Can Postbox use the Mac OS X spell checker?

While it would be hard to do, there are some issues with the spell checker you are using now. I submitted a bug report via email on beta 2 or 3 concerning the problems.

the problems seem to only effect postbox, at least firefox is unaffected.

The problem that drives me nuts is that it will highlight a word that isn't spelled incorrectly UNTIL you move the cursor (enter, or mouse click, or arrow key). "isn't" is one of the words, as are most contractions that contain an "s". There are a number of other situations where this pops up, not just with contractions.

Why is it that Mozilla stuff is the only application on the Mac that doesn't support system wide spell checking? I know this shouldn't be your problem to solve but after iCal and Address Book support this is the next most important feature to me.

Among other things, the built-in spelling checker highlights "doesn't" as misspelled because it seems to think it's two words ("doesn" and "t").

I'd like to add another vote for incorporating the OS X spell checker. It's obnoxious to have to maintain multiple custom dictionaries if there are words one wants recognized.

I really think you guys need to reconsider on this.

I seriously think that you should reconsider this. As a Mac user, I am very much used to having all applications recognize my vocabulary. It would be really painful to teach it all that special vocabulary again. In fact, this is my real deal-breaker for Firefox on the Mac. The Mac spell-checker is one of my favorite features of OSX that I sorely miss every time it isn't there.

AT LEAST, make cmd-, the default shortcut to change the spell-checking language. This is a really essential feature for me, as I am constantly switching from English to German and vice versa.

As an alternative you can use SpellCatcher which is universal across all programs

Mac OS X Spell Checking is excellent and universal.
SpellCatcher is universal.
Mozilla Spell Checking is neither of those.

For me it's a dealbreaker. If it works out for you, enjoy!
In my case it just means that Postbox will be wiped if there's no prospect in this area. It's a too important feature for me to miss it.

My system dictionary already contains many words that I frequently use in both my native language German and in English.

I'm forced to use Microsoft Office occasionally and it's annoying that they have their own dictionary.

Then OpenOffice came along and brought along their own dictionary which is why I practically never use OpenOffice.

Now here comes Postbox with yet another dictionary?

No thanks. This is a way too serious productivity issue.

I will not even consider using Postbox for this reason (among others).

Also due to this and other reason I'm forced to advise my clients not to use Postbox either.

Apologies to native English speakers. My English is far from perfect.

Long term, as anyone from the team that read my silly blog post a month or so ago, I'm seeing myself forced to leave Postbox behind if it has to be so straight-and-narrow in its cross-platform path. That decision cripples Postbox. It cripples it not just for us Mac users but who knows what a Windows user might want as well that they can't get from Postbox?

I want Applescript support.

I want Postbox to work in a script like the one below.

set _body to ""
set _includeNotes to true
tell application "EagleFiler"
tell browser window 1
set _records to selected records
set _files to {}
repeat with _record in _records
copy file of _record to end of _files
if _includeNotes then
set _body to _body & _record's note text & return
end if
end repeat
end tell
end tell
tell application "Postbox"
make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true}
tell the result
set content to _body
try -- based on iPhoto script
set _signature to the message signature
name of _signature
set _useSignature to true
on error
set _useSignature to false
end try
repeat with _file in _files
make new attachment at end with properties {file name:_file's POSIX path}
end repeat
if _useSignature is true then
set message signature to _signature
end if
end tell
end tell

If it can't, I can't use Postbox. Not because of this one individual script, but because of many, many scripts and many, many features that Postbox wont have because it's not integrated with the OS. It's why I prefered Mail.app over Thunderbird, Outlook, etc, etc, etc. Mail.app is too simple, lacking in many areas, but it can be expanded by scripting, etc. If Postbox was scriptable and worked with iPhoto and did this or that that a TRUE OS X app has... I'd probably be a lifer with Postbox.

I don't really care WHAT spell checker you guys use as long as it works and works well. Your current one does not work well at all, particularly with contractions.

Cross platform is nice for you... but not for people who have made a commitment to one platform or the other. Building 'least-common denominator' software is cheaper for you in the short term, but the loss of people who want the same, seamless application support and features from native Mac OSX programs will affect you in the long term. I've moved from Thunderbird a long time ago because is doesn't take advantage of the great Mac OSX stuff. Hearing now you are committed to simply making 'middle of the road' email software is a shame, but I'll have to leave you behind as well. Too bad as I was getting to really like PostBox but won't go any further with it knowing that you're not heading in the direction I want to go in.

for the people screaming about OS X spell check, go talk to the mozilla people and get it into their spotlight. I bet once it is integrated at that level it will magically appear in postbox ;-)

And it would be nice to have in the full range of mozilla applications anyway.

I don't think a Mac OS X spell check is necessary. Face it, not all programs run in the same way. Wordperfect's spell check is always going to be different from Word's. Plus, it's cross platform. So either, they leave it the same, or they go to extra trouble to integrate the spell check in each version to their operating system.