Spellcheck Not Available or User Error?

[mbon]

Hi:

I keep looking for a reference to this issue, no luck.   I read that DroId 4+ devices make use is the system spell check function.  I believe it,  but I can't get it to work.  I'm getting some (usually wrong) auto-corrects forced through, but I manage to spend as time successfully creating yet more gibberish while force-overtyping system caused incorrect words.  My Samsung G3 has a "Personal Dictionary" under Language and Input.  Is the "Predictive Text" under Samsung Keyboard settings what folks are referring to?  I don't have a spell check option per say (yet the user dictionary).  I have the i535 (Verizon phone running 4.2.1.  I just as likely in my post rooting/unlocked bootloader frenzy, may have disabled an obscurely-named system app called Spellcheck.  Have pity, I've exhausted my last brain cell trying to figure this out. 

[beaky]

I use the google keyboard (i.e. the standard one installed by default). It is mostly OK.
It does occasionally make inappropriate corrections. Mostly it is right. It is less good at decidingbif c,v,b,n,m should actually be taken as a space. As in "decidingbif" in that last sentence . It knows a space has been missed, but assumes the "b" is significant, so "deciding if" is not offered as a possible correction.
Ensure that the language set up in settings (personal - language and input) matches your language.
Also whenever you come to a correctly typed word that it does not know, so offers a wrong correction, make sure you "add to dictionary" instead of just skipping this. That way your own special words are learned.
You can add extra languages to this keyboard, and this changes the autocorrect to the alternative language. I use it to switch (with one click ) between English and Dutch. When you have a second or further language enabled, the language swap key appears to the left of the space bar, and the space bar shows the language name.
Deze zin is geschreven in het Nederlands .
That Dutch sentence would be difficult to type with English autocorrect. Five out of the seven words would have been wrongly "corrected".
I have not looked to see if switching to German (as an additional language) also changes the key layout to AZERTY... I suspect it does not. This makes sense as a British user does not expect the keys to move. A German user would also happily type English on an AZERTY keyboard.
As a genealogist, I have to type lots of personal names. Autocorrect is a great problem so then I turn it off. I then find that I must type normal plain text very very carefully!

[Kostya Vasilyev]

There is auto-correct (suggests and checks each word as you type) and then there is spell checking (checks everything, not just the word you're in the process of typing).

Auto-correct is the soft keyboard's job, works on all phones since Android 2.0 or something.

Spell checker is built into the system since Android 4, is supported by AquaMail.

BUT

Samsung removes the spell checker feature from their phones' system software, even based on Android 4.* (based on my observations).

[mbon]

Thank you for your response; so if I were still using the Samsung G3, is there a solition to spell check in Aquamail?  Perhaps resolved in Droid 4.2 or 4.4?  I'm now wrestling with an exasperating Xperia Z3, so my spelling is checked.  And as expected the bizarre word substitutions continue.  In other words, is there a spell check solution for my G3  4.1.2? 

[Kostya Vasilyev]

SwiftKey with auto-correct is a great suggestion, I use it myself (if that means anything...)

Yes, the spell checker is a standard Android feature since 4.0, and I have no idea why Samsung removes it from their "flavored" Android version.

[mbon]

Thank you Paris and Kosta!  Of course, K, what you use is very relevant.  Having worked with outstanding software developers for years, I've found no group with higher standards for software they use personally. I had forgotten Swiftkey provided the feature, thank you both for the reminder.  You might want to add that to the faq fir the benefit of Samsung users. My guess about why they pull the spellchecker out would be it takes up space reserved for carrier junkware. For me, taking it out us like removing turn signals from my car expecting other drivers to watch in awe wondering where my careening vehicle will go next.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

It is there in the FAQ:

On Android 4, the app can use the spell checker built into the system. You can enable it in the device’s system settings, under Languages and Input. Once this is done, spell checking will be automatically enabled in the compose area.

If the setting is not there – the feature must have been removed by your Android device manufacturer from their flavor of Android system software. I can’t find it on my Samsung phones (but it’s there, as expected, on a Sony and an HTC).