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Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 9:05 am
by Peter7885
Will spell check ever be implemented? It's in the roadmap from 6 years. Cintanotes is one of my favorite note taking application and i miss this feature a lot. Sometimes i have to write the text first in Notepad++ just to check for spelling errors before inserting it in Cintanotes. I am not a programmer but how hard would be to implement spell checker!?

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 9:43 am
by CintaNotes Developer
Hi Peter, thanks for your message!

Well it is so long on the roadmap exactly because the demand for this feature is not high enough: up till now only 35 votes:

http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topics/51 ... te-editor/

There're many ideas with higher number of votes in the queue. We will definitely implement it sooner or later, but
please understand that we have limited resources.

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 5:59 pm
by gunars
Meanwhile, you might look into tinySpell (http://www.tinyspell.com/). It's a lightweight app for spellchecking with a free version that may be adequate for your needs. It can either check clipboard contents or sit in the background, checking as you type. I've only tried it a little bit, but it looks ok.

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 6:06 am
by RSchiaffino
tinySpell is sort of OK... I tried it, but it's a far cry from actually having a real spell checker in CN.

Others in the past have convincingly explained why a low number of votes is not a good reason to think that a spell checker is not a high-priority requirement.

Come on Alex, how card can it be to integrate a good spell checker (like Hunspell, for example) in CN?

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:06 am
by CintaNotes Developer
I've looked at Hunspell, and can honestly tell that such integration is admittedly not exceedingly hard, but definitely not trivial.

> number of votes is not a good reason to think that a spell checker is not a high-priority requirement.

I agree that number of votes is not the end all and be all of user demand measure, but it's the best we currently have. If you have a better
way of measuring demand for features, I'm all ears :)

And by the way, about a year ago we held a user survey, where spell check didn't get much support either..

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 7:11 pm
by RSchiaffino
About votes and user survey...

I suspect that the reason that dosn't get much traction is that many potential users take a look, see that there is no spell check, and then decide not to bother and to choose some other product such as OneNote or EverNote that do offer spell checking.

Which is a shame, because I find CN superior to other note-taking programs.

So I believe that those that do vote are those of us who got accustomed to CN as is, and that decided that the many advantages more than compensate for a disadvantage such as the lack of integrated spell-checking. In some instances, it's going to be people who use Jarte or TinySpell, or some other workaround to spell-check their notes. In other instances it is going to be people who don't really care about the lack of the spell checker for some other reason... but I suspect everybody would actually see the light if they could see CN with a usable spell checker integrated into it.

Personally, I find that the advantages of CN (simple interface and ease of capture above all) are enough for me to tolerate the lack of a spell checker... but I would still much appreciate the addition of a spell checker. If I had the choice, for example, I would have preferred to get the spell checker before getting more sophisticated features such as the tagging rules - and I definitely would prefer to get the spell checker than some of the other bells and whistles advocated by other users.

Just my 2 cents.

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 6:18 am
by CintaNotes Developer
Thanks for your thoughts, Riccardo!

Yes, it may be that people are leaving CN because of lack of spell check, but it is also possible they are leaving it because of lack of any other feature!
How can one _prove_ that adding spell check (specifically!) will make sales go through the roof? And not, say, alarms and reminders?

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 5:32 pm
by RSchiaffino
Yes, it may be that people are leaving CN because of lack of spell check, but it is also possible they are leaving it because of lack of any other feature!
How can one _prove_ that adding spell check (specifically!) will make sales go through the roof? And not, say, alarms and reminders?"

No way to tell, of course... and personally I suspect that

  • "sales go through the roof" only through determined and sustained marketing efforts (but I'm not a good judge of that... otherwise I would do a better marketing of my own services)
  • Absence or presence of certain features is only weakly linked to sales

I paid for the pro version fairly soon after trying out the tool, and then upgraded to the lifetime license... even if there is no spelling checker

I will continue to use CN with or without spelling checker, so long as it remains the simple and excellent tool it is...but please don't go the way of so many other tools, that eventually get bogged down by too many features. My previous note taking system of choice was InfoSelect: I started using it in the '90s (or perhaps even towards the end of the '80s) when it was still a DOS program (Tornado Notes), and reluctantly abandoned it after the 2007 version, when the accretion of "features" had converted what had used to be a sleek and useful program into a poorly organized and difficult to use mess.

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:59 am
by CintaNotes Developer
I agree about sustained marketing efforts, but the difference between features is that some of them allow to make more marketing buzz and attract some new audience. Compare, for example, alarms/reminders and spell check.

About feature bloat - wholeheartedly agree. But it is a two-sided sword. For many, spell check is needed only in a full-fledged text editor like MS Word, not in a small note taking app. I mean, we know for sure that more CN users would prefer to have reminders to spell check. This means that adding spell check will, paradoxically, add more feature bloat - at least for them.

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2016 8:43 pm
by date
CintaNotes Developer wrote:This means that adding spell check will, paradoxically, add more feature bloat - at least for them.

I don't care about spellcheck, but if it was neatly integrated in the interface, like attachments, rules, simplenote sync... then I wouldn't call it 'bloat.'

