This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

Spell check box is on top of word being corrected

  • 4 uphendule
  • 1 inale nkinga
  • 1 view
  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu Idadho

more options

When I right click on a red lined word, the box pops up but covers part of the word. Often, the word is just a form of a common word in the dictionary. I just need to add the new form or compare the red lined form to the spelling of the root word. If the box covers part of the word, I cannot compare the spellings. The box covers the top 2/3rds of the last 4 characters of the red lined word. The solutions is to have the box appear above the word.

When I right click on a red lined word, the box pops up but covers part of the word. Often, the word is just a form of a common word in the dictionary. I just need to add the new form or compare the red lined form to the spelling of the root word. If the box covers part of the word, I cannot compare the spellings. The box covers the top 2/3rds of the last 4 characters of the red lined word. The solutions is to have the box appear above the word.

All Replies (4)

more options

You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

  • Options/Preferences -> Advanced -> General -> Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"

You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.

You can check if there is an update for your graphics display driver and check for hardware acceleration related issues.

more options

Tried it. No change. I believe this is a coding issue. It does the same on my other computer. I found a work around. If I put the cursor after the last letter, the box appears to the right of the word. But, if I put the cursor within the letters of the red lined word, the box will block the top 1/2 to 2/3rds of the letters to the right of the cursor. It would be good if the box was coded to stay above the redlined word. Microsoft makes their spell check box even worse by including far to many options below the suggested words. Spell check is supposed to make life simpler, not more complicated or frustrating.

more options

OK, I've checked it and the context menu appears to open with the top left corner aligned to where you right-click. This means that best is to right-click space directly next to the misspelled word or center the cursor on the wavy underline (i.e. click a few pixels below the word) and not in the word itself.

Note that I see this in older Firefox versions as well, so this isn't recent.

Okulungisiwe ngu cor-el

more options

That's dumb. The box should use the top or bottom of the cursor bar for the placement of the box. In 25 years of moving cursor bars, I never would have thought the software looks for the center of the cursor bar. Not very intuitive.