Support spell checking, dictation, and AI rewriting in text fields.
Review Request #14962 — Created March 26, 2026 and updated — Latest diff uploaded
For ages now, we've wanted to offer spell checking in text fields. This
has been one of our most-requested features, but we were limited due to
the capabilities and limitations of CodeMirror and the lack of browser
APIs for integrating with the spell checking dictionary. This has
remained despite my own tries to get PMs from both Chrome and Firefox
interested in opening up their vendored APIs.Last year, we solved this integration and implemented it in our NPM
CodeMirror Speak-and-Spell library at
https://www.npmjs.com/package/@beanbag/codemirror-speak-and-spell.This not only provides spell checking, but also enables support for the
browser's dictation and AI rewriting capabilities, amongst others, if
the browser supports them.This change adds support for this within Review Board. There's an opt-in
feature in My Account -> Settings for enabling this, and once enabled,
text fields will support spell checking and the other listed features
in all text fields.Spell checking applies to all text, including any code blocks. This
does not differentiate between any kinds of content within the text
field.The feature is currently opt-in due to behavioral quirks in Chrome and
Safari. While Firefox will check spelling upon display of the text
field, Chrome and Safari will check only while typing or when clicking
on a word. This isn't specific to our implementation, but rather it can
be seen with any standard text field. That may change in time, at which
point we'd enable this by default.
Enabled and tested on Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Worked in all three
browsers, with the quirks noted.Tested AI rewriting and speech-to-text in iOS Safari.
Tested that behavior was normal with the setting off.