Spell Checking. I am coming to the end of my patience.

Issues with installing under all versions of MS Windows
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loadedandlean
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Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2018 11:50 pm

Spell Checking. I am coming to the end of my patience.

Post by loadedandlean »

If I did anything wrong here I am sorry. I have no idea how these forums work. I try to stay away from them and sort things out myself. Normally I can but this is OpenOffice, all bets are off with this program.

I worked through the entire help section here: viewtopic.php?t=16512

Yes, I did notice some differences but first: I am using a 64 bit Win 10 home edition computer. Spell checking is not working. when I went through the page at the link above.

The first thing I noticed is that there is no ABC with a check mark anywhere in any of the windows that I was instructed to open. Secondly, there is nothing called, Hunspell SpellChecker either. However, as the date for that tutorial is 2007 and entire countries have changed their name since then, it is possible, I guess, that Hunspell SpellChecker was some kind of dinosaur relic long extinct.

I get no wavy red lines. I get exactly, nothing. I downloaded the GB language pack from here: https://www.openoffice.org/download/other.html

I made sure to get the same one as the version of OO that I am using which is version 4.1.5
I clicked exe. There were other options called, ASC MD5
SHA256
The explanations for what these were may as well have been written in Venusian for all the good they did me. The assumption (Wrongly) is that everyone who reads the explanation will have at least college level nerdery and will know what the hell a hash value is. To most humans (ie non nerds) a hash value is the price of a joint.

I found this deeply amusing:
Language
The names do not refer to countries.

There then follows a list of countries. You can always trust a nerd to muddy up the waters and turn plain English into goobledegook.

Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that having followed the instructions on that page to the letter; then trying other pages with other explanations on them and getting lost in a maze of links most of which seemed to have little or nothing to do with my problem and some of which went back so far I was scared to open the page in case it turned to dust (I jest. Though I swear some of those "tutorials" were written before the Internet was invented and Tim Berners-Lee was still a suckling infant), I am still without a spell checker. I have uninstalled and reinstalled everything except Windows and no, I am not doing that. I have gone looking for user profiles without success. There is nothing called, \user folder, on my computer that I can find.

So basically, I have just spent three hours of my valuable time today trying to get this fixed by carefully reading and carrying out the instructions on offer even though their last time they were updated appears to be back when windows 7 was a thing. This is on top of the whole three days I spent searching through menus looking for a clue to what was wrong without success.

I now have a wish list. It goes like this.

1. Someone write a program that does not take 18 months or a college course to learn to use and is not full of strange terms no one but the programmers and maybe some 80 year old Fleet Street journalists, understand.
2. The program will not try and be than something NASA could write but instead will just do what the user wants. That is, be easy to use. Actually have a decent template for writers given that the program is called Writer.
3. It works. Without having to faff around reading countless pages of stuff that don't work and then have to write a pissed off post and risk the usual rage from nerdom when you dare be critical of something they have done. I mean, how friggin hard is it to integrate a spell checker that does not force the user to become a programmer to fix if you are already fluent in binary and nerd-speak?

Yeah, yeah. I know....It was free so what are you whining about?
Well, I will tell you. If I went into a store and read a sign saying, 'Fifteenth floor, Free ice creams.' It does not matter how free they are if when I get there there are no cones, you have to make your own ice creams, but there is no recipe that makes sense, and, if you do happen to know how to make ice cream already you cannot do so because the ice cream making machine is busted.

Okay. I have whined and whinged long enough. Is there a fix or shall I just chuck this in the bin and forget all about Open Office which I used in the past with no problem but which now seems to be well past its sell-by date?

Cheers for getting this far. To be honest, I struggled.
Open Office 4.1.5 windows 10 64 bit
FJCC
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Location: Colorado, USA

Re: Spell Checking. I am coming to the end of my patience.

Post by FJCC »

Let's try resetting your user profile first. First, shutdown OpenOffice. Then open any folder and enter
%appdata%\openoffice\4
in the address bar near the top. That will take you to a folder containing the user folder. Right click on that folder, choose Rename and change the name to user_old. Restart OpenOffice. You should get the registration screen. Fill that out and then open a document. Does spell check work now?
OpenOffice 4.1 on Windows 10 and Linux Mint
If your question is answered, please go to your first post, select the Edit button, and add [Solved] to the beginning of the title.
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Zizi64
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Re: Spell Checking. I am coming to the end of my patience.

Post by Zizi64 »

2. The program will not try and be than something NASA could write but instead will just do what the user wants. That is, be easy to use. Actually have a decent template for writers given that the program is called Writer.

Just some sarcastic tips:

- You need a pure and simple Text editor software instead of the difficult Office suite. Then you must type and save only. Finally you can hire a professional editor (person) for the formatting your text. (It was a joke)

- Or you must study how a modern Office suite works... (It was not a joke)
Tibor Kovacs, Hungary; LO7.5.8 /Win7-10 x64Prof.
PortableApps/winPenPack: LO3.3.0-7.6.2;AOO4.1.14
Please, edit the initial post in the topic: add the word [Solved] at the beginning of the subject line - if your problem has been solved.
Bill
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Re: Spell Checking. I am coming to the end of my patience.

Post by Bill »

loadedandlean wrote:The first thing I noticed is that there is no ABC with a check mark anywhere in any of the windows that I was instructed to open. Secondly, there is nothing called, Hunspell SpellChecker either. However, as the date for that tutorial is 2007 and entire countries have changed their name since then, it is possible, I guess, that Hunspell SpellChecker was some kind of dinosaur relic long extinct.
This is the point where you should have come to the forum for help. This is an indication that you have a corrupt installation which needs to be repaired. Working through the rest of the troubleshooting guide is a waste of time if the Hunspell SpellChecker does not appear in the options.
loadedandlean wrote:I get no wavy red lines. I get exactly, nothing. I downloaded the GB language pack from here: https://www.openoffice.org/download/other.html
This is a self-induced waste of time. Nowhere in the troubleshooting guide is this recommended. Language packs have nothing to do with SpellCheck.
AOO 4.1.14 on Ubuntu MATE 22.04
John_Ha
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Re: Spell Checking. I am coming to the end of my patience.

Post by John_Ha »

1. Uninstall AOO

2. Delete C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice\4\user.

You have now completely removed AOO from your PC, together with the corruption which has somehow occurred.

3. Download AOO with the correct language you want from http://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

4. Install AOO. You will be asked to enter your name when you first start AOO. If you are not so asked, go back to Step 1 and repeat.

The problem will now be fixed.
loadedandlean wrote:1. Someone write a program that does not take 18 months or a college course to learn to use and is not full of strange terms no one but the programmers and maybe some 80 year old Fleet Street journalists, understand.
Try Windows Notepad.

If you need more function than Notepad gives, you will need a program which provides more function. You will then need to read the manual of the program you choose so you can understand how to use that additional function.

Showing that a problem has been solved helps others searching so, if your problem is now solved, please view your first post in this thread and click the Edit button (top right in the post) and add [Solved] in front of the subject.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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