[Solved] Spell-checking does not work

[Nocton]

After installing OO 3.4.1 the English (UK) spell-checking does not work. Something similar was reported in http://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/vi ... sh#p246414 but I have tried the proposed solutions there, except resetting the profile, and they do not solve the problem. No English extension is showing and when I download and reinstall the extension dict-en.oxt it gives an error, so this appears to be the problem as it is exactly this extension located in the ...\share\extensions folder.

This is the second bug we have had with OO 3.4.1 - the other was the failure to support charts in the report builder, meaning I had to revert to OO 3.3.0 on one PC. If there is no easy solution to this problem I shall have to return to OO 3.3.0 on the PC with the problem.

Regards, Nocton

[RoryOF]

Spell checking definitely works in AOO 3.4.1. You may need to work systematically through the spell checking tutorial

[Nocton]

Spell-checking is correctly set up. Nothing has been changed since OO 3.3.0 We have used OO for several years now and this is the first spell-checking problem we have had. As said, the extension dict-en.oxt seems to be the problem as it is there but does not show in the list of extension, i.e. we have not got an English dictionary (either UK or US), and when I try to re-install it it gives an error. French spell checking works OK, because a French dictionary is installed and shows in the list of extensions.

[RoryOF]

I've just checked on my computer from which the above screen shot was taken. Here is a screenshot of the installed extensions

This may help you locate a working dictionary.

[Hagar Delest]

The extensions delivered out of the box with AOO (that should be installed by default) should also be in .../openoffice.org3/share/extension/install in the main installation folder. You can access them from here if you need to re-install them.

[Nocton]

Thank you both for further information.
I now find that the PC on which I installed 3.4.1 and then had to uninstall it and reinstall 3.3.0 (in order to get the database reports back with charts) also now gives the same problem. The extensions look OK with 'English Spelling and hyphenation and thesaurus' showing as in RoryF's screen shot (I would give the screenshot if I could make it work, but copy and pasting from Writer did not work). I reinstalled the extension but that did not produce any change. I notice in ...\share\extensions (there is no installation folder) that there are folders named dict-en, dict-es, dict-fr . Still in 3.3.0 I then removed the 'English Spelling and hyphenation and thesaurus' extension. But after closing and restarting it has not gone, but instead has a padlock beside it.

On the PC with 3.4.1, the 'English Spelling and hyphenation and thesaurus' extension is not showing, but the file dict-en.oxt is present in the install folder. However, when I try to reinstall I get an error if I try to select 'for all users' and if select only for the current user and error saying it can't find the file (in a temporary folder under the user's name). All very frustrating!

On both PCs the option to select UK or US English is present.
Any help will be appreciated. Could the profiles be corrupted?

Regards, Nocton

[RoryOF]

According to reports the profiles are not interchangeable betweenm 3.3 and 3.4, so it is worth deleting or renaming the User Profile(s) and doing a complete restart of OpenOffice - best in my view to power off computer and start up again.

[Nocton]

That's it! Thank you, RoryOF.
I deleted the user file and restarted OO, resetting my options as required. Now in OO 3.3.0 the 'English Spelling and hyphenation and thesaurus' extension has lost its padlock - which presumably meant it was not available, and in OO 3.4.1 the extension has appeared automatically.

Regards, Nocton

[WhyDenyTheObvious]

If you are reading this in a forum post it will not be spell checked the same way that your LibreOffice or OpenOffice would do it on your PC. To view it that way download it from:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0fCoS ... kxQV013Wk0
to your PC and open it from there.
You will get the gist of what I mean by reading this post, but you will not see what I mean unless you download the file (or create your own file in your office suite).


Below are two blocks of text that have different language formatting.

-----
one

twoz: twoz does not get spell checked because its language is [none]

three

------

one

twoz: twoz gets spell checked (and fails) because its language is [English (USA)]

three

-----


To see the language that is being used: highlight a block of text and go to the menu: Format → Character.

There are hidden language settings for blocks of text, the whole current file and new files created from scratch.

When you are working on a file: Changing language settings from within a file through the menu system like so: Tools→Options, then “Language Settings” will only change the setting for the document that you are working on (or that you newly create from within the editor).

To change the language settings for all future newly created files you must use the same method (Tools→Options, then “Language Settings”), but do it from the configuration program LibreOffice (soffice.exe). Note; that the program will refuse to run (without giving any explanation or warning message) until you close all instances of any of the office suite programs.

Another way to “fix” a file with problematic language settings is through the menu:

Tools→Language→For Selection

Or Tools→Language→For Paragraph

Or Tools→Language→For all Text


There is no way to “fix” all effected files on your system. Unless somebody has written a program that I don't know about.

Happy holidays to all.