Hey Admins...

[das]

Since the world revolves around JimR and he has been "vocal" about the need for a spell checker for the TZ for so long, I thought I would make a suggestion. For those that use IE (6 or 7), there is a great Microsoft-approved spell-checking add-in that checks and allows you to edit misspelled words on web page form fields.  I installed it and it works  great  in the TZ.  Just like the spell checker in MS Office products.  If you like, give it a look-see.
The Link

[Andyzipp]

Or you can install Google Toolbar...that has a spell check in it as well.

[Fredia]

what is splle chekc?

[JimR]

what?

[das]

Click that link and install the little app.  It works great.  When you've typed a post in the TZ, you right click the form area and choose "check spelling".

[Matt]

The latest version of Firefox comes with a spell check already in the browser

[Craig]

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The latest version of Firefox comes with a spell check already in the browser

Along with a brazillion other useful extensions that you can install. Firefox is years ahead of IE.

[Ty in Tampa]

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The latest version of Firefox comes with a spell check already in the browser

Along with a brazillion other useful extensions that you can install. Firefox is years ahead of IE.

I'm diggin' 2.0. (I just added 'brazillion' and 'diggin' to my  dictionary)

[HurricaneDavid]

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Firefox is years ahead of IE.

...except that many sites look like total poop in Firefox, or don't work at all.

[Nate in IA]

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Firefox is years ahead of IE.

...except that many sites look like total poop in Firefox, or don't work at all.

I have not noticed this.  All the sites I view look just fine in Firefox except for one site which has specific downloadable code for use with IE.  For that, I simply use the IETab extension.

[No? in Austin]

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The latest version of Firefox comes with a spell check already in the browser

You'd think I would have no problems then, eh?  Hehe! (Wait, I have to spell check this! Uno pomento por favor)

[Ty in Tampa]

 

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For that, I simply use the IETab extension.

Thanks!

[Craig]

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Firefox is years ahead of IE.

...except that many sites look like total poop in Firefox, or don't work at all.

I have not noticed this.  All the sites I view look just fine in Firefox except for one site which has specific downloadable code for use with IE.  For that, I simply use the IETab extension.

That's also what I do. My fantasy football scorepage doesn't look right in Firefox, so I just right-click, load it in an IE tab, and enjoy.

[HudsonHawk]

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The latest version of Firefox comes with a spell check already in the browser

Along with a brazillion other useful extensions that you can install. Firefox is years ahead of IE.

Out of curiosity, what does Firefox do that IE doesn't?

[drew corleone]

I'm curious about that, too...

Interestingly enough our IT department has loaded Mozilla on our desktops at work, but our proprietery web-based database app doesn't function in Mozilla.

Geniuses.

[No? in Austin]

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The latest version of Firefox comes with a spell check already in the browser

Along with a brazillion other useful extensions that you can install. Firefox is years ahead of IE.

Out of curiosity, what does Firefox do that IE doesn't?

For one thing, it is a lot safer.  IE has been notorious as a browser that enables a security breech.  Mozilla is much more safer websurfing.  Also, Firefox has the tab feature that loads your favorite (designated by you) sites at the top of the browser right below the regular icons.  You can quickly flash between two to five sites without using the bookmark or back buttons.  It is quick and easy to use.

Someone already mentioned the formating issues.  Typical of IE to have it's own formats that only it's browser can handle.  But Firefox has more of a universal appeal and I find many of the sites I visit to be more appealing in look and feel because it is not restricted by the IE formats.

[the KEG]

I'm not too sure many IT departments think things through before they do them.  

One of the things I like about Firefox as is the tab browsing feature that allows you to have multiple webpages up without having multiple browsers running.  Although, I do hear that the new IE is boasting this feature now as well.

[No? in Austin]

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I'm not too sure many IT departments think things through before they do them.  

One of the things I like about Firefox as is the tab browsing feature that allows you to have multiple webpages up without having multiple browsers running.  Although, I do hear that the new IE is boasting this feature now as well.

It's not as quick as Firefox.  It is a bit clunky if you ask me.

[Ty in Tampa]

In my opinion, the open source nature of Firefox that allows a ridiculous selection of  extensions make it much more powerful than IE.

Plus, I'm not blindly supporting the Micro$oft machine.

[HurricaneDavid]

The most useful feature I have seen in Firefox is the "minimum font size" option, which you can bump up if you are running a high resolution and don't want to squint all the time.

I personally don't find the "tabs" feature useful at all.  I've been able to easily switch back and forth between browser windows since Windows 95 came out.  IE7 has a tabs feature too, not that I use it.

