The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Mr. Mum · Post by **Mr. Mum** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 2:24 pm

G'day Everyone,

My issue is related to OpenOffice 3.2.1 and the dreaded spellchecker. I'm using windows xp sp3 and the system is a HP Compaq work station with no added fruit.

I have searched high and low across the forum for a solution to the wavy red lines beneath every word in a document within Writer. I have used the http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... 74&t=16512 page all to no avail. When I installed 3.2.1 I uninstalled and cleaned out the previous version. I downloaded and installed 3.2.1 GB English version fully expecting to have no problems with spelling. No matter the document, new or existing, I get a page full of "red wavy lines".

Push the little button and turn them off. No auto spellchecker! Use the manual one and bingo mate, a page full of "red wavy lines". I've even looked at the more advanced suggestions of editing something called an XML file. While I'm not afraid to do this on my system, I must consider that I have six systems in this house all running 3.2.1 and all have the spellchecker issue. My friend in Sydney has the same version and yes, she has the same issue.

Given the complexity and nature of the instructions contained within the guide 16512, and that this is an issue that previous versions have had and that despite following the said instructions, that the spellchecker still doesn't work, I'm about ready to ditch OpenOffice. This is 2010 and OpenOffice should be able to install according to the locale set in/on what-ever system it is being installed on be it Linux or windows. The very creative and rather sophisticated idea of having a document with many different languages on one page doesn't appear to work without considerable input from users that haven't got a clue. It's simply too much. Please, I beg of you, make the install locale specific and ditch the multi-language thing.

I promise, I have been through this forum and can find no solution. I even downloaded the "Spellcheck_samples.odt" as suggested and still got a page full of "red wavy lines". Oh by the way, the "Spellcheck_samples.odt" doesn't include Aussie nor Pommy spelling, just US. Not much good to anyone else aye!

I'm at my wits end on this and it isn't the first time I've had the issue. Please, any help will be appreciated.

Yours Sincerely

Bob Steele

Post by **Hagar Delest** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 3:04 pm

Hi and welcome to the forum!

What is the language shown in the status bar?

Mr. Mum · Post by **Mr. Mum** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 4:38 pm

Australian English or is it English Australian

Post by **Hagar Delest** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 5:34 pm

Do you confirm you see the blue checkmark before the language in the Font properties?

There have been some topics about that dictionary. See that query, especially that one perhaps: [Solved] Spellcheck Won't Operate.

Mr. Mum · Post by **Mr. Mum** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 5:56 pm

Yes, that is the case. I can honestly say that it is all as it should be, as set out in http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... 74&t=16512 , but still the "wavy red lines" appear beneath every word in the document.

I had a glance at the linked docs and none of them appear to contain anything I haven't seen or tried already. In any case, I just finished downloading and installing Symphony 3 and guess what? It obtained my user name and locale info from windows on the way in. I opened an existing OpenOffice document and voila, "wavy red lines" appear! But they are only under proper nouns as it should be. A quick check in preferences and bugger me, it's installed an Australian dictionary! A quick test of "summarize verses summarise", proved the point.

KISS... Keep It Simple Silly, would seem NOT to apply with OpenOffice. The developers appear to have tried so terribly hard to add features that they have become so complex as to be fragile.

It's all but midnight and I have a busy day tomorrow, a wife and four kids will do that! After I get them all out the door, I'm going to install Symphony 3 on all their PCs. I've wasted way to much time on this problem today to want to do it again tomorrow.

Yours Sincerely

Bob Steele

PS I guess that means this issue is "resolved but most definitely not solved" and my friend in Sydney will no doubt jump ship with me. Sorry

Post by **Hagar Delest** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:03 pm

Do you remember installing an Australian dictionary? It's not delivered by default, you have to download and install that extension.

Post by **lgusaas** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 10:21 pm

Hagar de l'Est wrote:Do you remember installing an Australian dictionary? It's not delivered by default, you have to download and install that extension.

On the US English download of OOo for Mac, the English dictionary now includes US, UK, Canadian, Australian, and South African versions.

