Table Spellchecker & Context Menu Proofing Integration
Tables provide essential structure for presenting tabular information: financial balance sheets, product comparison matrices, event itineraries, and price schedules. While standard text boxes in Open Publisher have long featured comprehensive spellchecking and right-click suggestion menus, table cells historically operated in an isolated contextual evaluation branch. While misspelled words inside cells displayed red wavy underlines, right-clicking on them only presented structural table tools without proofing suggestions. Version 4.19.1 resolved this gap by hoisting word extraction and integrating the proofing suggestion interface natively into table context menus.
Right-clicking a misspelled word inside any table cell displays spelling suggestions right above table editing tools.
Text-Range Extraction Across Table Cells
Bringing proofing suggestions into table elements required unifying word extraction across editable DOM structures:
Hoisted Word Extraction: In ui/menus.js, word-extraction logic was previously scoped strictly to standard text boxes and WordArt elements. The function was rewritten and hoisted (extractWordFromRange) to evaluate globally across all text-editable blocks, including table cells ([contenteditable="true"] inside <td> and <th>).
Caret Hit-Testing: When the user right-clicks inside a table cell, the context menu builder performs pixel-precise hit-testing at the cursor position, identifying the targeted word and verifying its proofing status.
Context Menu Suggestion Hierarchy
The right-click menu seamlessly balances proofing suggestions with table management tools:
Top-Level Suggestion Placement: When a misspelled word is right-clicked inside a table cell, suggestion buttons (#spell-check-results) render prominently at the very top of the contextual menu, directly above table manipulation commands.
Integrated Table Commands: Standard table operations ("Insert Row Above", "Insert Row Below", "Insert Column Left", "Insert Column Right", "Delete Row", "Delete Column", "Table Properties...") remain immediately accessible directly beneath the proofing suggestions.
One-Click Word Replacement: Clicking any spelling suggestion swaps the misspelled word in place within the table cell, preserving cell background colors, borders, and column widths.
Full Table Proofing Workflow Parity
Proofing inside tables works in complete harmony with general document proofing:
Continuous Cell Proofing: The proofing scanner automatically analyzes text as you type across table cells, painting crisp wavy underlines for misspelled words.
Keyboard Navigation Flow: Pressing Tab to advance to the next cell or Shift+Tab to return to previous cells preserves active proofing highlights without flicker.
Tip: You can highlight text across multiple table cells to check word count and character statistics in the Review tab.