The Q4 beta program got a big boost today with the release of r.a.d.editor 7.0 beta. The headline-grabbing feature of the new editor is the much anticipated AJAX spellcheck mechanism that eliminates the need to use a dialog based spellchecker (though the dialog checker will still be available). I'm happy to report that Christmas comes early this year because the new spelling mechanism rocks!
The early preview of spell 3.0's AJAX spellchecker (the foundation for editor's new spellchecker) was pretty ugly and did not seem to be doing much that improved upon existing AJAX spellcheckers (such as those found in Google Docs, Blogger, etc.). The pre-release version we see in the editor beta, though, is amazing. It is the best AJAX spellcheck I've used to date and it looks great, too. Unlike other AJAX spell checkers, telerik's new checker will automatically jump to misspelled words in your document as you check them (vs. forcing you to hunt for and click the highlighted misspellings). This combines the fluid, in-document context of an AJAX checker with the convenience of a dialog checker in way that many other AJAX checkers fail to do.
The beta also sports a few additional enhancements, including a number of performance tweaks and optimizations that are supposed to produce more consistent editor output in different browsers. There have not been any major changes to the editor structure in Q4 (you still need the editor RadControls folder), but telerik has said that editor will see some major changes in 2007 as they try to move towards a more modularized, RadControls-folder-independent control.
The AJAX spellcheck has been one of the most highly anticipated new features of the Q4 release and I think telerik has hit a home run with their implementation. Check it our for yourself today by visiting the beta demo and start scheduling time to upgrade all of your spell and editor implementations today!
0 comments:
Post a Comment