Monthly Archives: October 2012

Arabic ATbar spell checking update

Magnus has added an extended Arabic dictionary to our spell checker which has resulted in better error correction. The size of this new dictionary is twenty times larger than the one used originally building on the original Aspell dictionary.  We are also able to supplement the database with additional words.

Arabic ATbar spell checkerAlaa has been testing the checker and noticed an error on our web page that we use for trying the toolbar.  This time the words offered as alternatives made sense and could be used when she was making mistakes.

Database for spelling errorsWe now have a database that records the word that has been misspelled, saves the error alongside the word that has been chosen from the correction list or notes the fact that the user has ignored the offered words.  The database handles all languages but those words in Arabic are appear incomprehensible to readers due to the UTF-8 coding.

Word Prediction update

During the summer we noticed that AIType was cutting off the initial letters when used with Internet Explorer and then we had a complete collapse of the service for a short time. This caused some concern and when we tested the Windows desktop version of the software we could not reach the servers as quickly as expected.

AIType were amazingly quick in reassuring us that they had had some server issues but these were immediately rectified. We checked our servers and the problems happened to occur just as Magnus was updating our servers as well.

Happily the speed issues have been resolved and so have the problems that were occurring with Internet Explorer. Both the Arabic and English word prediction are working well at the moment as has been illustrated in the graphic whilst writing this blog. I have been using the HTML view in WordPress. If you use the Visual mode in rich text editors there tends to be a problem with the dialog box with the word selections not appearing possibly due to the javascript edit box overriding the word prediction whereas a simple edit box always works. As many of the menu items on the rich text editor tool bar are not accessible via keyboard, this may not be an issue for those who do not use a mouse.

word prediction

Word prediction used with a simple edit box - HTML mode in WordPress


الصورة التي تظهر هي اختبار البرنامج بالعربي
Arabic word prediction