Post by **lgusaas** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 10:34 pm

Yes, that is the case. I can honestly say that it is all as it should be, as set out in http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... 74&t=16512 , but still the "wavy red lines" appear beneath every word in the document.

Did you check that language is set correctly in "Tools/Options/Language Settings" in 'Languages' and 'Writing Aids' ? I've included screenshots of my system. Make sure any language selected for spell checking has a blue checkmark beside it.

Post by **Hagar Delest** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 10:43 pm

Indeed. I hadn't noticed the inclusion of the Canadian and Australian flavors. Then I'm at loss with this one...

Mr. Mum · Post by **Mr. Mum** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 1:09 am

'morning Everyone,

Yes, the Aus dictionary is or rather was installed and the language setting was as it should be with pretty blue icon thing and tick.

It's 0700 here and I've had e-mail from a number of contacts in Sydney that have been using OO for some time now and guess what! they just turned off the spellchecker. So, why didn't they contact you guys or report a bug etc? They haven't the time nor do they know how to go about it all. I'm starting to think this has been an issue for quite some time and it is going to remain so.

Symphony 3 is based partly on OO and it works straight out of the box, is considerably less complicated to configure. You blokes have to let the development team know this stuff. I would also believe that this isn't the only issue that never gets reported

I've uninstalled OO from two of the six PCs in the house already and installed Symphony 3. Oh and Symphony 3 has a browser built in and uses tabs for each application, not another window. Very nice indeed, sorry guys!

Yours Sincerely

Bob Steele

PS My eldest daughter has a Dell Net book for University that runs on Ubuntu, OO 3.2.1 and yes, she has the same issue. She just turned it off and lives with the spelling mistakes. Bugger me if there isn't a Linux version of Symphony

Post by **Hagar Delest** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 9:08 pm

I made a quick test: I took the first words of the Australian dictionary (the version delivered by default) and pasted it in 2 columns. The left one is set to English (USA) and the right one is set to English (Australia). Seems to work fine (xubuntu 10.10 and OOo 3.2.1).

: Dic-EN-AU.png (9.22 KiB) Viewed 16118 times

Post by **franx** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 11:22 pm

... the same with OOo 3.2.1 on WinXP.

: en-AU_2.png (6.96 KiB) Viewed 16113 times

Edit 2010-10-23
(1) As far as I remember: I had a similar issue after the installation of an older version
of the Australian Medical Dictionary (the recent version doesn't replace the default dictionary).
(See also → Install of another dictionary deactivates current dictionary)

(2) A workaround in another case → Re: Why underlining text in red automatically?
.

Post by **PGAGA** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 5:50 am

Saturday 23 October 2010

Interesting - a Canadian I have the same problem, but with LS3. There is no Canadian English dictionary. Also problems continue with its handling of the ODF file format.

Having created an Australian English template for OOo, I am puzzled by this problem.

Phil

sagit · Post by **sagit** » Mon Oct 24, 2016 2:18 pm

In Windows 10, I changed the name of the user folder to user.old. When I restarted Open Office, I was prompted to re-register Open Office, and the red lines were gone. Re-registering the program seems to force Open Office to create a new user folder without corrupt data.

Go to:

C/users/(folder with your name)/AppData/Roaming/Open Office/4/user (rename this folder to user.old)

Restart open office and re-register.

Bill · Post by **Bill** » Mon Oct 24, 2016 6:02 pm

sagit wrote:Re-registering the program seems to force Open Office to create a new user folder without corrupt data.

Renaming or deleting the old user folder causes AOO to create a new user folder the next time AOO is started. The user's personal data isn't transferred from old user folder, so AOO asks the user to re-enter the personal data. There is no actual registration of OpenOffice any more.

Post by **RoryOF** » Mon Oct 24, 2016 6:10 pm

In expansion of Bill's note about OO not requiring registration, the data entered at the personal data screen is used only to identify that user's files; if a copy of OpenOffice is used by different users, this allows the configuration of OO be set for each user and only that user's files will be shown.

The dreaded "red wavy lines"

The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"

Re: The dreaded "red wavy lines"