Checking your Source Code and Comments

It is a shame that what has become such a standard features in most applications is notably missing in Visual Studio.

I personally struggle with spelling and have in the past resorted to copying and pasting text into Microsoft Word, into Google or using the ASP.NET spell checker add-in . The main weaknesses of the ASP.NET spell checker add-in is that it relies on a recent version of Microsoft Office being installed and does not check .resx files.

I recently found Component One’s IntelliSpell, a new add-in for spell checking source code and other files from within Visual Studio 2005/2008 resolves these issues.

There are two versions available; Community Edition which is free and allows you to spell check one file at a time and Professional Edition which lets you check your entire solution and contains additional features.

Once installed IntelliSpell is found under the Tools menu in your IDE from which you can choose to check the active file, project, solution or select a file. Although you have to actively choose to spell check a file or set of files it can easily be bound to a shortcut key or added to a toolbar.

When checking the document words are highlighted with a colored underline in the same manor as they are in Microsoft Word or Firefox. The misspelled words also appear in the task list which allows you to quickly sort through all the spelling mistakes.

To correct a word, as with other applications, you have the ability to right click on the incorrect word and select from a list of suggested alternatives. You also have the ability to add to Dictionary or Ignore all. Although these are standard spell check features they are particularly useful as standard programming terms such a Guid and enum (which may appear in comments) are not included by default in the dictionary.

You can customize the use of IntelliSpell through the options screen. This allows you to choose which parts of the documents you wish to spell check (such as all comments, xml comment and resx files), the dictionary language, the maximum number of suggestions, and much more.

Overall I have found this is to be a very fast and well designed add-in that has saved me time and improved the spelling in my applications. The IntelliSpell add-in can be download from http://www.componentone.com/SuperProducts/IntelliSpell/