XplanaZine

Just as I regret not having known about IRFANView to share with my students last semester, I also found the wonderful little ieSpell too late - but it’s at the top of the list for next semester! What is ieSpell? It’s a little plug-in utility for Internet Explorer that allows you to spellcheck any text that you type into a web form.
Eegad, what a genius thing - you can spellcheck what you post to a Blackboard discussion board, I can spellcheck the article that I am typing right now into a webform, all with this simple little browser plug-in.
When I discovered this little tool (thanks to Ryan Sarver at Exit33!), I asked the manager of our Lab builds here at the University of Oklahoma if he could get ieSpell included in our Lab build for the coming Fall semester, and here’s what he wrote back: “I just installed it, and I believe this may just be the best thing since sliced bread. I’ll make sure it finds its way into the lab build.”
Here’s the blurb at the ieSpell website:

ieSpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes on a webpage. It should come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of web-based text entry (e.g. web mails, forums, blogs, diaries). Even if your web application already includes spell checking functionality, you might still want to install this utility because it is definitely much faster than a server-side solution. Plus you get to store and use your personal word list across all your applications, instead of maintaining separate ones on each application.
The software is free for personal and educational (non-commercial) use. The website provides a PayPal link if you want to make a donation.
Here’s a screenshot of ieSpell in action… I would be so happy to enjoy an entire semester with the word “definitely” spelled correctly in my students’ postings to the discussion board…

Or perhaps the students will all change their “definately” to “defiantly”…! That would make for lively class discussions!
So who do we have to thank for this genius little tool? Apparently the man to thank is “Sidney Chong” whose name appears at the bottom of the ieSpell website. Thank you Sidney Chong!
The software was updated with a new release in Fall 2002 to include French and German language packs in addition to English (American - Canadian - British). There’s a “To Do” list of additional features that might be added in coming releases - my only wish would be for a word count feature….
For word counts I turn to another very nifty little tool - an online spellcheck site that also provides a handy word count: SpellCheck.net.

The SpellCheck.net folks also have some very useful text-transformation tools online: add line numbers, remove carriage returns, line sort, word sort, etc. Between these tools and the handy word count, I use SpellCheck.net all the time. Best of all: this little online tool keeps me from having to open Microsoft Word! And the less often I have to open Word, the happier I am… whole days go by, even weeks, without so much as a glimpse of the Paperclip! (okay, I know hardly anybody clicks on links when they read articles like this - but click on that Paperclip link - you’ll be glad you did!).
And here’s something interesting: who are the guys behind SpellCheck.net? Well, this spellcheck tool is part of a larger web portal called MotionNET.com, and here is an excerpt from their blurb at the MotionNET website:

MotionNET.com is the technical web portal designed by a team of experienced electronic and mechanical design engineers to help fellow engineers design and develop new products. […] Already, MotionNET.com is used thousands of times each day. We are thrilled to see our vision become a reality. We hope you share our enthusiasm and find our site increasingly helpful.
Now that is neat! Who would have guessed that a little tool built by some electronic and mechanical design engineers would end up helping out an online mythology college instructor - but that’s what happened.
Free tools on the Internet - they make all kinds of unexpected friends!