Spell Check in Mail

Not fixed for me either. Sending an email in Mavericks is like dismantling an unexploded bomb while wearing oven gloves. You never know when it's going to go off.

I'm on Mail 5.3, OS X 10.7.5. I'm guessing that could account for the difference?

Possibly. But you expect software to be improved over generations, not to get worse. It worked fine when I had Snow Leopard. I've emailed Apple's bug-reporting people, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hi Anne,

I Do think your VERSION of Mail makes a difference. I have Mail 6.6 version and THIS is why I continue to have the problem. Has anyone seen a discussion and a SOLUTION in the Mavericks threads? ( I have not upgraded to Mavericks so continue to look for solutions to this spell check nightmare here in the OS 10.8.5 world.)

Thanks.

There are a few complaints in the Mavericks forum. No solutions that I can see. Presumably most people are just shrugging their shoulders and taking it as another example of Maverick's idiosyncracies. It's not the Mac OS as we used to know it.

People are quite angry, threatening to use another client, etc. Apple are ignoring them. Nothing new there!

I have disabled automatic spell check; it still underlines words it doesn't like. That's a solution, for now. I managed without it for years and I'd rather have the odd mistake that I have made than the bizarre and embarrassing errors that Mail is putting into my correspondence.

Quite simply this is embarassing!!!!

How an absolutely core program, that probably receives equal or more useage than any of the other standard pieces of Apple software with the exception of Safari, not only does not work as it should do, but Apple seem to feel that fixing it is an irrelevance is staggering.

Maybe if we all added to our signature blocks

"Sent in Error by Apple Mail because they could not be bothered to fix their software"

it might make them take more notice. Absolutely rubbish. You would ask for your money back if it were almost any other business

I agree. But Mavericks was a free upgrade, so Mail is a sort-of free program, and no-one much cares. Mail for the iPad, different story.

Besides, Apple is a mobile phone company now. I wouldn't be surprised to see them sell off the Mac division in a couple of years.

Love your signature idea.

If you tick the 'As I type' option it does not offer you the choice to check. It merely alters words to ridiculous misspellings, and you only notice after its gone if you then look. I could not work out why I had so many typos in every email until I realised it ws the 'as I type' option that was doing this.

Not on mine. I get the wiggly red line underneath the spellings it doesn't like (US English as well, since I have UK English dictionary). I can change them or not, but they don't change after I press send. I just sent a mail to myself on another account and it was exactly typed it.

But, when I type into facebook, it absolutely refuses to let me type American spellings. I needed to send the word odor to an American colleague (don't ask why) and it changed it to "door". Nothing I did would induce to accept odor. I blamed Mark Zuckerberg, but I think spellings in any browser context are a Mac OS system decision. In which case, it really is annoying me.

I may switch it off globally. I used to be quite good at spelling, until the internet dumbed me down.

Seems to be patchy. After reading your post I tried purposely misspelling words in an email and no wiggly red line at all. I then went to Mail Preferences and checked that I had the 'As I type' setting which it was set at. I then tried it again and the red wiggly lines appeared when I had a typo.

After posting my original post I tried altering settings and then as they did not function I then tried a suggestion in this topic to quit Mail and then re-set. I though that this had fixed it but, apparently not. Did not know about the Facebook problem that you mention but what I do know is that three weeks after installing Mavericks I have been resolving problems non-stop which is beyond the pale. I am beginning to think that Apple are just incapable of designing a proper operating system without making basic errors that are just poor work and all of us are made to suffer their incompetence. The quality of their work has deteriorated in my view.

When I have upgraded before I have never had to devote a lot of time sorting out problems caused by Apple's inability to resolve most issues befiore release. This is just sloppy software engineering and releasing Mavericks before it had been properly tested to any acceptable level whicj=h is firmly in Apple's control and their responsibility.

Very interesting. I find the wiggly lines don't appear when I have the Mail Preference window open. When I close it, they come back.

I have had Mavericks since it came out, more or less. I work on the Mac, all day every day, and like you I lost about a fortnight trying to get the thing to behave in a stable way. Eventually, it has settled down, but there are lots of irritations. But really, Mail is dodgy, Safari no longer reads online MIDI files, my five year old Samsung scanner won't work because there is no driver, the new Pages is hopeless, Maps is poor, my iPod is unrecognised by the OS, etc. I like some of the things, but I could live without the notification panel, especially since incoming emails have been known to appear there and then disappear. I bought Microsoft Office because the Apple programs were so feeble and unreliable. I have never liked Word, but it is reasonably reliable these days.

My view is that Mavericks was designed not only to look like a big iPad (that stupid LaunchPad) but also to work mainly as a "hub" for your other devices. That's why the much ballyhooed "never lose a document" thing only works if you want all your stuff in Apple's cloud. I don't. And the Mac apps have been deliberately hobbled so they don't overpower the versions on the iPad. Why did they get rid of Save As? Why did "Library" suddenly become a hidden folder? There are a thousand irritations until you get used to it. Eventually you forget about it, but I agree, I had never had the slightest trouble with an ugrade before and with this one I had nothing but.

They really don't care about the desktop computers any more. No-one uses them except those who use them for work. Cook hasn't got a clue, if you ask me, and Jonny Ive is only interested in fascinating debates about skewomorphism or whatever it's called. But I'm here for life. Windows 8 is OK, but it has all the same problem. Still, I'm very excited about a wearable controller for my iPhone…

Good points. Although, I could never get excited about a wearable controller. Mind you I would never have an iPhone as the screens are just too prone to cracking/breaking which is inexcusable and another great pointer to the greed of Apple. The phones are also unnecasarily heavy. I suppose what really strikes me is the complete lack of loyalty to Apple users who have suppoted the conpany financially since the beginning by buying their overpriced hardware and software and then are rewarded by being shafted with a very compromised operating system like Mavericks. It's very cynical in my view. Greed is simply a very poor substitute for integrity.

By the way there isn't even a spell check on this forum that I can see.

Hello

I must admit that I did the change in preferences and yes I have the wiggly red lines underneath the spelling, but with a to finger clic ( like windows fitght mouse) I can make the spelling changes and at least mail are not send laong at the wrong moment !

Better than no solution

Thanks

roland

I have a MacBookPro 10.9.2. I had the problem with the partially corrected message sending if you tried to make a change or addition after hitting Send. The guy at Apple advised me not to hit Send, but to go into Edit, hit Spelling & Grammar, and then hit Check Document Now. That permits you to check the spelling but you can still go into the document to make changes. Apparently once you hit Send, pressing the space bar is the same as hitting Enter, and the email will be sent. He said you could also hit command + semi-colon to start the spell check. I hope this is helpful.

That's useful information. Thanks. It's just such a pity that something like that, which has been available in Windows for years as a standard feature of Outlook Express and Outlook without going to edit>spelling and grammar> check document now, has to involve a lot of time summoning up and clicking on things. Mavericks is light years behind in its awkwardness and finding things that should be there already. I have spent over three weeks sorting out settings and things that have disappeared since instlling Mavericks which is just a built-in overly compromised operating system. I feel that Apple have lost the plot big time.