Skip navigation.

News » Be a blog spelling bee

Be a blog spelling bee

Spell-checking with Opera

On Windows, Linux, and UNIX, Opera supports GNU Aspell. To spell-check with Opera, you need to install both GNU Aspell and at least one Aspell dictionary.

On Mac OS X, Opera uses the system spell checker. There is no need to install additional software.

Get GNU Aspell and one or more Aspell dictionaries

Go to GNU Aspell or GNU Aspell for Windows to download the latest version of the software. Aspell dictionaries can be found in the same location.

Step by step

  1. Install GNU Aspell.
  2. Install one or more Aspell dictionaries.
  3. Restart Opera.

On startup, Opera should automatically recognize when GNU Aspell and one or more dictionaries are installed on your computer, but without a dictionary, GNU Aspell will not function as a spell checker.

Using the spell checker

With a spell checker installed, the "Check spelling" option will appear in the context menu of all edit fields. When writing blog posts, the "Check spelling" button will be visible on the toolbar. To check the spelling of a single word or a portion of your text exclusively, highlight the text, and right click on it. :up:

Enjoy!

Comments

avatar
Awesome! :yes:

By aleksanteri, # 7. May 2007, 14:21:13

avatar
Already using this. It works great. :D

By G-off, # 7. May 2007, 14:28:43

avatar
:smile:

By Qrizze, # 7. May 2007, 15:12:40

avatar
:frown: , I don't understand , I'm chicken .....

By xuanhau88, # 7. May 2007, 15:28:06

avatar
Aspell is great. And very helpful. :smile:

By drlaunch, # 7. May 2007, 15:28:19

avatar
I prefer the userjs OSpell over Aspell.

By rhonnysparks, # 7. May 2007, 15:37:46

avatar
I like OSpell much better... If no a real time spell checker, same as in FF, would be really cool!

By seifip, # 7. May 2007, 16:26:14

avatar
Install, install, install, i hope Opera will integrate them in setup.

By wallpearl, # 7. May 2007, 16:37:10

avatar
I went here http://aspell.net/ , clicked on latest version link GNUAspell 0.60.5 and when I tried it I got an red circle with a red x inside and the saying Could not start application.

By Dacotah, # 7. May 2007, 16:41:36

avatar
"I hope Opera will integrate them in setup"

WORD! End to all geeky rocket scientist install processes! Simplicity now! Yay :smile:

By EivindFS, # 7. May 2007, 16:42:08

avatar
I think that Ospell user script is better. Try this.

By adas, # 7. May 2007, 17:30:26

avatar
Ospell is great! Way much better then Aspell :wink:

By Barthez, # 7. May 2007, 17:41:22

avatar
You are destroying the evolution of humanity by allowing machines do our spell checking! You thing Chauser spelled everything correctly? Not a chance, but he pushed the language to new evolutionary bounds!

By plfuego, # 7. May 2007, 18:00:19

avatar
dude that rocks cuz I can't spell for the life of me. I mean seriously it just happens. Sometimes i get it right, next step is grammer! lol

By albertrosa, # 7. May 2007, 19:12:01

avatar
Great! I'm a bit of a obsesive person with that... not on my blog so much, but this is great!

By Sphinxy, # 7. May 2007, 19:43:07

avatar
[Dacotah] If you are on Windows, you will need to get the Windows version of aspell (and dictionaries) from http://aspell.net/win32/.

By neeraj_deshmukh, # 7. May 2007, 19:59:19

avatar
"I prefer the userjs OSpell over Aspell"
I agree this statement

By el_esponjoso, # 7. May 2007, 20:01:38

avatar
Thank you neeraj_deshmukh, I did, it worked. Thank you. Just don't understand where to put the start up thing, & the one dictionarie thing. I think I did both. I picked a dic. before I finished the install. I don't see it on my toolbar & the page I went to to view it was confusing. I think I better uninstall it. Thanks again for your help.

By Dacotah, # 7. May 2007, 20:14:01

avatar
Works fine! awesome stuff. :smile:

By castleofcreativity, # 8. May 2007, 01:01:23

avatar
hmm, I didn't manage to get this to work. will it conflict with aspell per chance?

By experttease, # 8. May 2007, 02:01:47

avatar
dude that rocks cuz!