As far as Firefox being "safer," one reason it is considered safer is just because it is a much smaller target for hackers, seeing how 90% of the population (including just about all of the clueless people on the Internet who will click on anything) uses IE.

Firefox is open source though, so you have the option to create and install all sorts of addons that IE will never have.

[Craig]

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The latest version of Firefox comes with a spell check already in the browser

Along with a brazillion other useful extensions that you can install. Firefox is years ahead of IE.

Out of curiosity, what does Firefox do that IE doesn't?

Well I'm sure the techies here can give better reasons, but here's what I like. First of all, tabbed browsing. I know IE has it now, but I started using Firefox a couple of years ago for the tabs. Ironically, because it helped so much when I was writing series previews for OWA. I need 3-4 pages open at once, and having them in tabs was much nicer than several open windows in IE.

Secondly, there are TONS of nice extensions that enhance your browsing. For example, I have an extension that shows a constant weather forecast for my area, including a radar map if I hover my mouse, in the top corner of my browser. I have another extension that lets me highlight any word on a webpage, then right-click for an instant dictionary search (including Urban Dictionary if I want it). You can use bugmenot with one right-click. I only have a dozen or so extensions, but I can do way more with my browser than I ever could with IE.

Basically, you can customize your browser however you want. (In the browser itself, you can change settings like font size, colors, etc.) Firefox is a resource hog, but I don't notice it much. Plus it's much more secure than IE, or at least that's what the experts say.

There are some sites that don't work well with Firefox, and that's pretty much the only time I use IE. But now that I have an extension that will load any page using an IE tab, I don't remember the last time I started up IE.

Here's one more thing that convinced me to use Firefox. In addition to the built-in pop-up blocker, it also has better security. I installed Firefox on my new computer, ran Ad-Aware to make sure everything was clean, then used Firefox for a couple of hours. Ran Ad-Aware again, and nothing bad was found. Then I used IE for a couple of hours and ran Ad-Aware again. This time it founds tons of cookies, tracking software, shit like that.

Give Firefox a shot ... if you don't like it, you can always go back to IE.

[HudsonHawk]

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The most useful feature I have seen in Firefox is the "minimum font size" option, which you can bump up if you are running a high resolution and don't want to squint all the time.

IE has that as well.

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As far as Firefox being "safer," one reason it is considered safer is just because it is a much smaller target for hackers, seeing how 90% of the population (including just about all of the clueless people on the Internet who will click on anything) uses IE.

The literature I've read basically says the same thing.  That Firefox is neither safer nor faster than IE, just fewer people using it and for specific things.

[HudsonHawk]

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Give Firefox a shot ... if you don't like it, you can always go back to IE.

I did, and didn't find it particularly useful or better than IE.  Perhaps I'm just not enough of a computer guy to appreciate what it has to offer.

[No? in Austin]

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Here's one more thing that convinced me to use Firefox. In addition to the built-in pop-up blocker, it also has better security. I installed Firefox on my new computer, ran Ad-Aware to make sure everything was clean, then used Firefox for a couple of hours. Ran Ad-Aware again, and nothing bad was found. Then I used IE for a couple of hours and ran Ad-Aware again. This time it founds tons of cookies, tracking software, shit like that.

Our family experience has been that while the four of us (father, mother, son #1 and son #2) use the one centralized desktop at home, we had little control... or I did... over the crap that was being loaded via IE when son #1 would hit his favorite sites.  We were so bug, worm, adware, et. al., infested it wasn't funny.  Son #1 didn't mean to do this, it was just the way IE's lack of security allowed for this to happen on that computer.

I had to wipe that desktop twice because of attacks that got through unbeknownst to my virus protection.  So I switched over to Firefox and forbade anyone using that desktop to use IE.  To be sure, I disabled the desktop icon and got rid of the task bar quick search features.

Since we've switched to Firefox as a family, we have not had one incident again with adware or any other invasion that our virus protection cannot keep up with.  Firefox and a good firewall and virus protection setup is a Godsend in our home.  IE sucked the way it allowed so many backdoor programs to slip by.

[Craig]

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Here's one more thing that convinced me to use Firefox. In addition to the built-in pop-up blocker, it also has better security. I installed Firefox on my new computer, ran Ad-Aware to make sure everything was clean, then used Firefox for a couple of hours. Ran Ad-Aware again, and nothing bad was found. Then I used IE for a couple of hours and ran Ad-Aware again. This time it founds tons of cookies, tracking software, shit like that.

Our family experience has been that while the four of us (father, mother, son #1 and son #2) use the one centralized desktop at home, we had little control... or I did... over the crap that was being loaded via IE when son #1 would hit his favorite sites.  We were so bug, worm, adware, et. al., infested it wasn't funny.  Son #1 didn't mean to do this, it was just the way IE's lack of security allowed for this to happen on that computer.

