A feature I would like to see in xara

[jclements]

Jens,

I think NoteTAB Pro is being sold for $20.

NotePAD is free.

Correct?

[jens g.r. benthien]

John,

I don't know NotePAD. US$ 20 for the NoteTab Pro is correct. The light version is free, but can't run the spell checker and thesaurus.

Fluppet,

there is something on the market for Windows: UAS.

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However, I don't know if it comes with a spell checker, but registered NoteTab Pro users can download a free copy which is limited to NoteTab and doesn't work globally as the standalone version.

[Fluppet]

Thanks, Jens. I'll have a look at it.

--
Fluppet

[Sheff]

Possible solution:

For this spell checking issue, one way would be to have Xara output a file containing all the text in a document. Then you could use whatever spell checker you wanted.

If Xara were to find a way to output a plain text.txt file then anyone could edit the spellings however they wanted with whatever app they have designated for .txt files.

This could be similar to 'view source' in a web browser.

You would still have to go in and correct the spelling manually in Xara and fix whaever formatting changes may have occured, but for now this could be a workaround.

Personally, I'd much rather see a spell checker helper app rather than XPE. Now let me defend this statement logically. With a spell checker app, that's all it would and should do. You don't need grammar correction, you don't need a thesaurus. You just need to make sure that what you've entered by hand is spelled correctly.

Currently with XPE, you can only change brightness, sharp/blurriness, contrast and saturation. Often times, you need more than that. You might want to shift the hue, you might want do a magic wand or you might want to invert an image. For that you need Photoshop or an equivalent. These are things you cannot do in XPE and I don't know about you guys, but I find that it doesn't always work and panels often disappear forcing me to save and reboot Xara. I would much rather work in Photoshop or whatever and link the file. I already have a word processor that checks spelling. Give me a way to let me use that in an easier fashion. It doesn't make much sense to try and reinvent a wheel that is less round for those users who aren't that advanced yet. It would be nice to hit an edit text button and see all the text in a Xara document in a text editor.

I think whatever features are added, they need to give the users more options to use apps they already own.

[mckinney]

You might also try one of the multitude of "universal" spell-checkers available for Windows platforms. A few are:

Tinyspell
http://www.megspace.com/computers/tinyspell/
Free. Monitors typing and alerts to misspelled words or will check individual words. Works with Xara

The following I haven't tested (yet):

SpellCatcher Plus
http://www.rainmakerinc.com/products/spellcatcherplus/
Also monitors typing and appears to be more full-featured than tinyspell.

WordScribe
http://www.hsft.com/products.html

Spell Magic
http://www.alcodasoftware.com/spell-magic.htm

Spellink
http://www.smartlinkcorp.com/new/inv...&mode=1&page=1

Spell Check Anywhere
http://www.spellcheckanywhere.com/

AutoSpell
http://www.spellchecker.com/personal/

- Pete

[Sheff]

Just tried TinySpell. It works on words you type as you type them, however, I don't think it would work on something you cut and pasted into Xara. It does work with Xara.

Interestingly enough, "Tinyspell" isn't in its own dictionary.

I will try out more of them.

Thanks.

[jens g.r. benthien]

Pete,

Spellcheck Anywhere sounds promising and appears to be the best companion for Xara. The price is moderate, I think an integrated spell checker in Xara would cost the same amount on top of the package...

[RAMWolff44]

AutoSpell Personal looks very nice.

http://www.spellchecker.com/personal/

Only $19.95 too!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Gonna download it and try it out in Xara X1!

[RAMWolff44]

Never mind. Doesn't work!!

Tried it 3 times in Xara X1 and twice in EditPad Lite, nothing happens. Tried it in Notepad native Windows app and it works just fine. Too bad! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/frown.gif Affordable but not of any use!!

Still think a native spell checker for Xara X1 is the best solution but I'm open minded, at least trying to be and stay within my budget!!

Heck, it's not even good enough to work out here on these post forms!!

Oh well.................

[sgiff]

Here's one more, Fanix Software

I have to agree with the ones who do not want to add features to Xara that would make it bloatware. I started using Corel Draw at version 3 and watched it grow to an enormous size over the years because they had to put all these kinds of features in for each new version knows that this is exactly what happened to this product. I think they have backed off a little on this practice but I gave up using CorelDraw for exactly this reason. Xara should stick to essential graphics/illustration features, and I'm not opposed to expanding XPE features a little.

s.g.