Proofreading for Firefox Help

Activate the Proofreader

To activate the proofreader: click  in a text area, press F4 while focused in a text input box, or right-click and select Check Spelling and Grammar from the context menu.

After the Deadline should work fine with most text boxes on the web. If the button is not present in a text box, then you can’t use the proofreading feature there.

Interact with Errors

The proofreading feature checks spelling, misused words, grammar, and style.

You can tell the type of error by its color.

• Misused words and spelling errors are red
• Grammar mistakes are green
• Style suggestions are blue

Right click an error to see a menu with suggestions. Many errors have an Explain option that provides more information.

You may select Ignore suggestion to ignore a phrase once. Select Ignore always to have this add-on permanently ignore and unmark a phrase.

Proofreading Preferences

You can configure the proofreading add-on by going to Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions and Preferences in the After the Deadline add-on.

From here you can edit the phrase ignore list and enable extra options in the proofreading add-on.

Change the Activation Keystroke

You can change the activate keystroke by clicking the round white box and then pressing the desired keystroke. Remember this keystroke only works in text boxes with the icon in the lower right corner.

Automatically Proofread Content

You can tell AtD to run the proofreader automatically before submitting a form. Select Warn me when form submissions are not proofread first to enable this feature. This feature will ask if you really want to submit a form when errors are present in the text.

Enable the Firefox Spell Checker

After the Deadline disables the Firefox spell checker in text boxes where After the Deadline works. Select Allow Firefox spell checker on AtD enhanced forms to get your Firefox spell checker back.

English Grammar and Style Options

The proofreader applies many of its grammar rules by default. These extra options find patterns of poor writing style:

• Bias language may offend or alienate different groups of readers.
• Clichés are overused phrases with little reader impact.
• Complex phrases are words or phrases with simpler every-day alternatives.
• Diacritical marks are accents and marks attached to letters in some nouns and words borrowed from other languages. This option helps restore these marks in your writing.
• A double negative is one negative phrase followed by another. The negatives cancel each other out, making the meaning hard to understand.
• A hidden verb is a verb made into a noun. These often need extra verbs to make sense.
• Jargon phrases are foreign words and phrases that only make sense to certain people.
• Passive voice obscures or omits the sentence subject. Frequent use of passive voice makes your writing hard to understand.
• Phrases to avoid are wishy-washy or indecisive phrases.
• Redundant phrases can be shortened by removing an unneeded word.

Proofreading Language

You have the option of checking French, German, Portuguese, or Spanish text with After the Deadline. You can set your proofreading language here.

If you write in many languages, select Auto-detect language when proofreading to have After the Deadline detect your language and apply the correct proofreader to it.

Ignored Phrases

You may add a phrase to the ignore list by typing it into the text field and clicking Add. Click to remove a phrase from the ignore list. A phrase is one or more words and the ignore list is case-sensitive.

Disable After the Deadline on Certain Sites

You have the option to disable this proofreading add-on on certain sites. You can add domains (e.g., wordpress.com) here or deselect Use AtD on this site from the context menu on a site.

Use this feature to disable After the Deadline if the page or an add-on you use on the site causes conflicts.

Use your After the Deadline server

This extension uses a simple protocol to communicate with an After the Deadline server. You have the option of downloading the After the Deadline technology and running it in low-memory mode on your local computer.

To make this extension use your local AtD server:

Go to about:config and set the extensions.afterthedeadline.proofreadServer key to http://127.0.0.1:1049

Uninstall After the Deadline for Firefox

If you’d like to delete After the Deadline for Firefox, go to Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions and select Uninstall under After the Deadline.