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Firefox 2.0 & Google Toolbar Spell Checker


colinian

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The Google toolbar has a spell checker that's free and fantastic. It works in any web form (like this one I'm typing in right now). With your cursor in the form, click on the ABC Check icon on the Google toolbar. It highlights any word it doesn't understand in red. If you click on one of these red words you get a list of suggested spellings a lot like MS Word's speller, plus Edit, Ignore, and Add to Dictionary choices. If you click on one of the suggested words, it replaces what was in red. If you click on Edit, it lets you type a replacement. When you're done, just click in any empty space in the web form and then from the pop-up menu select Stop spell checking. If there are no misspelled words, clicking on the ABC Check icon displays No spelling errors were identified.

Very cool! Very free! Give it a try. I think you'll like it. :icon_geek:

Colin :icon_geek:

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Yes, Colinian is right. I have been using the Google spell check for ages too. It has saved me on a number of occasions from looking like I slept through spelling lessons at school. (which I did). :icon_geek:

Hmmm I just used it and found out that occasions only has one 's'. :icon_geek:

Des.

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From what I can see, it requires one to use FireFox. I'm not sure I want to switch from my Safari.

I am using Outlook Express 6

I just looked at the download page for it and all I can see is"

. Firefox 1.0+ or Internet Explorer 6.0+

No Safari

Sorry Trab. :icon_geek:

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From what I can see, it requires one to use FireFox. I'm not sure I want to switch from my Safari.

As a Mac user, I can tell you Firefox kicks Safari's ass. Twice. Blindfolded. I have recently installed FF 2.0 which is now out, and am very happy with it. Install it and try it. It can live alongside Safari so you can try it for awhile and see if you like it. And if not, Safari remains on your machine untouched.

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I actually have Mozilla 1.7.8 as my secondary browser. Should I change to FireFox 2.0

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!

I've just installed it tonight, and it's frankly AWESOME - though it doesn't come with a Dude ( :icon_geek: ).

Lots of very neat add-ons too...

English Dictionary - check what you type as you type it. It highlights mistakes and with a right click give you the correct spelling.

Fire FTP which seems as good as Cute or WS FTP

Chatzilla - a full Internet Chat program.

JaJah - web activated telephony - well worth checking out, I think, though everyone over here is asleep, so I'm gonna have to wait until the morning.

and lots more. It's good stuff.

Camy :icon_geek:

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Beat you by one minute Camy. LOL. I'm on Chat, BTW, but nobody seems to want to go there but me.

Beat me by two..

I have been using AVG ever since I had got sick of Symantec's Norton Anti-virus thinking that my computer was for its own exclusive personal use. :evilgrin:

AVG has just announced a new version which I have installed.

I use the free version and it has been reliable and is recommended by my ISP. :icon10:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus...e/lng/us/tpl/v5

A colleague is happy using "Avast" but I have not checked it out.

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I gave up on Macafee (at a financial loss too) several years ago, then I had to do the same thing with Norton. Thank god for young nephews is all I can say.

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Okay Web Wiz Guys;

I've heard some horror stories about getting rid of Norton plug-ins and modules. Does anyone here know the real situation? How tough is it to clear it out?

Also, I see the link to AVG, and that its free, but does the free version include updates as well. Is AVG an open source program (I finally made the move to Firefox 2).

Inquiring minds want to know.

Rick

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Mac is a pain but there's now an actual Uninstall tool which makes it a snap. No idea on a PC.

It can be a horrible PITA. The big problem is when the Norton AV uninstaller won't uninstall. Symantec recommends that you reinstall NAV and then uninstall it. A friend of mind was having NAV take over his PC, so we tried to uninstall it and nogo. We tried the install-then-uninstall and nogo. We followed Symantec's manual uninstall instructions and nogo. We finally went into safe mode and manually deleted all of the NAV and Symantec folders. But we still had all the NAV crap in the registry. I downloaded MaceCraft RegSupreme (it has a full-featured free trial period) to clean out the registry (it took 4 passes) and the PC had no NAV/Symantec remnants and had no performance problems in Windows XP. He downloaded the free version of AVG and has been using it ever since. That was about 6 months ago.

Colin :icon_geek:

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Hi Brit18uk,

Thankx for letting us know how you got on with AVG replacing MacAfee on your machine.

It is good to get the feedback on these matters.

It seems like both Norton and Mcafee take a very aggressive approach with their anti-virus progs.

The slow down and resulting return to a well behaved :icon4: machine after getting rid of Mcafee is just the same as happened to me with Nortons. I love :icon4: my AVG.

Rick and WBMS,

AVG supply updates for the free version on a daily basis except Sundays. However I have noticed that very occasionally they do issue one on a Sunday.

AVG is not open source as far as I know.

Also they seem to do minor version upgrades every two to three months, that updates the core files as well as the virus data base. If you are doing manual updates it require two update checks, one for the virus data base then for the core files. Sounds more complicated than it is. Just follow their instructions. It seems fairly foolproof. Updating may be a little slow if you are on dial-up, but on broadband connection it only takes a minute or less.

