[Solved] NZ Spellcheck won't work

[chetnich]

I have a similar problem spell check does not work.
I tried the %appdata%\OpenOffice\4 and renamed the user folder user.old. I restarted OO and a new user folder was created but I still don't have any spell checker. words like fsghghsggh are considered ok and are not underlined like last time I used OO.
Please would someone let me know another way of turning on spell checker.

[RoryOF]

Place cursor in one of those words and check what language OO thinks they are - this will be shown in the middle of the Status (botttom) Bar on the OO Window. Make sure you have a dictionary installed for that precise language - all versions of English need their precise dictionary selected.

[chetnich]

Hi I place the curser in the middle of debtsfgafg and the status in the bottom bar still says English(New Zealand) The Australian dictionary was the closest one for me to install.

[robleyd]

What language do you want? What is set in Tools | Options | Language Settings | Language ?

[chetnich]

In languages it states : User Interface Default- English (USA) I can't change this
Locale setting : Default - English (New Zealand) I could change this.

I live in New Zealand so a spell check in English would be great and English New Zealand would be even better. Hence the option Australian as its the closest English option available.

[robleyd]

Try the English dictionaries for Apache OpenOffice extension - it contains Oz and Kiwiin addition to several other flavours of English.

[chetnich]

That was the source of the dictionary extension I added to OO today. It mentioned I already had it installed, I knew this as the spell check used to work a few months ago.

[robleyd]

What is set in Tools | Options | Language Settings | Language under Western in Default languages for documents? Does it have a dictionary icon like a tick and ABC?

[chetnich]

I just reinstalled OO to 4.1.7 and still no spell checker.
Tools | Options | Language Settings | Language under Western in Default languages for documents is Default - English (New Zealand)
No icon with ABC

[chetnich]

Ok I have found the icon abc with a tick. It was the English (Australian) version. I selected that and now I have spell check back again.
Tools | Options | Language Settings | Default languages for documents Western in > Default - English (Australian)
Stupid me thinking I should be using the New Zealand English language.

[robleyd]

it contains Oz and Kiwi

I was wrong - no NZ. You could set your default language to English (Australian) to use the Australian spell checking, but you'll need to change the language settings in your paragraph styles.

Alternatively there is an older extension English New Zealand Dictionary which you could try. If that gives you a spell check icon in the Default languages the problem might resolve.

I've moved this discussion to its own topic, as it is a different situation from the original in which you posted.

[chetnich]

Thank you for all your help.
I changed the language to 'Australian' selected OK and used them successfully for my document. Saved it, closed OO and when I opened OO again (after viewing these forum comments) it had reverted back to NZ English. Strange. So saved it as Australian again and it stayed that way for a few more open and closes. Perhaps a bug causing this may have been the reason I lost the spell check in the first instance. I had this problem years ago but had since forgotten that my spellcheck is Australian English.

[Hagar Delest]

Note that if you create documents with right click on your file explorer, that's another story (detailed in one of the tutorials).

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the *EDIT button if your issue has been fixed.

[LastUnicorn]

@chetnich

Going at a slight tangent to the subject of your post I'm wondering why you are choosing the English (Australian) spellchecker when you would be better to choose the English (British) speller. The reason is that as far as spelling goes Australian English uses British English spellings. You can check this here (for example, other sites also confirm this):

https://www.rypeapp.com/blog/australian ... h-english/

I would though think this worth a read on spellings for English New Zealand:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zeala ... h#Spelling

The reason why you would be better of choosing the English British speller (from Marco Pinto, the maintainer of the English 'dictionaries' package) is that Marco updates the word-list for the English British speller very regularly, (for Firefox and Thunderbird on a monthly basis), for OpenOffice and LibreOffice he normally updates that on a bi-monthly basis, though recently he has done so on a monthly basis for them too. I would note that the Firefox/Thunderbird and OpenOffice/LibreOffice spellers both contain the same word-list, so there is, in that respect, no difference between the two.

If you look at the time the last update was applied to the English (Australian) speller you will see that it was last updated on 2019-10-06 (as at the time of me writing this post). The reason for the difference in update dates is that Marco Pinto only deals with updating the word-list in the English (British) speller -- he is not involved in updating any of the other English 'variants' contained in the single 'English dictionaries' package available for OpenOffice/LibreOffice, other maintainers deal with the other English spellers, though usually on an infrequent basis. I am in fairly regular contact with Marco and know that the word-list in the English British speller is far larger than in the English Australian speller -- so the English British speller is the much better choice from that point of view.

In any case, for your use, you would be much better of using the English British speller, though on install to OpenOffice it shows up in the Languages Options as English UK.

[chetnich]

Thanks LastUnicorn, that's good information to know. I'll try the English UK version.
Obviously Australia is closer to NZ in so many ways including language slang etc and just assumed it would be the next best option.