[Troubleshooting] Spell check in OpenOffice

[Hagar Delest]

This quick troubleshooting guide will help you checking the language configuration with screenshots and basic questions.
Module used here is Writer. Once it's fine with it, do the same for the other modules and change the Paragraph styles to Cell, Slide, ... styles.
For further details, see the [Tutorial] Spell check and Language configuration.

1. Check the dictionary extension is installed

Go to menu Tools>Extension Manager
Check that the extension corresponding to the language you want appears:

NB: if you see a "multi-user" icon, it just means that the extension is installed for all the users of the computer (English dictionary above), else, it means that the extension is in the user profile and is available for the current user only (French dictionary above).

Do you see the dictionary extension with your language?
Yes ⇨ Continue to next post
No ⇨ Go to that section of the tutorial: 4. There is no dictionary for my language

[Hagar Delest]

Go to menu Tools>Options>Languages Settings>Languages
Check that the language in the section Default languages for documents has the blue ABC✓ check mark

General settings.png (10.42 KiB) Viewed 207609 times

NB: please be sure that you're looking at the right menu, don't trust the Tools>Language menu (discussed at the end of this topic).

Do you see the blue check mark in the general settings panel?
Yes ⇨ Continue to next post
No ⇨ Make sure you have closed OOo, the Quickstarter (OOo icon in system tray) and restarted OOo.

NB: in some rare cases, you have to untick, then retick the Hunspell SpellChecker option (Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids > Edit) before closing and restarting the application.

[Hagar Delest]

Right click in your paragraph, select Edit Paragraph style (bottom of the list) and go to the Font tab.
Make sure there is the blue ABC✓ check mark in front of the language selected from the drop-down list:

Default paragraph.png (16.62 KiB) Viewed 207601 times

Default paragraph style is the master paragraph style; this is the first one to check since all the other paragraph styles are based on that one.
NB: depending on the localization, its name can differ (can also be Standard for example).

Do you see the correct language (with the blue check mark) for the current paragraph style?
Yes ⇨ Continue to next post
No ⇨ Open the Stylist (F11), right click the paragraph style, select Modify and go to the Font tab.
NB: make sure the list is displaying the paragraph styles (first icon highlighted at left from the Stylist toolbar).

Stylist.png (12.19 KiB) Viewed 207596 times

[Hagar Delest]

Look at your main toolbar:

Spell check activated.png (9.56 KiB) Viewed 207602 times

Is the spell checking button highlighted in the toolbar?
Yes ⇨ Continue to next post
No ⇨ Click it

[Hagar Delest]

Look at the language displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the main window:

The status bar says that the language applied is French!

Text.png (8.57 KiB) Viewed 150613 times

Is the language the correct one?
Yes ⇨ Continue to next post
No ⇨ Select the text and in the menu Tools>Language>For Selection, select Reset to Default Language:

[Hagar Delest]

Let's test the attached file: you should see the red wavy lines in certain places

Spellcheck_samples.odt

Good idea from acknak: test this file.

(10.07 KiB) Downloaded 10146 times

Do you see the same as below?

Installed dics: English, French and Spanish. Each paragraph has a misspelled sentence that should trigger the wavy lines.

Yes ⇨ Correct, your system should be fine now.
No ⇨ Continue to next post.

[Hagar Delest]

Have you restarted OpenOffice?
Yes ⇨ In this case, there is a real problem. It can be linked to the dictionary extension you've installed. See next post and if no change, you should create a new thread (not in this Tutorial section), mention that you've followed this troubleshooting process and what is the dictionary you've installed.
No ⇨ Make sure that you've exited OpenOffice and the Quickstarter (Seagulls icon bottom right of your screen with the clock under Windows). No need to reboot your computer but restarting completely OpenOffice is usually compulsory (you must see the OpenOffice splash screen at restart).

[Hagar Delest]

Note: a script has been developed, it may help you fix it automatically without resetting the whole profile: Spell checker "red wriggly lines" - beta test fix.
If nothing has worked, reset your OpenOffice user profile. There may be some weird corruption that could still prevent the spell check from running correctly, even with the above operations...

[Hagar Delest]

Beware of the Tools>Language menu

Tools_Language_menu.png (29.45 KiB) Viewed 156376 times

This menu is only used to apply a language to a selection, it doesn't show the current language activated (except for the For Selection entry). This is not the place where the checkmark has to be located (see section 2).

Moreover, applying a language through this menu is a direct formatting! It may be removed if you later clear or reset to default the formatting of the selection.

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If you've comments about the content of this thread (mistakes, unclear items, ...) thanks to report them here: Comments about the spell check troubleshooting thread.