Implementing Syncfusion WPF SpellChecker

SfSpellChecker provides a simple and intuitive interface to check for spelling errors in WPF text editor controls. It offers suggestions for misspelled words through dialog and context menu, supports multiple languages/cultures, custom dictionaries, and various ignore options.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

Add spell checking capability to WPF TextBox, RichTextBox, or other text editor controls
Implement dialog-based or context menu-based spell checking
Support multiple languages and cultures in spell checking
Add custom dictionaries (Hunspell, Ispell, or OpenOffice formats)
Configure ignore rules for emails, URLs, HTML tags, mixed case words, etc.
Provide real-time spelling suggestions to users
Customize spell checker appearance with themes
Handle spell check completion events

Component Overview

Control: SfSpellChecker (Syncfusion.Windows.Controls.SfSpellChecker)
Platform: WPF
Namespace: Syncfusion.Windows.Controls
Assembly: Syncfusion.SfSpellChecker.WPF

Key Capabilities:

Dialog-based spell checking with suggestion list
Context menu suggestions with right-click on error words
Multi-language support with custom dictionaries
Ignore options for special text patterns
Custom word dictionary support
Real-time error highlighting
Replace, Ignore All, Add to Dictionary actions

Documentation and Navigation Guide

Getting Started

📄 Read: references/getting-started.md

Installation and assembly deployment
Adding SfSpellChecker to an application
Attaching spell checker to TextBox
First spell check with dialog
Context menu setup
Enable/disable spell checking
Getting suggestions programmatically

Spell Check Methods

📄 Read: references/spell-check-methods.md

Dialog-based spell checking
Context menu-based suggestions
PerformSpellCheckUsingDialog method
Error word highlighting
Replace and ignore operations
Add to Dictionary functionality

Ignore Options

📄 Read: references/ignore-options.md

Ignoring email addresses
Ignoring URLs and internet addresses
Ignoring HTML tags
Ignoring mixed case words
Ignoring uppercase words
Ignoring alphanumeric words
Configuration examples

Dictionary Support

📄 Read: references/dictionary-support.md

Default English dictionary
Multi-language spell checking
Hunspell dictionary format
Ispell dictionary format
OpenOffice dictionary format
Adding custom dictionaries
Custom word lists
Switching culture at runtime
DictionaryCollection management

Customization and Theming

📄 Read: references/customization.md

SpellCheckCompleted event
Restricting completion message box
Theme support with SfSkinManager
ThemeStudio customization
Visual appearance options

Quick Start

Basic Setup with Dialog

<Window xmlns:syncfusion="http://schemas.syncfusion.com/wpf">
    <Grid>
        <StackPanel>
            <TextBox 
                Text="Ths is a sampel text with speling errors."
                Name="textbox"
                TextWrapping="Wrap">
                
                <!--Attach SpellChecker to TextBox-->
                <syncfusion:SfSpellChecker.SpellChecker>
                    <syncfusion:SfSpellChecker 
                        x:Name="spellChecker"
                        EnableSpellCheck="True"/>
                </syncfusion:SfSpellChecker.SpellChecker>
            </TextBox>
            
            <Button 
                Content="Spell Check"
                Click="SpellCheck_ButtonClick"
                HorizontalAlignment="Center"/>
        </StackPanel>
    </Grid>
</Window>

// Code-behind
private void SpellCheck_ButtonClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    spellChecker.PerformSpellCheckUsingDialog();
}

Quick Setup with Context Menu

<syncfusion:SfSpellChecker 
    x:Name="spellChecker"
    EnableSpellCheck="True"
    EnableContextMenu="True"/>

Users can right-click on error words (red underlined) to see suggestions.

Common Patterns

Pattern 1: Basic Spell Check with Dialog

// Create spell checker instance
SfSpellChecker spellChecker = new SfSpellChecker();
spellChecker.EnableSpellCheck = true;

// Attach to TextBox
SfSpellChecker.SetSpellChecker(textbox, spellChecker);

// Open spell check dialog
spellChecker.PerformSpellCheckUsingDialog();

Pattern 2: Context Menu with Ignore Options

SfSpellChecker spellChecker = new SfSpellChecker();
spellChecker.EnableSpellCheck = true;
spellChecker.EnableContextMenu = true;

// Configure ignore options
spellChecker.IgnoreUrl = true;
spellChecker.IgnoreEmailAddress = true;
spellChecker.IgnoreUpperCaseWords = true;

SfSpellChecker.SetSpellChecker(textbox, spellChecker);

Pattern 3: Multi-Language Support

// Create culture-specific spell checker
CultureInfo culture = new CultureInfo("fr-FR");
SfSpellChecker spellChecker = new SfSpellChecker();

// Add French dictionary
spellChecker.Dictionaries = new DictionaryCollection();
spellChecker.Dictionaries.Add(
    new HunspellDictionary()
    {
        Culture = culture,
        GrammarUri = new Uri("/MyApp;component/Dictionaries/fr-FR.aff", UriKind.Relative),
        DictionaryUri = new Uri("/MyApp;component/Dictionaries/fr-FR.dic", UriKind.Relative)
    }
);

spellChecker.Culture = culture;
SfSpellChecker.SetSpellChecker(textbox, spellChecker);

Pattern 4: Custom Dictionary

// Add custom words dictionary
Uri customDictUri = new Uri(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + 
                           @"\Dictionaries\CustomWords.txt", UriKind.Absolute);

spellChecker.Dictionaries.Add(
    new CustomDictionary()
    {
        Culture = new CultureInfo("en-US"),
        DictionaryUri = customDictUri
    }
);

Pattern 5: Handle Spell Check Completion

spellChecker.SpellCheckCompleted += (sender, e) =>
{
    // Suppress default message box
    (e as SpellCheckCompletedEventArgs).ShowMessageBox = false;
    
    // Custom completion logic
    MessageBox.Show("Spell check completed!", "Done");
};

Key Properties

Property	Type	Description
`EnableSpellCheck`	bool	Enable/disable spell checking (default: true)
`EnableContextMenu`	bool	Enable context menu suggestions (default: true)
`Culture`	CultureInfo	Culture for spell checking
`Dictionaries`	DictionaryCollection	Collection of dictionaries
`IgnoreUrl`	bool	Ignore internet addresses
`IgnoreEmailAddress`	bool	Ignore email addresses
`IgnoreHtmlTags`	bool	Ignore HTML tags
`IgnoreMixedCaseWords`	bool	Ignore mixed case words (e.g., AbCDeFH)
`IgnoreUpperCaseWords`	bool	Ignore all uppercase words
`IgnoreAlphaNumericWords`	bool	Ignore words with numbers

Key Methods

Method	Description
`PerformSpellCheckUsingDialog()`	Opens spell check dialog
`GetSuggestions(string word)`	Gets suggestion list for error word
`GetPhoneticWords(string word)`	Gets phonetic word suggestions
`GetAnagrams(string word)`	Gets anagram suggestions

Common Use Cases

Text Editor with Spell Check - Add comprehensive spell checking to WPF text editors
Multi-Language Document Editor - Support multiple languages with culture-specific dictionaries
Custom Domain Dictionary - Add industry-specific or company-specific terms
Email Client - Spell check with email/URL ignore options
HTML Editor - Spell check while ignoring HTML markup
Form Validation - Validate text input fields for spelling errors
Accessible Text Input - Provide context menu for easy error correction

Sample Applications

GitHub samples: WPF SpellChecker Examples

syncfusion-wpf-spellchecker