New version of Buzzword: spelling dictionaries, invitations, ODF export
We just shipped a new release of Buzzword today with some great new stuff in it. We totally rewrote our spell checking engine and added support for 19 Western language dictionaries. You can now set the spell-check dictionary on a per-document basis, plus you can set the document’s language to “none” for when you just don’t want it spell-checked at all. We also made some major improvements to our email invitation system. Previously, when you invited someone for the first time to share a document, they had to actually click on the link in the email in order to accept the invitation; if they just signed up without clicking on the invite, they wouldn’t be given access to the document. We’ve changed it so that if they don’t click on the invitation link but they do sign up with the same email address you used to invite them (the common case), they will still be offered the document you shared with them. This addresses a pretty big speed-bump that people were hitting while trying to share documents in Buzzword. Finally, we added support in this release for exporting documents in Open Document Format (ODF). We’re not done with this format, though! ODF import is coming.
One of the most important things about this release wasn’t a new feature, however! It was that we’re back on our regular quick-release cycle. Last release was beginning of June, this one was mid-July. We’re back, baby, we’re back!
I'm working on Noteflight, an online music writing application that lets you create, view, print and hear music notation with professional quality, right in your web browser. Work on a score from any computer on the Internet, share it with other users, and embed it in your own pages. Noteflight is free for individual use. Email me at dcoletta at noteflight dot com.
Weren’t you using Grant Skinner’s spell-checker component earlier? Did you decide to move to something else for any specific reason?
(
Great to see ODF export! But still no AIR version
Grant Skinner’s Spelling Plus Library is a great spell check component, probably one of the best Flex components for sale anywhere. Using it was a big leg up for us in earlier versions of Buzzword. And, as the developer who did the initial implementation of spell check, I felt privileged to get to work with Grant.
Going forward, it now makes sense for us to manage the large number and size of the language-specific dictionaries ourselves, and that motivated the decision to do our own implementation.
Good decision to take on the dictionaries yourselves. Buzzword can only be better for it.