Spell checking in note editor

A third party free application (like aspell) should be used for this, leaving the developer free to dedicate himself to other aspects of development.

Any progress on this?  It's basically the one feature that prevents me from using Cinta more than I want.  Spell check seems to be a feature that is not well supported in many note taking applications that are not bloatware, like OneNote and Evernote.  Maybe developers who live in editors and IDEs don't think it's that important because it would be annoying in a programming language. 

No, sorry, currently we are not planning to implement this feature since the number of votes is very small. Have you tried using 3rd party application for spellchecking like aspell?

This should be a minimum requirement for a note s app.

I am not sure 'votes' is a good way to determine a feature.  If people download and try it and discover it is lacking a feature that is a must for them they won't use it.  If they know it lacks a feature in advance they won't try it.  Votes are cast only by those who use it, visit the forums, know there is voting, and decide something is important enough to request it or vote it up.

I purchased Cinta a long time ago.  I assumed any modern software that deals with text has spell checking, at least as a plugin, like Notepad++.  I like it and keep wanting to use it as a primary "anything bucket."  For quick notes spell check doesn't really matter, but for stuff I want to develop later it does.

One feature I love about Cinta, that many other "buckets" don't do is the ability to work on a note in its own screen.  This indicates to me that it is designed for long text, at least as a possibility.  So, then when I copy and paste the note into something designed for more complex documents, like Scrivner, LibreOffice, or ConnectedText, I have to correct all the spelling errors.

I have both Aspell and Hunspell installed, but I don't know how to configure it to real time check spelling in Cinta, or even check it on demand.  If I were going to do that I could just as easily copy the note into Jarte (my primary RTF application) correct it and then paste it back in.

In which case I might as well just take notes in Jarte and then paste them into Cinta for tagging and organizing, but that's not what I want Cinta for because then Cinta would be a middle man in my personal workflow.

No offense, but I can't believe you are charging money for a note taking application which doesn't have a built-in spell checker, and then go as far as suggesting users use a 3rd party spell checker.

Thanks for your opinion and welcome to the forum! I agree that spell checking is an important feature. However for some reason it is not in the top 10 regarding user votes. If users vote for it more actively, and it gets to top 10 requested features, we will certainly consider it for one of the upcoming versions!

I uninstalled and no longer use cintanotes for this exact reason. I'll repeat what was said above about why it does not get many votes...

"I am not sure 'votes' is a good way to determine a feature.  If people download and try it and discover it is lacking a feature that is a must for them they won't use it.  If they know it lacks a feature in advance they won't try it.  Votes are cast only by those who use it, visit the forums, know there is voting, and decide something is important enough to request it or vote it up."

Waiting for this essential feature to get voted up is madness. All you are doing is losing users and putting new ones off before you even get them. 

Colin, thanks for your opinion! I agree with most of it, however I have to take into account other considerations. For example, implementing spell check just for English would be discriminative, but implementing it for many languages would be a very difficult task and would make CintaNotes grow from 10 MB to 50 MB, which many users would find frustrating.

Votes of course are not perfect, but we have nothing better I'm afraid. You think that spell check is essential, but many think that you can get by without spell check, but encryption is essential. Who is right?
All in all, IMO votes are a good enough approximation of user demands. Our goal is not to get all possible users, our goal is to find our own niche and stick to it, because for a small software company with 2 devs it is impossible to implement all features and compete head to head with giants like Evernote and Onenote. At least at this moment

And to survive, we have to do exactly the opposite: not go with essential, but go with unique features, ones that Evernote and Onenote don't have. 

Mr. Jenter,

Thank you for CintaNotes.  I recently bought a lifetime subscription because I intend to use Cinta as long as it's around.  I wrote one of the comments above almost a year ago, and I would use Cinta more if it had spell check.  I hate Evernote, but I use RightNote and ConnectedText more than Cintra.  Rather than be my main notes DB, Cinta is just a quick collection bucket for me.

I realize that the discussion has reached the point where it is pointless to continue it because you don't find the arguments for spell check persuasive, and that is entirely your prerogative.  (Interesting.  I am dyslexic and can't spell prerogative worth a tinker's damn.  Good thing my browser spell checks.)

