Saturday, September 29, 2007

Gmail Spell-check

Gmail recently added a spell-check feature. Now questionable words get underlined with red dots as you compose your outgoing messages. (And as I write this blog post, I notice Blogger has the very same feature -- so I surmise this is a Google thing, since Google owns both.) I don't really mind, but I do think it's odd how small its dictionary must be -- it doesn't even recognize okay as a legitimate English word. But my mind was truly boggled when I found the Gmail spell-check doesn't recognize the word... Gmail.

UPDATE: Mystery solved! As two commenters have pointed out, the red-dot-underling is Firefox's spell-checker, not Gmail's. Of course, that doesn't explain why even the most paltry of dictionaries wouldn't include okay.

As long as my commenters are solving small mysteries for me, riddle me this: Why do men's button-down shirts now often have a horizontal buttonhole for the bottom button? I've only noticed this over the last couple of years.

7 comments:

Larry Sheldon said...

I have not checked lately, but the last time I checked Microsoft Word's dictionary did not recognize "DOS", "MS-DOS", or "MSDOS".

And what ever Thunderbird uses complains about "unix" although it is case-sensitive so "UNIX" might have been OK.

In the text above, "MSDOS", "unix", and "UNIX" have the dreaded red dots.

SB said...

You're actually most likely using the built in Firefox spell checker. Gmail's spell checker only functions when you click on the "Check spelling" link above your message. It marks misspellings in bold, red, underlined text.

It recognizes both "Gmail" and "okay."

Scott Freeman said...

Steven is correct, Gmail only checks when you click the little button in the bottom right and does not function dynamically.

However, both Firefox and Gmail have pretty small dictionaries compared to, say, MS Word, but they also have much smaller price tags - no price tag at all in fact!

Unknown said...

For Firefox users, spell check has been available for about a year already, making Gmail's redundant.

Anonymous said...

about the buttons.. I think it's so you know which is the bottom hole, to avoid slipping the bottom button through the next hole up.

Larry Sheldon said...

I wonder if it has to to with the fact that one or two of us put an inordinate strain on the bottom buttons--enough to rip the fabric if we are not careful. Not sure how the horizontal hole would help--and I have not seen an example yet.

Unknown said...

In response to Richard said 'the horizontal button hole is to allow for expansion after a large meal, the button can pop more easily!! cece