I had to wipe that desktop twice because of attacks that got through unbeknownst to my virus protection.  So I switched over to Firefox and forbade anyone using that desktop to use IE.  To be sure, I disabled the desktop icon and got rid of the task bar quick search features.

Since we've switched to Firefox as a family, we have not had one incident again with adware or any other invasion that our virus protection cannot keep up with.  Firefox and a good firewall and virus protection setup is a Godsend in our home.  IE sucked the way it allowed so many backdoor programs to slip by.

Yeah, I'm amazed that I can use Firefox for months without getting any spyware, but fire up IE for an hour and you then have to clean up the mess by using Ad-Aware, Search and Destroy, etc. And that's with a good firewall, virus detection, etc.

[No? in Austin]

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And that's with a good firewall, virus detection, etc.

Eggszactly!!!  I trusted the very good firewall I had a friend setup (Linux RedHat) and the McAfee virsus detection I installed that was rated the best.

IE still let a lot of crap flow through and neither the firewall nor the virsus detection were able to keep up with it.  Since Firefox, nothing, nada, zip, zlich.  It may be as HH says, the lack of a Firefox community... doesn't matter to me, the browser is very clean and efficient when it comes to protection and that works for me!

[Duman]

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I'm not too sure many IT departments think things through before they do them.  

One of the things I like about Firefox as is the tab browsing feature that allows you to have multiple webpages up without having multiple browsers running.  Although, I do hear that the new IE is boasting this feature now as well.

During ball season, I have the 4 or 5 minor league town papers book marked in one favorite folder.  One click and all are loaded in tabs and ready for reading.  I love this feature.  I also enjoy to search plug ins for specific web sites such as Weather.com,  Amazon, Ebay, Baseball Cube and others.

[cc]

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And that's with a good firewall, virus detection, etc.

Eggszactly!!!  I trusted the very good firewall I had a friend setup (Linux RedHat) and the McAfee virsus detection I installed that was rated the best.

IE still let a lot of crap flow through and neither the firewall nor the virsus detection were able to keep up with it.  Since Firefox, nothing, nada, zip, zlich.  It may be as HH says, the lack of a Firefox community... doesn't matter to me, the browser is very clean and efficient when it comes to protection and that works for me!

I can testify to the same trouble-free experience once I switched all my home pc's to Firefox.  I was skeptical at first, but that was months ago, and I have yet to have one single adware, spyware, worm, virus, or any other issue whatsoever.  As long as the hackers are focusing over there on IE, I think I'll stay right over here and hope it's years before the malevolent programming community turns its attention to Firefox.

[Waldo]

Here's my take on browsers.

I'm not particularly thrilled by either IE or Firefox anymore, but I use Firefox 2.  The Adblock and Filterset.G extensions are the only things keeping me loyal to Firefox right now.  It would simply be impossible to surf the web now and look at ads.

Were Adblock/Filterset.G available for Opera 9, that would become my browser of choice.  Opera seems to be faster than Firefox, and its user interface is a lot cleaner.  Additionally, it has built-in support for user scripts which can modify certain web pages on-the-fly.  For instance, a script is available that allows you to save photos directly from Flickr, circumventing their method to prevent you from saving pictures.  Firefox has this capability also, but only via extensions such as Greasemonkey.

IE7 seems to be pretty secure, but the changes in the interface have made it almost unusable.  The organization of the menus and toolbars flies in the face of 10-15 years of software evolution.  Microsoft should've at least included the ability, as with Firefox and Opera, to customize the toolbar buttons and their positions.  It takes a registry hack to put the menus back where they belong.  Nevertheless, I have upgraded to IE7 on my computer, if only for the improved security on the few occasions I use it.

It will be interesting to see how things evolve again when Windows Vista releases next month and starts spreading.  Vista claims to be pretty secure, and makes a formidable combination in that regard with its version of IE7.  MS has already "agreed" to play nice with Mozilla and assist in their development of Vista versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, etc.  Hopefully they stay true to that agreement, and agree to help Opera's developers in the same way.

[Waldo]

Another note about adware/spyware:

Sorry, but this is one of my pet peeves.  Browser security takes some of the heat for adware/spyware difficulties, but a LOT of it is directly attributable to user error/ignorance.  IE cannot be responsible for XYZ Software that you consciously and willingly download and install on your computer.  With the exception of browser addons and toolbars, it is out of the browser's hands at that point, and it is nobody's fault but your own.

