In-line Spell Checking with Opera

Posted June 16, 2008
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I love Opera and I am excited to be using the latest version Opera 9.5 that came out just a few days ago. With the new features, fixes, and new Dragonfly Webdeveloper Tool I believe that Opera is pulling away from the competiton and has always been in my opinion faster and better than Firefox or other browsers.

The only feature that I miss about Firefox was the in-line spell checking. Sure Opera has spell checking built into the browser but it doesn’t highlight mispelled words and it can be difficult to spell check a large document as you never know which word in the document it is trying to correct. I will be the first to admit that Firefox’s spellcheck system is much more intuitive and easier to use.

This is a small flaw that I have found that I don’t like about Opera but it isn’t enough for me to switch to Firefox or even worse, Internet Explorer. After doing a quick search I found a great script that will add in-line spell checking to Opera in about 30 seconds.

Installing the script

 
First we need to make a folder that stores the script and any other script we may use in the future. I like to use the Opera directory to store my scripts so I always know where they are. This also makes sense because if I remove Opera in the future my scripts will also be removed. Create a folder called ‘UserJS‘ here:

OperaDefaultPath\Opera\program\plugins\

Usually it is:

C:\Program Files\Opera\program\plugins

Then download the OSpell script to add the in-line spell checking. Save the file in the newly created folder, ‘UserJS‘.

After you have saved the script we need to tell Opera where to look for it.

Go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced > JavaScript Options

Where is says User JavaScript Files click Choose and point to the folder we created (‘UserJS‘).

Save your settings and restart Opera. You will now have a nice in-line spell check button at the bottom of every text area form. In order for the button to show up you will have to click in the text area.

Opera Spell Check Button

Opera-Spell-Check

I am not sure why Opera hasn’t come up with a better solution for spell checking. They are usually ahead of the game when it comes to new features. Thankfully I found a script that added the in-line spell checking.


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7 Responses to "In-line Spell Checking with Opera"
  1. Rob McNulty on November 30th, 2008

    mark,

    Thanks for the spell check on Opera. I have not tried it yet but appreciate that. So now when I use email I can use spell check in line?

    Question you know the Aspell for Opera? How do I use that one? I downloaded everything but tried the english dictionary but could not open the zs2 files. Do I need to pay for a program or can I get it free? Will zip open it?

    I’m following you on Twitter. Can you email me at rnultster@gmail.com please?

    thanks,
    Rob

  2. Chris on January 27th, 2009

    Thank you for this very easy to follow tutorial. I have always loved the in-line spellcheck feature of FireFox and still say it is better than this one. But I see many things that I like better in Opera than FF and can live with the inferior spellchecker. I was about ready to un-install Opera from frustration of the lack of spell check. You have really helped out with this. Thanks!!!

  3. Mark Sanborn on January 28th, 2009

    You’re welcome! I would also let you know that the new version of Opera is going to have the inline spell checker.

  4. kris on January 29th, 2009

    Anything for Mac?

  5. Zander on February 24th, 2009

    I tried doing this with Opera on my Mac, but I’m afraid that when I go to “choose user javascript” it doesn’t recognise the “ospell.js” file.

  6. YarsRevenge on May 2nd, 2009

    Works great, thanks a bunch!
    Still, not quite as good as a true real-time in-line spellchecker like what is built into FireFox but it’s a great alternative. I see that Opera 10 will have what we are wanting though and I’m looking forward to it.

    I just installed Opera for the first time last night to give it a whirl. I didn’t know much about it and had no real expectations for it. I’m a big fan of FireFox but so far Opera has won me over. I’m still test driving it but I haven’t found much that I didn’t like about it but I’ve found lots of features that I’m already in love with. The only real let down was the spellchecker but this script helps a lot. Hopefully Opera 10’s spellchecker will be as good as Firefox’s which I have found to be better than, say, Chrome’s… but really any in-line spellchecker will be nice.

    Thanks so much for this easy to follow tutorial!

  7. iS on May 16th, 2009

    Awesome tutorial. Very easy to follow. Thanks for this!