[Solved] English and Spanish Spell Check

[Tracey End User]

Can writer spell check documents for more than one language?

I downloaded both English and Spanish dictionaries, but only English spell checks.

Please advise.
Thanks, Tracey End User

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

See: [Tutorial] Spell check and Language configuration.
You've to use paragraph styles and/or character styles.

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the edit button if your issue has been fixed.

[Tracey End User]

Near a I can tell, oo writer is not able to spell check non-native (other than UI language) languages.
If there are any valid instructions as to how to make spell checking other languages functional, I would really like to know and it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Tracey
I have some Spanish Tutorial Lessons from the Win9x/WinNT/Win2K era with both English and Spanish text.
I have found type-o's in the English text so I just wanted to verify the Spanish text.
I have tried some on-line Spanish document spell checkers, but they can't even correctly spell check simple/beginner Spanish words.

Even though I have es_es.oxt, dict-es_co.oxt, and dicc-es_cr-04.oxt installed, only English is a spell-check option: USA, UK, SA, CA, and AU are select-able as a spell check option even thought I checked the Tools> Language> For Selection> Esperanto.
NO other language option is available.

Tools> Language> For Paragraph> Esperanto does not appear to be a select-able option.

[John_Ha]

In order to spell check a language you need to have that language dictionary installed.

All text carries a "This is xxxx language" attribute. Spellcheck reads the language attribute and uses the appropriate dictionary.

See the document below where I have both the UK and US English dictionaries installed (I think they are probably installed together). I set the first line to UK English and the second line to to US English. Each line is checked with its dictionary.

You will find more information in Hagar's guide, and in Chapter 2 - Choosing language settings and Chapter 2 - Checking spelling and grammar in the OOo v3.3 Writer Manual.

Search Help with dictionaries, see also languages and languages for more information.

You will also find much useful information in the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and the up to date Writer guide. When a pop-up window opens, click the Help button for extensive help on that function - it is often more comprehensive than the manual.

[John_Ha]

Mmmmmmm. It's not quite so simple.

The language attribute seems to be carried by the Character Style and/or by the Paragraph Style and not by the text itself.

If you are using Direct Formatting, and you go Format > Character ..., or Format > Paragraph ..., you will find an option to set the language for the selected text.

If you are using Styles, then open the Style Navigator (F11) and right-click a Style > Modify ..., and you can set the language for that Style.

Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages ..., sets the Default language for a document. I was a little surprised to find that when I set Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages ..., to Spanish (Spain) all the text in my example document was reset to Spanish. I figured this is because Writer overrode the Direct Formatting I had previously applied.

The question you need answered is "How do I set up Writer so that I can type some text in UK-English, and some more text in Spanish (Spain), and have the text spell checked by the correct dictionary?" I think the answer is probably to define one Paragraph? Character? Style as English (or leave English as the Default in Tools > Options ...) and define a new Paragraph? Character Style as Spanish. Use whichever style you need.

[John_Ha]

Method 1 - using Direct Formatting

See French and English text.odt where I did the following using Direct Formatting.

1 My AOO Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages > Default language for documents > Western ..., is set to English (UK)

2 I already had the English dictionary installed. It includes English UK, CA, US etc.

3 I installed a French dictionary - you will need a Spanish dictionary

4 I created a new text document and pasted in both the English and the French text

5 I highlighted the text required to be English UK and went Tools > Language > For selection > English UK. This set Format > Character > Font > Language ..., to be English UK by Direct Formatting. (I did it to guard against the text being pasted carrying, say, an English US attribute.)

Edit: You can also go Tools > Language > For Selection > More ..., which opens the Format > Character > Font pop-up window where you can select any language.

6 I highlighted the text required to be French and went Tools > Language > For selection > French. This set Format > Character > Font > Language ..., to be French by Direct Formatting.

7 I then pasted some Spanish text and set it to Spanish (Spain) by Format > Character ... I cannot spell check it as I have not downloaded a Spanish dictionary.

Apart from the xxxxx, no spelling errors are red-lined as each language is being checked against its own dictionary. Note how, when doing a spellcheck, the first xxxxx is checked against the French dictionary whereas the second xxxxx is checked against the English dictionary.

Note that there are some big disadvantages of doing it this way, namely using Direct Formatting and it may be better to use Applied Styles as suggested by Hagar.

First, you cannot see visually which text is set to English and which is set to Spanish, a problem much worse if the two languages are English UK and English US. Second, if you Clear Formatting, you lose the applied languages. However, it may be suitable for simple documents.

French, English and Spanish text.odt

(25.72 KiB) Downloaded 122 times

Method 2 - using Applied Styles

The alternative method, as suggested by Hagar above, is to use Styles.

You define a new Default Paragraph Style, calling it, say, Default - Spanish, where the language is set to Spanish.

A big advantage of this is that you can see visually what language any selected text is - check to see what Style it is. If you Clear Formatting (Clear Formatting removes all Direct Formatting you have applied, and reverts back to the Style in use) you do not lose the applied language settings. A disadvantage is that, if you are using many Paragraph Styles, Headings, Lists etc, you need to define a Spanish version of each Style you use.

[esperantisto]

No need to go through the style/paragraph formatting menus. Two simple methods:
1. The simplest method is actually doing nothing. Just switch your keyboard to the desired language/layout, and Writer will catch the change.
2. Use the language selector in the status bar.

