SpellCheck

[P_W_H]

Unfortunately, nothing at all worked on the windows 8 machine. I have deleted the user directory several times, I have followed the tutorial with pictures ... nope.
Hit F7, I get "spellcheck complete" and when I close that window it also closes the language window behind without giving me a chance to interact with it.
It is almost like there is a secret profile some place that I don't catch when deleting the user directory, because I don't get to set the language - it asks for user name
and then proceeds straight to the app selection scree, and when I open writer it already has NZ English selected ... which it really should not know about.
What it does not do, is do the spellcheck.
I've tried to deselect and re-select the dictionary, I have deselected some of the other dictionaries (business etc), but none of those steps have worked.
It's extremely frustrating. My wife, not being a native speaker, could really use the help from the spell checker ....

[Zizi64]

It is almost like there is a secret profile some place that I don't catch when deleting the user directory, because I don't get to set the language - it asks for user name

Fill in the name data.

The language property IS NOT SET in the User Profile.
You can set it individually for every paragraph style. What is the language setting in the applied paragraph styles in your document?

Please upload a small, ODF type sample file here with some sample text in the language what you want to check.

[P_W_H]

paragraph styles are not something I have ever had to deal with on my other computers. Just not something I use or do.
I will look into this, thanks.

For testing purposes I just type some deliberately mis-spelled words into a new document and if the spellcheck
works, it will mark it as error straight away ... and to make sure I can hit F7. I don't think I need a 'real' document
to test the spellchecker.

On my windows 7 machine I uninstalled Open Office 4.12 and reinstalled as 4.17; spellcheck still did not work.
The really odd thing is that I disabled the dictionary, then enabled the dictionary, and the spellcheck came
alive.
Sadly, that strategy does not work on the Open Office install on our laptop (win 8 , Open Office 4.12).

I will go and sniff into the paragraph style thing ... thanks. -P.

[robleyd]

You might find [Troubleshooting] Spell check in OpenOffice and [Tutorial] Spell check and Language configuration to be useful resources for spell check problems.

[RoryOF]

paragraph styles are not something I have ever had to deal with on my other computers. Just not something I use or do.
I will look into this, thanks.
....

I will go and sniff into the paragraph style thing ... thanks. -P.

You have two problems: one is that spellcheck does not work, the other is that you are not using OpenOffice correctly.

The second problem can be cured by reading some instructions: many have found these documents to be helpful:

This file gives an overview of using styles:
Structure Instructions

This document gives more detailed information for Writer
Writer for students (several languages)

The solution to your first problem is probably covered in the various notes to which you have been pointed. Although you may have followed these, it is likely that you missed an important point. Follow them again, making no assumptions that "this should work this way" or that "I don't need to do that".

[Bill]

paragraph styles are not something I have ever had to deal with on my other computers. Just not something I use or do.

The language setting for the text is in the paragraph style. If you don't have the correct language setting for the text, then SpellCheck will not work. Please upload a sample document as has already been requested so we can either confirm or eliminate a problem with the language setting.

[Zizi64]

paragraph styles are not something I have ever had to deal with on my other computers. Just not something I use or do.
I will look into this, thanks.

You always use paragraph styles. You MUST use at least one paragraph style in your documents.

[esperantisto]

You MUST use at least one paragraph style in your documents.

Good point. I’d put it in slightly different words: you inevitably use at least one, namely, Default paragraph style.

[esperantisto]

You can set it individually for every paragraph style.

Strictly speaking, not exactly so. Unless you set it explicitly, language settings (as any other option) are inherited from parent styles.