Make sure your dictionaries are updated for v24 also

PLEASE SEE and USE ALL APPLICABLE in the How do I use the Firefox spell checker? article.

Where is the option of updating dictionaries?

I obviously have not made myself clear. When I right click in the text I have typed for a group post the option to check spelling does NOT appear in the drop down box. Only the option to add a dictionary is there. There is also no option to choose a language.

The spell check is working perfectly in this support group as it is in Outlook.com email. It is just on the one site that it is NOT working and does NOT appear as a clickable option in the right click drop down list both in the group posts and the internal messaging system. But does work in the ecards that site offers. I'm stumped as this has never happened before and was working just perfectly before the 24.0 update this morning.

Dictionaries do not need to be updated. Dictionaries that you installed yourself in the Firefox profile folder should still be there. If you install a localized version of Firefox then such a version may not come with a dictionary.

Note that websites can disable the spell checker via spellcheck="false" (Google translate does this)., but you should still be able to enable the spell check via the right-click context menu.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

cor-el, thanks for the links, tried that and it made no difference. Still no option to spell check. I guess that means that the site has to make changes in the way it allows Firefox 24.0 to access the site? I am not the only Firefox user with the same problem using the site since the update to 24.0.

Would you have any problem with me copying and pasting your reply above in a post to the Feedback & Suggestions group on the site?. It is the official help group for problems on the site.

It seems everyone I know on the site who has updated to FF 24 has the same problem. Is there anything else we can try in the Firefox settings that will give us back the ability to use the spell check. Strangely we are able to spell check the subject line of a group post, just not the post itself.

Current Firefox versions hide Check Spelling in the right-click context menu of a text area if the web page disables the spell check via a spellcheck="false" attribute of this element.

You can right-click in the text editor area and use "Inspect Element" to see if this text area has a spellcheck="false" attribute.

Removing this spellcheck="false" attribute by selecting it via a double-click and using the Delete or Backspace key should make the Check Spelling item in the right-click context menu reappear.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Tools/Web_Console

That is a lot to go through to enable spell check every time I want to either type a personal message or group post. Is there not an easier way? It took me 7 tries to get it to work too and the fix only works on each individual post. Besides I cannot see seniors using their first computers being able to do that once yet alone for every time they want to spell check their message or group post.

Does this mean that the site has to edit their code for the spell check to work with Firefox? They do not have any spell check of their own enabled in those 2 areas.

A quicker way to "hack" the page would be a toolbar button, specifically a "bookmarklet." A bookmarklet is a script that runs when you click a bookmark on the Bookmarks Toolbar. There are similar buttons distributed by popular sites such as the Amazon "Add to Wish List" button and the Pinterest "Pin It" button.

I posted a sample button on this page for testing: http://dev.jeffersonscher.com/bookmarklets.html

The way it works is, click in the field that isn't spellchecking, then click the button. This will assign spellcheck="true" to the field, replacing any spellcheck="false" that might be there. Does it work on the problem site?

Jscher2000, Unfortunately it does not work either in their personal messaging system or in a group post. I tried with both a left click in the text I had typed first and then a right click in the text first.

Thanks a million for trying, that site has so many problems with their coding, it takes forever for them to get things working properly.

Do you see a text area selected with a spellcheck="false" attribute when you right-click in the text area and choose "Inspect Element" ?

Does the bookmarklet work for you on this page?

• https://bug905176.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=790239

You first need to click in the text area or editable DIV in this case to see a cursor.
Then click the bookmarklet on the Bookmarks Toolbar to run the JavaScript code.

cor-el, yes to your first question, in both the personal messages and group posts on that site.

Yes it does work on that page you supplied the link to. It had 3 empty box outlines only. I left clicked in the big box and then right clicked, clicked Inspect Element and saw the spell check = "false". Then clicked the bookmarklet SpellYes and the spellcheck="false" changed to ="true".

But on the Care2.com site it does not work. Am I allowed to copy and paste their code that encompasses the spellcheck="false" here or would that be illegal? They have 4 different settings all squished together in their code for the text boxes. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

I don't think that it would be a problem to post the code.

Is this a text area or a rich text editor with content editable true?

You can also check if there are frames or iframes used.

Because HTML pasted here quickly gets very messy, you might paste it on a site such as the following, and post a link to it. I don't think you need to register in order to create a new page. http://pastebin.com/

At this point I'm a bit over my head in understanding what to do next. There is mention of iframes in the code, but I cannot find a way of copying any of it as there are a few choices and I do not know which one to choose. They are..

COPY INNER HTML
COPY OUTER HTML
COPY UNIQUE SELECTOR

The line with the spellcheck option is this, I triple checked I did not make a mistake in typing it...

<body id="tinymce" class="mceContentBody " spellcheck="false" dir="ltr" >

Does that help?

Hi Sue, TinyMCE is a popular "rich text" editor. I think you've identified the key issue. Because the editor is in a frame, a bookmarklet might not be able to penetrate... hopefully another shortcut will be found.

Seems to me that on a site that promotes itself as a social networking site not allowing spell check to work is like shooting themselves in the foot.

I do not know the first thing about programming, but do understand that they have to fix this in their code. Thanks for writing the bookmarklet, I'm keeping it on my bookmarks toolbar just in case I come across another site it will work on.

Personally I've been using the Inspect Element option and deleting the false from spellcheck="false". But know many older people will not want to do that.

Try this variation of the bookmarklet:

javascript:void(document.activeElement.contentDocument.querySelector('*[spellcheck]').setAttribute('spellcheck','true'));

That works for me on the TinyMCE demo page.

• http://www.tinymce.com/tryit/basic.php

You can use this bookmarklet to see which element gets focus and if necessary adjust the id of the actual textarea (querySelector("#tinymce")) to the real ID in the above posted code.

javascript:void(alert('Active Element'+((D=document.activeElement)?'\n\nnode: "'+D.nodeName.toLowerCase()+'"\n'+(D.id?'id: "'+D.id+'"\n':'')+(D.name?'name: "'+D.name+'"':''):': <none>')));

cor-el, thanks a million. That works. Jumping for joy here! I know absolutely nothing about programming and just highlighted the code you wrote in the emailed copy of your post and dragged it to the bookmarks toolbar. It does work in both the personal messages and group posts on the site.

Is there a way to make it a smaller footprint on the bookmarks toolbar like the previous bookmarklet version posted above by jscher2000? I did go Googling to try to learn how to write a bookmarklet but could not find out that particular info.

I've edited the code that I initially posted ("#tinymce") to do a search for an element with a spellcheck attribute ("*[spellcheck]") instead, so it should be working in more cases

You need to know some (basic) JavaScript about how to work with selectors and use the DOM Inspector or the built-in Inspector.

There is a lot of documentation about how to work with selectors on the MDN pages.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element.querySelector
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/document.querySelector

Sorry all that is way over my head. Have never taken any courses in computing or programming or JavaScript. Just use a computer and try to find solutions for problems. Is there an easy way that I can share your bookmarklet with other Firefox 24.0 users on that site?.

I did manage to find this site that allowed me to copy and paste the code and give the bookmarklet a name, then drag it to the bookmarks toolbar.

link text

But I think this process will be quite difficult for people with far less computer experience.