[esperantisto]

…if you Clear Formatting, you lose the applied languages.

This was true for older versions of OpenOffice.org. In latest versions of AOO (4.x) and LO (4.x, 5.x), the language attributes are not reset to the default. If you do want to clear ad-hoc language attributes, right-click on the language selector and select Reset to Default Language.

[John_Ha]

…if you Clear Formatting, you lose the applied languages.

This was true for older versions of OpenOffice.org. In latest versions of AOO (4.x) and LO (4.x, 5.x), the language attributes are not reset to the default. If you do want to clear ad-hoc language attributes, right-click on the language selector and select Reset to Default Language.

Clear formatting clears the language attribute for me in AOO 4.1.3.

Create a new document > highlight all the text > Tools > Language > For selection > and choose a different language such as French. Now highlight some of the French > Clear formatting. The selected French text is reset to English.

[Tracey End User]

I just open and type so I am not a Savvy User.

After reading below, should I post an enhancement request?: Installing any Dictionary (Spanish or other) should add that option to the Spell Checking or am I doing something wrong.
I can't imaging anyone installing a dictionary, but not intending to use it (at least making it an option).

I opened the sample document in ooWriter and pressing F7 finds no errors (without installing a French dictionary).
(French%2C%20English%20and%20Spanish%20text.odt).
This may be part of the default installation process.

Please advise.
Thank, Tracey
Spell checking "other" languages is still a puzzle.
However I was able to check the document by changing the [Default languages for documents] from Western: English (USA) to Spanish (Mex).
I chose Mex, but it appears that every country in South America is an option.

I could not add Spanish to the English. but I had to change the English to the Spanish.
And every time I open a another Spanish document, I have to re-change the [Default languages for documents] to Spanish.
This may be the way Open Office works so it may not be a bug.

When Spanish dictionaries are installed, Spanish is not a spell check option anywhere that I could find (this does not appear right) and F7 spell checks the Spanish document with English suggested spelling corrections.
Only 3 extensions available are at the present (but they all display a message stating that they are old):
es_es.oxt - Spanish - Español
dicc-es_cr-0.4.oxt - Costa Rica spelling, hyphenation and thesaurus dictionaries-0.4
dict-es_co.oxt - Diccionario de correción ortográfica para Colombia - Spellcheck dictionary

[esperantisto]

…F7 spell checks the Spanish document with English suggested spelling corrections.

That’s because your document text is formatted as English. You should apply Spanish to it.

And every time I open a another Spanish document, I have to re-change the [Default languages for documents] to Spanish.

You don’t need to change the default language. You need to check the actual text language.

Use the language selector in the status bar.

[jrkrideau]

I suggest confirming that you have all the need dictionaries installed and then create an English and Spanish style for each paragraph and character format you use. Then never use any direct formatting. It may take a bit of practice to get use to always using Styles all the time but once you are used to it you will find it a please.

I once spellchecked a document with English, Norwegian, Latin & German with no trouble. The difficulty is "thinking" in Styles if you are not accustomed to using them

[Bill]

I just open and type so I am not a Savvy User.

After reading below, should I post an enhancement request?: Installing any Dictionary (Spanish or other) should add that option to the Spell Checking or am I doing something wrong.
I can't imaging anyone installing a dictionary, but not intending to use it (at least making it an option).

I opened the sample document in ooWriter and pressing F7 finds no errors (without installing a French dictionary).
(French%2C%20English%20and%20Spanish%20text.odt).
This may be part of the default installation process.

Please advise.
Thank, Tracey
Spell checking "other" languages is still a puzzle.
However I was able to check the document by changing the [Default languages for documents] from Western: English (USA) to Spanish (Mex).
I chose Mex, but it appears that every country in South America is an option.

I could not add Spanish to the English. but I had to change the English to the Spanish.
And every time I open a another Spanish document, I have to re-change the [Default languages for documents] to Spanish.
This may be the way Open Office works so it may not be a bug.

When Spanish dictionaries are installed, Spanish is not a spell check option anywhere that I could find (this does not appear right) and F7 spell checks the Spanish document with English suggested spelling corrections.
Only 3 extensions available are at the present (but they all display a message stating that they are old):
es_es.oxt - Spanish - Español
dicc-es_cr-0.4.oxt - Costa Rica spelling, hyphenation and thesaurus dictionaries-0.4
dict-es_co.oxt - Diccionario de correción ortográfica para Colombia - Spellcheck dictionary

After you install the Spanish dictionary, shut down AOO and restart it. The SpellCheck options are in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids, but they should be set correctly by default and you shouldn't have to change anything.

You have to tell SpellCheck which text is Spanish and which text is English by setting the language attribute for the text. If the language attribute is set to English for all text, then SpellCheck will use the English dictionary for all text. Assuming that you have all text set to English, select the Spanish text, then select Tools > Language > For selection > More to open the Character dialog. Select "Spanish (Spain)" in the Language box, then click OK to close the Character dialog. Now when you run SpellCheck, it should use the English dictionary for the English text and the Spanish dictionary for the Spanish text.

[John_Ha]

I think I said earlier that you need to have a dictionary installed so that you can flag text in that language.

That is incorrect. Format > Character ..., allows you set text to any language. You only need that language''s dictionary if you want to spellchecker.

[Tracey End User]

I am now able to use spell check for more than one language (difficulties due my lack of understanding).
Thanks, Tracey