should be filed as a separate bug. It would
probably not be an editor but, but an XPFE/Themes bug, but you can assign it
to me for triage.

Comment 30

[Charles Manske]

Thanks. Reclosing this bug. Bug 75236 has been filed for blank buttons.

Comment 31

[sujay]

verified in 4/16 build.