Enable Firefox spell checking in WordPress 2.1

Important note: This plugin only applies to WordPress 2.1 – 2.1.2. The fix is included in the 2.1.3 source by default, and this plugin will no longer be needed.

Edit: Yes, I’ve just looked at 2.1.3 (which was just released) and this fix is in there. Do not use this plugin with 2.1.3 and up.

Lots of people like the new WordPress 2.1, but I noticed several complaints over on the WordPress support forums about the fact that the Firefox inline spell checking seems to not be working with the new editor.

I investigated, and it turns out to simply be one of the default settings of the version of TinyMCE that is being used. Even though it has a spell check button, some people prefer Firefox’s automatic spell checking. I can understand that, I use it all the time myself.

Fortunately, WordPress includes hooks for changing those TinyMCE settings, so it was a matter of a few minutes to create a plugin to deal with the issue.

Here’s a plugin to do just that. It’s simple to use, just upload to the plugins directory, then activate it in the Plugin panel. No configuration needed, it just turns the Firefox automatic spell checker back on in TinyMCE. Simple.

Download FFSpell

Enjoy!

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43 Responses to Enable Firefox spell checking in WordPress 2.1

  1. jon says:

    Thanks, made my day much better to get that taken care of.

  2. Hey Otto, thanks again for this. Supremely useful :)

  3. Jenn says:

    Thanks! This is going to make posting a lot more comfortable again.

  4. Cliff says:

    I use Firefox 1.5.0.9. So I don’t have the that problem, however, the WP 2.1 spell check function has never worked. I get a “Could not execute ajax all…” error. I’ve searched the forums and found people with the problem, but no solutions. Any ideas?

  5. Cliff says:

    I use Firefox 1.5.0.9. So I don’t have the that problem, however, the WP 2.1 spell check function has never worked. I get a “Could not execute ajax all…” error. I’ve searched the forums and found people with the problem, but no solutions. Any ideas?

  6. Christian says:

    Great work! Thanks very much!

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  8. Fantastic plugin, thanks!

  9. Justin says:

    Thanks, switching to code view and back for spell checks was getting to be a pain!

  10. Justin says:

    Thanks, switching to code view and back for spell checks was getting to be a pain!

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  12. Pingback: The Personal Blog of Jason Dunn » Blog Archive » Clawing My Way Back from Spell-Check Hell

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  17. Thank you Otto,

    now my posts do not have any silly spell mistakes.

  18. Pingback: Wordpress Firefox spellcheck « binarymoon

  19. Pingback: Enable Firefox Spell Check in WP 2.1 » JaypeeOnline

  20. wordpress firefox spellcheckI’m sure most of you have seen this, but for those of you who haven’t, if you’d like to take advantage of Firefox 2′s awesome built-in spellcheck service while still using the rich text formatting of WordPress, you can go get FFSpell, a nifty plugi…

  21. wordpress firefox spellcheckI’m sure most of you have seen this, but for those of you who haven’t, if you’d like to take advantage of Firefox 2′s awesome built-in spellcheck service while still using the rich text formatting of WordPress, you can go get FFSpell, a nifty plugi…

  22. wordpress firefox spellcheckI’m sure most of you have seen this, but for those of you who haven’t, if you’d like to take advantage of Firefox 2′s awesome built-in spellcheck service while still using the rich text formatting of WordPress, you can go get FFSpell, a nifty plugi…

  23. wordpress firefox spellcheckI’m sure most of you have seen this, but for those of you who haven’t, if you’d like to take advantage of Firefox 2′s awesome built-in spellcheck service while still using the rich text formatting of WordPress, you can go get FFSpell, a nifty plugi…

  24. wordpress firefox spellcheckI’m sure most of you have seen this, but for those of you who haven’t, if you’d like to take advantage of Firefox 2′s awesome built-in spellcheck service while still using the rich text formatting of WordPress, you can go get FFSpell, a nifty plugi…

  25. wordpress firefox spellcheckI’m sure most of you have seen this, but for those of you who haven’t, if you’d like to take advantage of Firefox 2′s awesome built-in spellcheck service while still using the rich text formatting of WordPress, you can go get FFSpell, a nifty plugi…

  26. wordpress firefox spellcheckI’m sure most of you have seen this, but for those of you who haven’t, if you’d like to take advantage of Firefox 2′s awesome built-in spellcheck service while still using the rich text formatting of WordPress, you can go get FFSpell, a nifty plugi…

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  35. engtech says:

    You can also right-click on TinyMCE and get the a context menu that will enable it, but only while your on that page.

    Great plugin idea, I might write a Greasemonkey script to do the same thing for WordPress Multi-user bloggers who can’t install plugins.

  36. Tamar bell says:

    This is a great idea, but i fixed mine by just unchecking and rechecking the spell check option in the Firefox tools.

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  38. Pingback: FireFox Hacker - How to Fix Firefox Spell Check in Wordpress

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  40. Pingback: WP Plugins DB » Blog Archive » Firefox spellcheck

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  42. Dexter says:

    You saved my life, thanks man!

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