[Solved] Thesaurus a bit limited (on MacOS)

[Harry_Steele]

I have Version 4.0.1 on a Mac. Everything works well.

I very rarely go online when I'm writing, so I have to use the inbuilt OpenOffice thesaurus. This is a pretty limited thesaurus, if I may say so. I often wish it were as good as online thesauruses, but frankly it's not.

I wonder, is there a stand-alone thesaurus that can be downloaded and installed, and used in conjunction with OpenOffice?

Thanks.

[Zizi64]

Try the LibreOffice.

Most of the components of the LO are under a more active development. The the development of the AOO is very slow today.

[Hagar Delest]

Packaging an application is a balance between size and features. It also depends on the work done by mostly volunteers when it comes to AOO/LO.
I'm not surprised that there is a difference between a built-in feature and an online service for which it is the only purpose, hence a much better service.

[Bill]

Try the LibreOffice.

Most of the components of the LO are under a more active development. The the development of the AOO is very slow today.

I believe AOO and LO use the same thesaurus. In my limited trial, they both returned the same list of synonyms.

[JeJe]

Wordnet: (Many other Thesaurus programmes use their data, just add their own front end)

https://wordnet.princeton.edu/download/current-version

A quick search for freeware thesaurus mac yields

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12643/nisus-thesaurus

May be others...

This page is quite old but there used to be at least an easily accessible Mac thesaurus

https://www.noproblemmac.com/blog/wp-co ... ionary.jpg

[Harry_Steele]

Thanks, everybody, for your responses.

[LastUnicorn]

Try WordWeb Pro. You can buy a Chambers Dictionary and Thesaurus for it — good combination that I use myself (on Windows). However, do note that WordWeb comes with its own thesaurus feature (at least on Windows systems). The built-in dictionary and thesaurus for WordWeb is based on 'Wordnet' (as flagged by JeJe above).

https://www.wordwebsoftware.com/mac/WordWeb.html
https://www.wordwebsoftware.com/mac/

[MrProgrammer]

I have Version 4.0.1 on a Mac. … I have to use the inbuilt OpenOffice thesaurus.

No you don't. MacOS has a thesaurus you can use. Here, I have a Writer document. I position the mouse pointer (not the OpenOffice Writer cursor!) at "quiet" then press the MacOS keyboard shortcut ^⌘D (Control Command D). This opens a MacOS dialog where I can explore a dictionary and thesaurus. I can also look at Wikipedia information for the selected word.

Quiet.gif (122.45 KiB) Viewed 4718 times

I wonder, is there a stand-alone thesaurus that can be downloaded and installed, and used in conjunction with OpenOffice?

It's already installed. Just open the Mac's Dictionary application from the Dock. Dictionary User Guide The application is included with every Mac and it includes a thesaurus.

Dictionary.jpg (103 KiB) Viewed 4718 times

I often wish it were as good as online thesauruses, but frankly it's not.

One hardly can expect a specific OpenOffice feature, in an application which has hundreds of features, to be as extensive as a website which is dedicated to a single task.


If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit button and add [Solved] to the start of the subject field. Select the green checkmark icon at the same time.

[Harry_Steele]

"One hardly can expect a specific OpenOffice feature, in an application which has hundreds of features, to be as extensive as a website which is dedicated to a single task."

Yes, that's a good point.

Thanks for the OS tip. I did not know that, and I've been using Macs for years.