By Profesjonalna, # 8. May 2007, 10:06:37

avatar
>> When writing blog posts, the "Check spelling" button will be visible on the toolbar.

dunno what I'm doing wrong but, I never had such a button :left:

By agony, # 8. May 2007, 12:09:39

avatar
Ahh..There aren't so many languages to choose from :frown:
And the whole Aspell thing needs to be updated(from 2002) don't you think?
In the mean time I prefer OSpell. :up:

By zoligrg89, # 8. May 2007, 13:03:35

avatar
backpeddle...this thing kicks! useful to have aspell too though cos otherwise you can't check e-mail spellings. is there anyway to use JS in the 'compose' page of opera?

By experttease, # 8. May 2007, 14:00:32

avatar
[zoligrg89] Aspell has been updated regularly. It is an open source software project that is actively developed (on Linux). What they have not managed to do is port it to Windows. I had tried to build it on Windows myself some time ago, but ran into problems.

One thing that will be really great is if Opera developers can take some time out to do a Windows port (since it is their "official" spell-checker) and give it back to the OSS community.

By neeraj_deshmukh, # 8. May 2007, 15:05:50

avatar
OK! I downloaded Aspell and the dictionary, I unzipped the file, but when I restarted Opera, it still does not work. Where do I unzip the file to? If someone can help..reply here or send me a pm.

regards,
someone who can't get Aspell to work for me! :irked:

By angel292005, # 8. May 2007, 15:12:03

avatar
[angel292005] If you are on Windows and you got a Linux build, it will not help. You need to get the Windows installer files for aspell and the dictionary from http://aspell.net/win32/ and install them on your computer.

By neeraj_deshmukh, # 8. May 2007, 15:32:31

avatar
Great!
That's awesome for us who write in English (as a second language).
Thanks,
Dan

By dmfalmeida, # 8. May 2007, 16:19:45

avatar
Not compatible with windows vista :-(

By Webshit, # 9. May 2007, 04:18:14

avatar
..am I the only one who doesn't understand how to install this? I went to the sites and downloaded the files. They are presently sitting on my desktop and I can't open them. One has a .gz file ending. The other has a .bz2 file ending

...help please (or I'll go back to WORD spell-checker p: )

By lokutus_prime, # 9. May 2007, 12:54:01

avatar
[lokutus_prime] If you are a Windows user, see my previous comment.

By neeraj_deshmukh, # 9. May 2007, 14:54:21

avatar
neeraj deshmukh, You mean your comment prior to the one you posted for angel[292005]?

if so ..ok I'll go to the link you mention :up: thanks

By lokutus_prime, # 9. May 2007, 16:28:04

avatar
Kewell :happy: ... it worked :up:

By lokutus_prime, # 9. May 2007, 16:38:58

avatar
Listens great! I'll check it out immidiately (e.g. for this word I need it :D )

By Nagian, # 11. May 2007, 14:37:33

avatar
Who came up with this idea? Was that you Fred? I Love it!

By BIGDADGIB, # 12. May 2007, 04:17:05

avatar
It doesn't work in linux. i installed aspell (32-bit version) and restarted opera. it didn't work. Other 32-bit plugins work fine.

By kitt, # 15. May 2007, 19:44:36

avatar
Worked 'from the off' in Ubuntu for me. Always has. Same with Mac OSX.
Windows I installed Aspell a few years ago to use this feature...

It's been in Opera ages, this year must just be a bad one for spelling to have Opera point it out. P:

By coxy, # 18. May 2007, 17:49:39

avatar
great job!!!

By KingZo, # 23. May 2007, 07:37:21

avatar
It works great. Nice Stuff :smile:

By gecko99, # 23. May 2007, 10:45:45

avatar
@plfuego

You might be right about spellchecking retarding people's desire to learn proper spelling for themselves. On the other hand you misspelled Chaucer... :whistle:

By Turin, # 30. August 2007, 17:08:10

avatar
How do you install aspell with windows xp>?

By Sodabone, # 8. September 2007, 13:19:38

avatar
Sodabone, have you tried OSpell?

By GT500, # 28. September 2007, 06:25:58

avatar
V.Good.
B.S.Kushwah

By bskushwah, # 28. September 2007, 06:57:02

Write a comment

You must be logged in to write a comment. if you're not a registered member, please sign up.

May 2008
SMTWTFS
April 2008June 2008
123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
blogs, photos, friends. join my opera