Getting rid of Norton is a pain but not impossible . You will need to download their removal tool which is difficult to find. Try this link which seems to be current at the moment:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgen...v=&osv_lvl=

NOTE: the above link will expand when you paste it so don't worry.

Copy and paste it into you browser. When the page loads follow the instructions for your operating system and version, download and execute the appropriate file(s). One trick is to disable Norton before using these tools.

I found I had to run the removal tool seven, Yes, 7 times before Norton finally was off my system.

Also you can Google for other people's answers on getting rid of Norton and Mcafee. This will show you how upset many people are with these two.

Firewalls: Zone Alarm may cause similar problems to Norton on some systems, though I think it is OK. Kerio is a free firewall that some people like. There are others.

I no longer use any additional firewalls as my broadband modem acts a firewall. Test sites report that my PC is in stealth mode and cannot be seen with 100% invisibility. I do not know enough about these things to make comment about the effectiveness of this approach but in a year of using this modem I have not seen any problems.

On two occasions when I visited (by accident of course) some porn/warez sites, AVG popped up to tell me that it had quarantined a trojan virus attack. I am impressed. Never saw that happen with Norton.

As far as losing money on Norton or Mcafee, I think it is a good investment to realise that I no longer want or need either of them, ever again!

Also watch out for Yahoo toolbar that seems to have a connection to Norton built-in. It is probably OK, just keep an eye on what it does.

Isn't computing fun? :icon_geek:

:icon1:

Hi Colinian,

see my post above. about getting rid of Norton too.

I must say how wonderful it is to see (in you signature panel) that you have stated that to be tolerated is not enough. Tolerance is a tool of the devil. Acceptance is the freedom to be who we are. Good for you! :icon13:

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Getting rid of Norton is a pain but not impossible . You will need to download their removal tool which is difficult to find. Try this link which seems to be current at the moment:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgen...v=&osv_lvl=

NOTE: the above link will expand when you paste it so don't worry.

Copy and paste it into you browser. When the page loads follow the instructions for your operating system and version, download and execute the appropriate file(s). One trick is to disable Norton before using these tools.

I found I had to run the removal tool seven, Yes, 7 times before Norton finally was off my system.

Isn't computing fun? :icon1:

When I was helping Arnold (my friend with the NAV problems) here's what happened. He was running NAV 2005. When he had to pay for the next year, he decided to upgrade to NAV 2006 at the same time His mom took care of the credit card stuff, and he downloaded NAV 2006. There was nothing that told him to uninstall NAV 2005. He did the install, and it failed near the end. He phoned Symantec and they had him step through a bunch of stuff that didn't uninstall NAV and made a WinXP restart take about 5 minutes. That's when he phoned me. When I got there we tried a normal uninstall, using the Start menu item in the Norton folder. The uninstall crashed after about 10 minutes. We downloaded the removal tool, and it wouldn't run, with an error message about the installation was corrupt and the rmoval tool could not continue. We phoned Symantec and they went though a whole bunch of steps, none of which worked. That's when I told Arnold that we should just delete the files and folders (we got the list of files and folders from the Symantec web site) and clean up the registry.

Hi Colinian,

see my post above. about getting rid of Norton too.

I must say how wonderful it is to see (in you signature panel) that you have stated that to be tolerated is not enough. Tolerance is a tool of the devil. Acceptance is the freedom to be who we are. Good for you! :icon13:

Thanks! :icon4:

Colin :icon_geek:

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He phoned Symantec and they had him step through a bunch of stuff

Yes, I have seen reference in forums to other people having had the same "advice" and treatment from Symantec.

I would have tried to roll back Win Xp with system restore to a point before I had installed the newer Norton, but that still might not have allowed the removal tool to work. Sometimes the removal tool "times out" and you have to download a new fresh copy for it to work again.

Anyway it sounds like you have got rid of the beast. You can do a c: drive, all folders search for "symantec" if you want to see if anything remains as not all of Norton anti-virus is just in the Norton folder and here are other hidden files from symantec as well.

So long as there are no symantec files running in Task Manager I would think it is all OK.

Who needs a virus when you can buy a program that will hog your resources from Norton of Mcafee?

Perhaps that is how they work: by not letting any resources available for a virus to use. <--- Sarcastic remarks. :icon_geek:

Cheers, :icon13:

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I'm overly paranoid. (Is that possible? Like partially pregnant?) I think that the drug cartels are actively involved in keeping alive the 'war on drugs' to bolster their own profits, and I think that the ever expanding virus base has some nefarious connection with those expensive anti-virus program companies. They seem just entirely too symbiotic to me.

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Hi Trab,

There was an article about that some time (years) ago and it seems like it is one of those situations where even if the anti-virus people are manufacturing viruses, the anti-virus programs would still be needed to counteract the real viruses from those criminals that create them.

Similarly, would there be super-villains if the comic books had not invented super-heroes?

Would I be gay if my parents had wanted me to be? errr where did that come from?

:icon13::icon4::icon_geek:

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  • 2 weeks later...

An interesting developement. My brand new FireFox uninstalled itself. I booted up my computer, and there it was, a broken icon, with no program behind it. I could try downloading it again, but it would be interesting to know if this is a common occurrence.

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