[Solved] The dictionaries don't work

[Kate123456]

Whenever I download a dictionary extension (French and/or Spanish), my OpenOffice doesn't recognize it, as in it appears in the extension list but when I try to activate spell-checking in that language, the ABC symbol doesn't appear next to the language and as a result the spell-checking doesn't work, as if the dictionary wasn't installed at all.

I deleted the "user" file, as was advised in other threads, but to no avail. I also tried redownloading/reinstalling OpenOffice and the dictionaries, but it didn't fix the problem either.

Does anyone have any idea what's wrong?

[RoryOF]

You have to set the text to be checked to the language of the dictionary. Best to do this by defining Paragraph Styles and Character Styles for each language. One of the settings in each of these, on the Fonts tab, permits selection of the language for that style.

[Kate123456]

I'm really sorry but I don't understand. When I open the "styles and formatting" tab, both the paragraph style and the character style is set to default. What should I change it to?

In Tools > Language > For All Text > More, I used to be able to select the language I want from the list, provided I had downloaded the correct dictionary. But ever since I upgraded OpenOffice to the lastest version, it doesn't work anymore. Any thoughts?

[Hagar Delest]

Really strange. What is the French extension you use? Can you upload a screenshot of your extension manager (see How to attach a document here)?

[Bill]

I'm really sorry but I don't understand. When I open the "styles and formatting" tab, both the paragraph style and the character style is set to default. What should I change it to?

Please upload a sample document so we can see the settings of the styles. The names don't tell anything about the actual settings.

[Kate123456]

I've attached a screenshot of my extension manager and an openoffice file I created.

[RoryOF]

Try the attached file - it works on my computer.

[Kate123456]

It now works... and I didn't change any setting... but I did reboot. Still, I'm flabbergasted. Thank you all for your help.

[Hagar Delest]

If you had the quickstarter activated, it may have prevented the dics to be taken into account. In such case, relaunching the Windows session should be enough.