Spellchecking and Multiple Languages

We know a lot of our customers speak and write in more than one language. It’s important that the spellchecking engine use the right language when you are entering text, and that it is easy to switch between languages when necessary.

In IE10, the selection of the spellchecking language is determined by evaluating the following sources (in priority order):

• The HTML lang attribute. The Web developer knows the design and intent of the site and can control which parts of the page are associated with which language (in multi-language scenarios).
• The keyboard input language. Windows 8 makes it easy for users to specify the languages they are interested in and to switch between them on the fly. To switch the language used by the spellchecking engine while entering text, you simply change the input language. With two or more languages configured (or two or more keyboard layouts) simply press the Windows key + spacebar. On the touch keyboard, there is a key to toggle the input language as well.
• Window’s current display language (the language you are using to run Windows).

Switch between keyboard input languages via Win+Space or by the language key on the touch keyboard

Spellchecking is an IE10 feature; while it is seamlessly integrated into Windows 8, we want to ensure that all users of IE10 benefit from this feature, including our users of IE10 on Windows 7. I’ll share more about the IE10 on Windows 7 experience in a future post.
Spellchecking in the browser will improve the accuracy and speed at which you input text on the Web. I’ve really enjoyed having it available and I know that the people with whom I correspond online also appreciate it!