Technobabble

Vista provides an in-built spell checker. Many applications do this too.

However spell checking does not extend to all applications. In particular using a web based application, spell checking is not always available.

You can get around this with Internet Explorer, for instance by using the Google Spell Checker. But that fixes just one application.

So you might want an application you can use across all applications that gives you spell checking.

We checked out three packages:

• As-U-Type
• SpellCheckAnyWhere from TG Enterprises
• Spell Catcher by Rainmaker
• WhiteSmoke

As-U-Type:

I have been a long-term fan of this product having switched from Spell Catcher a few years ago. However, they do not support Vista. I emailed them to get an update on development plans. I did not get a reply. So no luck here.

SpellCheckAnywhere:

This product claims Vista compatibility. However, there was no support forum. So I looked at the third product…

Spell Catcher:

There’s a lively forum for this product. I also had mostly good experiences with this product a few years ago.

WhiteSmoke:

I haven’t checked out the product. However another blog reports major problems in using it with Vista. I also found their sales approach was over-aggressive. This coupled with the lack of an evaluation download really killed it for me.

So for now Spell Catcher is my favourite.