I am grateful to you and your team for both your skill and effort, and I have shown I am willing to pay for your product.  If votes count do not the votes of paying customers count?  

Of course there will be a different definition of essential for every user, but you seem to me to be talking past the issue.  Asking for votes on this forum is barely better than not asking at all.  There are, in fact, many better ways to solicit feedback.  I am willing to wager the percentage of no answers would be >75% if you asked (in any language): Would you be willing to try a note taking application that did not have spell check?

Implementing spell check for English speakers would not be discriminative.  I may not be able to spell discriminative without spell check, but I know what it means, and it's no more discriminative than my local Starbucks having cashiers who only speak English.  Many would consider expanding their customer base in one place a good and necessary first step before going regional or global.

Further, RAM, bandwidth and storage being what it is these days I am not certain users would find an increase in size frustrating.

I also use Linux, and on Windows I use open source when it meets my demands.  I understand and value the work developers do and about the only software I don't routinely support even if free is browser addons, and I support some of them (like Quick Fox Notes).

Again, thanks, and Cinta is your product and I like it and use it and it's your choice what features to implement.  I just don't find your arguments persuasive.  If Cinta is how you like it and you are satisfied with its revenue stream, great!

Regards,
Bo Grimes

Hello Bo,
Thanks a lot for your comment, and really sorry that I didn't reply the previous time - this happens not often, but sometimes I can forget to reply.

Also thanks a lot for going Lifetime PRO, I appeciate your support!

Your points are valid. Ok, let's assume that my arguments about size bloat and language dependence are not persuasive.

Further, let's suppose I take this all onboard and implement spell check in CN 3.0. After that I get a lot of angry mails asking me what the heck I ignored all features from top 10 or even top 25. What should I answer? "Bo Grimes and Colin Smith promised me that implemeting this feature will double sales" doesn't sound like a good excuse. "It's my program and I decide what to implement" is another possibility, but then again people will see that voting doesn't work and will think that regular asking, reminding and begging is the way to go to get the needed feature. Do I want this to happen? No.

Basically we'll return to the chaos with feature requests which we had before the voting on the roadmap. Now the rules may not be perfect, but at least they are clear and transparent - if you want a feature, you go and vote, you bring 100 of your friends to vote, etc. 

Other argument: currently we don't have the resources needed to conduct a full-scale marketing research. So we can only guess which features will increase sales, and which will be barely noticed. Votes are not perfect, but I think that they are still a little bit correlated with what people need and want. 

Ok, here are my two cents...
I voted for this feature and would gladly use it. I also voted for other features (encryption, inline images,...) which are more important to me.

What I want to add to this discussion is the idea of not reinventing the wheel but use an existing solution which can be integrated into CN.
I don't know if there are technical or legal limitations that stand in the way but maybe integrating Hunspell would a solution. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunspell
http://hunspell.sourceforge.net/

Ideally this would keep implementation effort within the scope and the size of the application would not get bloated too much because the dictionaries could be downloaded as needed.

Thanks a lot, Chris! This is very useful info.

I've griped about this enough that I thought I would share a solution.  For years, I have used a word processor called Jarte.  It is built on Word Pad, but is so much more feature rich: tabs, pasteboard, etc (the link above is to the feature set for the free version).  I use the pro version mostly to support the work, but it has a few more good features like auto-outline, split screen, auto-cap, etc.

Others have suggested using something like TinySpell, ASpell, etc.  I didn't like Tiny, nor do I like copy/paste, spell check, copy/paste.  I was browsing the manual for something else and saw Jarte's Hot Connect feature.  This is included in the free version.

With hot connect you activate it and then in any other program you hit alt-F7 (or define a different one) and Jarte copies the text, opens a new tab, you spell check and click save (or ctrl-s) and it copies it back to the original window (in this case Cintra).

If this were a forum on best word processors (like LifeHacker does) I would, and have, recommended Jarte.  Even if you don't need something like Hot Connect, try it.

I will be using Cintra much more often as a primary notes DB now that I discovered Hot Connect.

(Standard disclaimer: not associated..affiliated..employed by, blah, blah, blah).

Bo, huge thanks for this tip! Very, very useful. I'll add it for our "Tips& Tricks" forum thread if you don't mind.

Don't mind at all.  Thanks.

Done. Thank you once again