Posted by Imran Qureshi

 

Today I'd like to give you a sneak preview of one the most exciting features we have coming in our next beta refresh of Windows Live Mail(codename:Kahuna): Spell Check As You Type. 

(It was shown in the Windows Live demo on November 1st but you may not have seen it there.)

 

This feature was driven by customers who told us they didn't like how hard it was to check spelling on the web and wished they could have something closer to desktop applications like Microsoft Word without having to install any software.  Well, we did it!

 

With this feature, you can just start typing in Compose UI and we’ll check spelling in the background and put red squiggles under words that are misspelled.  You can then right-click them and choose from our suggestions, tell us to ignore that word or add the word into the dictionary. 
 

I know what you’re saying.  Big deal, Microsoft Outlook already does that.  Well, we’re the first webmail service I know that does this on the web without installing any software! 

 

Webmail services, including Hotmail, have had manual spell check for a while where you click a button to start spell check and then correct words one by one.   However, this is the first time anyone has done spell checking in the background while you type ala Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Word.

 

In the video below you'll see the feature in action and meet some of the people who made it happen.

 

 

If you are on the Kahuna (Windows Live Mail) beta, you should see this feature very soon in the next beta refresh.  If you are not on the beta, you must go here to add yourself to the waiting list.  (Posting a comment here will NOT get you on the beta).

 

If you have any questions about this feature or other WLM features, you can send me mail at imranxqureshi@hotmail.com (replace "x" with a "."(period) before sending - this is to avoid spammers getting a hold of this address via web crawling).  please do not send me email about getting on the beta - use the web site above.