My father-in-law uses XP with Firefox, yet my sister-in-law routinely trashes his computer because she downloads games and other crap that have adware built into the program.  Such software will usually innocently state in its installer that it will "occasionally provide you with advertisements relative only to your interests".  The average computer user will agree to such terms, not knowing that it really means the software will monitor your browsing habits (and possibly phone home with that data) and popup ads all the time, and what the hell, why wouldn't someone want to see ads for stuff they might want to buy?

The same can be said of viruses.  I have talked to tons of disgruntled Windows users who complain about such terrible virus problems in Windows.  Never mind that they continually install shady software on their computer repeatedly.

Bottom line: the browser is only the first line of defense.  Common sense provides the ultimate protection.  No matter what browser you use, doing stuff like clicking banner ads or links in spam e-mails, installing some search toolbars, opening attachments from unfamiliar senders, and downloading and installing software without doing at least a little research is generally unwise.  And I would go so far as to say that, with a little common sense, it is pretty hard to come down with the adware bug after only an hour with IE.

[No? in Austin]

You are correct about loading dubious add-ons to a browser by the end user will directly effect your security and upgrade your annoyance factor.  My oldest son loves those smiley icon ads and is constantly clicking on them to load web-surf toolbars.

That was when he had IE and all sorts of crap came with this sort of load.  I would constantly clean the crap up, get rid of the toolbar and tell my son to stop loading those damned toolbars that give you a thousand useless smiley faces in three-d!  And he'd do it again in a couple of months.

When my wife's laptop got infected and I had to wipe the OS clean, it was because of a worm that came in via one of those downloads.  Now with Firefox, the firewall, the virsu protection and my "fear of God" (not to mention restricting his rights to user instead of power user or admin, he doesn't do that any more.  He was given his own account, I don't allow him to use my account or my wife (we are admins).

That solved that.  But now there is the issue of my wife and her inadvertent cliok before you read what that dialogue box is saying prowess.

[Limey]

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One of the things I like about Firefox as is the tab browsing feature that allows you to have multiple webpages up without having multiple browsers running.  Although, I do hear that the new IE is boasting this feature now as well.

That's my favourite feature too.  It avoids the embarrassment of an emergency alt-tab upon the approach of one's boss, only for you to switch to another open web page.

I've also organised my bookmarks so that the groups I typically end up looking at in concert can all be opened in tabs with one click.

IE may now have tabs, but why bother to switch back?

[Limey]

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Now with Firefox, the firewall, the virsu protection and my "fear of God" (not to mention restricting his rights to user instead of power user or admin, he doesn't do that any more.  He was given his own account, I don't allow him to use my account or my wife (we are admins).

Isn't it ironic that this thread started on the topic of adding a spell-checker.

[No? in Austin]

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Now with Firefox, the firewall, the virsu protection and my "fear of God" (not to mention restricting his rights to user instead of power user or admin, he doesn't do that any more.  He was given his own account, I don't allow him to use my account or my wife (we are admins).

Isn't it ironic that this thread started on the topic of adding a spell-checker.

HEY!  Isn't there a word you can go add an extra "o" or a "u" to instead of picking on me?  Damn you Limey!

[EasTexAstro]

Just to slip this in somewhere,  Gil's is a good website for some computer "How To" articles.

Stuff like understanding and setting security settings
Color coding incoming email messages
Speeding up the computer
Getting rid of unnecessary programs running in the background
Running macros in Excel.

Really worth looking around sometime.

[MusicMan]

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IE7 seems to be pretty secure, but the changes in the interface have made it almost unusable.  The organization of the menus and toolbars flies in the face of 10-15 years of software evolution.  Microsoft should've at least included the ability, as with Firefox and Opera, to customize the toolbar buttons and their positions.  

You think that's bad?  Wait until companies start upgrading to Office 2007 and the typical toolbar configuration is GONE.

Prepare for a significant downtick in the economy.

[Waldo]

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You think that's bad?  Wait until companies start upgrading to Office 2007 and the typical toolbar configuration is GONE.

The toolbars are there, they're just rearranged.  I actually like the look of the new Office.  Granted, I haven't USED it...

Software design in general is bound to evolve at some point.  If not, we'd still be double-clicking the minus sign to close our programs.  But ever since NCSA Mosaic, the back/forward/home/refresh/stop buttons in browsers were grouped together because they are used the most, and that is generally the best place for them to be.

[austro]

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Software design in general is bound to evolve at some point.  If not, we'd still be double-clicking the minus sign to close our programs.  But ever since NCSA Mosaic, the back/forward/home/refresh/stop buttons in browsers were grouped together because they are used the most, and that is generally the best place for them to be.

What's that double-clicking nonsense, whipper-snapper?