How to Add Spell Check to Notepad++

Notepad++ is our favorite text editor and a must have notepad replacement. Unfortunately although it comes with a spell check tool, it doesn’t always have the dictionary files needed for it to run. Let’s set them up.

Click the Plugins menu and select Spell-Checker >> How to use…*

*If Spell Checker isn’t showing up on the list, open the Plugin Manager and check it from the Available tab and then click Install.

Now follow the link in the “How to use Spell-Checker” window to http://aspell.net/win32/

Here you’ll need two files. The first is the binary file for the library software.

The second is a pre-compiled dictionary (word list) in the language you prefer.

Run the first binary installer first, it’s full name should be Aspell-0-50-3-3-Setup.exe and it should be 1,277KB in size. Installation is simple, just click Next a bunch of times.

Next, install the dictionary file. It has the same type of setup; click next until it is done.

Now all you have to do is exit and restart Notepad++.

The Spell-Checker tool from the Plugins menu should have different options. Click the Spell-Checker one to start checking for spelling. you can also use Ctrl  + Alt + Shift + S as a shortcut for this.

An open spellcheck dialog works much like the “find” feature, except that spellcheck is automatically hunting down words that don’t match its dictionary.

That’s all there is to setting up Spell Check in Notepad++. If you’re not a user of Notepad++, give it a whirl as a notepad.exe replacement using Ninite — the free app which easily installs the best freeware on the net.

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