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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Download: VSSpellChecker.msi

What's new in version 2.2:

  • Spell checker now fully supports VS 2008 SP1
  • Content of <code>, <abbr> and <address> elements is ignored
  • Setup no longer requires COM registration, it uses VS AddIn registration in XML file
  • List of words to ignore (SpellChecker.ignore file) was moved from AppData to AddIns folder
  • Fixed bugs:
    • Add To Dictionary may corrupt Word custom dictionary file dictionary file was not in Unicode
    • Windows update to MSXML may cause "Ignore" and "Add To Dictionary" command to disappear
    • After word was added to dictionary it may continue to be flagged as an error until VS is restarted


Note: There is no v2.2 for VS 2005 or VS 2008 RTM. From now on updates will be provided for VS 2008 SP1 only. Version 2.1 will remain available for VS 2008 RTM and VS 2005 SP1.

Spell checker supports text verification in:

  • HTML style comments <-- HTML -->
  • ASP.NET server side comments: <%-- ASP.NET --%>
  • JScript, C# and C++ comments: // C++ style comments
  • CSS and C style comments: /* C style comments */
  • VB and VBScript style comments: 'This is VB comment

Spell checking is supported in style and script blocks as well as in JS, CS, VB, CSS, CPP and H files

Requirements:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1, any edition except Express.
Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007

Installation

  • Close Visual Studio
  • Uninstall previous version
  • Download and run VSSpellChecker.msi
  • Run Visual Studio
  • Open a Web site or standalone HTML file.
  • You should see Spell Checker entry in the Tools menu.

The add-in is now installed in your user folder under Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Add-Ins. More details on VS AddIn XML registration can be found here. Spell checking engine remains native C++ dll, but I added a managed wrapper which can be registered using simple XML file and hence COM registration is no longer needed. This should solve issues with setup under Vista and UAC.

 

Uninstall

  • Close Visual Studio
  • Open Control Panel
  • Go to Add/Remove Programs
  • Locate Spell Checker Add-in for Visual Studio 2008 and click Remove

How to use the Spell Checker

Important note: Add-in does not work with Visual Web Developer Express as Express editions are not extensible.

Open a Web Form, HTML, ASP, JS, VBS, CS, VB, CPP or CSS file and click Tools | Spell Checker. Spell check may take 10-15 seconds on decently sized files. There is no immediate progress indication, but you can see that squiggles appear one by one under misspelled words. Double click on the misspelled word brings list of suggestions. <Cancel> closes the suggestion list. Spell checker messages also show up in the Error List as informational messages. They are not entered as errors or warnings so they don't break builds.

 

 

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