[Solved] Spellchecker reverts to USA

[Galastel]

My OO has a strange love for USA English. I have my OO default language set to English UK, I have my locale set to UK. When I open a new document, it is set to UK. However, when I type so much as a letter, the language changes to USA. I change the language through tools -> language -> for all text -> English UK, it changes. I can even tell it to reset to default, and it changes to UK just fine. But the next letter I type immediately changes to USA again. I can't seem to fix this.

In fact, the problem is not just with English UK. I tried to change the language to French, the same happens. I can change the language for everything already typed, but the next letter I type, the language switches back to USA. Only the CTL languages appear to be safe from this problem.

How do I fix this?

[acknak]

Greetings and welcome to the community forum!

... when I type so much as a letter, the language changes to USA. ...

This sounds like a system/keyboard layout setting, where the keyboard tells the application (OO) what language is being used. I believe it is a system/keyboard input setting; maybe someone else can say specifically how to check on that.

[RusselB]

Which language version did you download initially?
If you downloaded the UK version and added the US dictionary, then resetting your user profile, as describe here might do the trick.
However, if you downloaded the US version and then added the UK dictionary, you can try resetting the user profile, but you'd have to reinstall the UK dictionary.
Alternatively, you could do the following (steps 1 & 2 can be reversed)
1) Uninstall the US version
2) Download the UK version from http://www.openoffice.org/download making sure the language selected is English (Britain)
3) Install the downloaded version.

[RusselB]

Noting Acknak's reply, and presuming that Windows 8.1 isn't that much different from Windows 7, you can check/change the setting that Acknak refers to by using Start -> Control Panel -> Region & Language

[Galastel]

Thanks! That might be it. I did not know the keyboard could tell applications what language is being used. I do indeed use USA-International keyboard layout (that's English + all the accents and stuff needed for other European languages).
Do you know if it's possible to make the keyboard not tell applications what language it uses, or alternatively make the application not listen to the keyboard, at least as far as the spellchecker is concerned? I tried changing things through Region & Language. It won't allow me to have UK language without the UK keyboard layout. Thing is, I find the UK layout uncomfortable, and I certainly can't use the French layout at all (the same letters are all in different places, that's why I use USA-International layout), but I still need to write in UK English and in French. In fact, I don't want to be switching keyboard layouts between European languages at all, it doesn't make sense that I should have to, since they all use pretty much the same letters. That's what the USA-International keyboard is there for - so I don't have to switch keyboard layouts.

[acknak]

I can't say for sure, but there should be a keyboard configuration that provides all the elements you're looking for, namely, the proper language setting and access to all the extra characters you might need, without having to disable or work around the language settings. You may have to use a specific key to change input mode, rather than simply pressing a key for the symbol, but there should be a way to get what you need.

[RoryOF]

There may also be a registry hack (you are using Windows) which will allow you use the keyboard layout you require, but which will lie about the actual keyboard in use. I don't use Windows any more and am many years away from Windows registry hacks, so cannot advise.

[Galastel]

After some search, found it. Kinda. Windows can let me pick the keyboard layout for each language I use, so I can have several languages all using the same US layout. I have to go throw an insane amount of Alt+Shift to get to the language I need (or just choose manually) though all the languages use the same keyboard, which is rather stupid. Still, it's better than nothing.
RoryOf, I certainly know the cons of using Windows. Just got another one added to my list.
Thanks for the help, guys! Without you, I wouldn't have known what to look for.

[Bill]

LibreOffice has a setting in Languages to ignore the system input language, but the system input language seems to be ignored in Ubuntu even if the option is not enabled. I don't have LO on Windows to check what it does in Windows.

[John_Ha]

For others looking for spellcheck language problems, remember that all text in Writer is flagged with its language and is spell checked with that dictionary if it is installed. So, If you have one paragraph of UK English, followed by one paragraph of US English, the first paragraph will spell check colour as correct and color as wrong. The second paragraph will spell check colour as wrong and color as correct.

Copying text and pasting it into Writer preserves the language attribute unless you Edit > Paste Special > Unformatted ... Text on the web is often in US English.

[Galastel]

Bill, that actually sounds awesome. I'll check it out. Thanks!