'Bloat' is that which is unneccessary, i.e. that which takes the focus away from the core functionality of the software. I don't think bloat is measured in number of features but rather in the applicability (the serving purpose) of every single feature to the whole of the software. For example, I wouldn't want to have to do without encryption... but on the roadmap is for example the 'Individual note encryption' idea, that, in my opionion if this was executed would be good example of 'feature bloat' because we already have whole-notebook-encryption and encrypting individual notes now 'serves' very little 'purpose.' (Ok, the idea on the roadmap was from before there was encryption, it's just an example.)

Bloat takes many different forms (feature-wise, visual bloat, dependency-wise, heavy-weightedness, uncomfortability...), but a spellcheck feature, even if I don't care about that, doesn't have to be bloat. Because it is very applicable to text-editing software and as long as, depending on how this is integrated, doesn't take the focus away from the main application. Like, 'one click' to disable spellcheck and it's 'gone.'

Sometimes more features can lead to less bloat. Great example: shortcut keys :)

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 7:25 am
by CintaNotes Developer
Thanks for your remarks, date. I tend to agree. Ok, spell-check is not much of a bloat function-wise.
But what about bloat MB-wise? Would you be glad if CN tomorrow weighs 100 MBs only because it has spellcheck that, say, you personally don't need?

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 1:42 pm
by date
Bloat isn't measured in MB's either. The core functionality of CN is the taking, retrieving and organizing of data, and CN excels in all those three especially the organizing part, in a visually appealing and very efficient way. Now if for a good portion of your existing or potential users spellcheck will improve on the 'taking' part, then you can try and find out if there's a smart way to implement this as an integral part of CN that will add upon, (for users wanting spellcheck) but not distract from, (for users that don't need this) those core 3 functionalities of CN.

Of course, hurrying and getting someone else's libraries in there and placing the buttons and the options to access that functionality everywhere just for the sake of having spellcheck will be very detrimental to the beauty of CN. This is the road many software's take nowadays. But done in a smart way, like finding the optimal balance in the interface location and the added weight, I don't see how this can not be done to add spellcheck in a way that doesn't distract from CN's main purpose. For example, you don't have to include the dictionaries in the release, but you can fetch them from within the interface from the internet only those which and for when needed. Just one time, not every week or with every new version. For something like spellcheck this is completely acceptable.

Same thing for alarms and reminders: this is something I can put to use and would very much like to see in CN, and would greatly expand on the organizing part. But if there was a message box asking me for if I wanted to set an alarm with every note, or if CN suddenly requires .NET frameworks just for the date-picker, then please no... :roll:

So by all means, please remain critical at all times and don't loose sight of CN's main purpose, but also don't be too afraid to expand on the main purpose in smart and balanced ways!

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 11:24 am
by CintaNotes Developer
Ok, so now dynamic loading of dictionaries needs to be implemented as well.. (Not mentioning the server part) :)
But I get your point. Mentally added a few points to spell-check.

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:24 am
by date
Just to make sure! Sorry if I'm bugging you...
- 'Feature' is not the same as 'feature bloat.' They are completely different things.
- I, as a shareholder, will not call spellcheck 'feature bloat' if it would fit in well enough. Fitting it in 'well enough' isn't necessarily easy, but you can do it, as you have proven with the attachments and the rules feature.
- That it scored low on the user survey and number of votes, even while these tools aren't perfect, is a good point, I'm not arguing with that ;)

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2016 2:16 pm
by CintaNotes Developer
Ok, I agree its not necessarily "feature bloat" :) But still is it more important than a refreshed modern UI or Android app? According to votes - no.

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 12:19 am
by RSchiaffino
"But still is it more important than a refreshed modern UI or Android app? According to votes - no"

The UI is fine as is, IMO, and I'd rather have spell checking than a revamped UI. Also, I use an iPhone (and I imagine that is true of many other CN users), so an Android app would be of interest only if closely followed by an iOS one.

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:34 am
by Ovg
IMHO spell check is not the most important and necessary features for the CN, there are much more important and necessary, is not yet implemented - clipping notes with images and links

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 7:54 am
by date
Ovg wrote:IMHO spell check is not the most important and necessary features for the CN, there are much more important and necessary, is not yet implemented - clipping notes with images and links

About priorities.
What if spellcheck takes a week to get in, and clipping with links intact takes a month?
And what if getting rid of RichEdit and finding something else takes a few months, with no noticable differences in the meantime, but after that both of those will be very easy to get in, including inline pictures?

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 1:41 pm
by CintaNotes Developer
Hi guys and thanks for taking part of the discussion!
The question of priorities is a complex one. Actually I can share a secret that I make decisions here with a help of a small Excel sheet with a decision table, that takes into account several parameters of every task: user demand (by number of roadmap votes and emails), scope and complexity, organicity, projected revenue increase, projected support cost decrease, etc. It may not be perfect, but it has proven to be much better than simply following intuition.

Anyhow.. did you notice that a new beta appeared? No, no spell check yet, sorry ;)

Re: Will spell check be implemented?

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2017 9:32 am
by Peter7885
I have a question for those who are using tinySpell: Is it possible to make the program underline the misspelled words? I don't see such a option.