OpenOffice and it's broken spellchecker

[Andrewie]

I'm trying to do my english final but as always the spell checker in openoffice is broken again. It breaks in Windows, Suse, and Ubuntu. This isn't just me it's also other people in my CS class. I'm moving to koffice 2, after this project but I want to know if it works for anyone else.

[Lostincyberspace]

I use google to check words.

[stoodleysnow]

I usually spell well enough not to need a spell checker, so I don't know.

[coffeecat]

but I want to know if it works for anyone else.

In the two and a half years I've been using various releases of Open Office, the spellchecker has always worked fine for me. That's in Ubuntu, Suse, Gentoo, Windows, PCLinuxOS, etc. Also Neo-office on a Mac, which is just an aqua-fied Open Office.

What problems are you getting? Have you posted under help anywhere?

[GrayWizardLinux]

yes - you are right. I noticed that I spelled a word correctly and it kept saying it was mis-spelled, This happened about 4 times last week. Go Figure....

[n3tfury]

I use google to check words.

you shouldn't have to with a quality office app. firefox spell checks ffs.


I usually spell well enough not to need a spell checker, so I don't know.

when you're typing an essay or something of importance, it's nice to have one and not JUST rely on "i'm a pretty good speller, yeah."

OP: i sure hope this is just a problem with YOUR install and not OO in general.

[Andrewie]

you shouldn't have to with a quality office app. firefox spell checks ffs.



when you're typing an essay or something of importance, it's nice to have one and not JUST rely on "i'm a pretty good speller, yeah."

OP: i sure hope this is just a problem with YOUR install and not OO in general.

I thought it was my install but, my open office is broken on both windows and Ubuntu (small computer). When I first install it everything works, but after awhile it stops. It won't check any words at all, it just assumes everything is spelt correctly. To get around this I just installed koffice to check spelling and use open office to format my document. I hope Koffice gets to a level of Open office cause I won't need open office anymore. I already broke free of Microsoft office and there is no way that I'm going back :lolflag:

P.S. should be its and not it's in the title

[Luggy]

What language are you using? If you are using Canadian English then yes, there is no spell checking package for it implemented in Ubuntu yet. Change your language to either English GB or US and you can get spell checking.

[n3tfury]

wow, that's pretty weak if they can't get that right. obviously i'd like to see if others are having this issue.

[Luggy]

The only problem I have ever had with OpenOffice was the lack of Canadian spelling. After I switched to GB it works fine.

[Andrewie]

What language are you using? If you are using Canadian English then yes, there is no spell checking package for it implemented in Ubuntu yet. Change your language to either English GB or US and you can get spell checking.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Switching to US fixed all the issues, I feel like an idiot now. :(

[eljoeb]

I usually spell well enough not to need a spell checker, so I don't know.

I can't begin to tell you how much I wanted you to misspell something in that sentence.

[-grubby]

I can't begin to tell you how much I wanted you to misspell something in that sentence.

that would have been ironic :lolflag:

[GrayWizardLinux]

Ehhh!??? I am Canadian. And that is eyeRonik/

[ireneshusband]

No, you're not stupid. The solution isn't at all obvious. I've just been sending off CVs with spelling mistakes because of this and that's not been fun. What's worse is that I'm back in Europe now so the British English spellchecker would have done me perfectly. Basically there are so few differences between British spelling and Canadian spelling that it would have made much more sense to leave out the Canadian English option altogether and let users choose between British and US English. Anything potentially damaging that is not obvious to an end user is a bug.

[barbedsaber]

my solution

sudo apt-get install abiword :)

I gave up with OO.o, but I hope it improves, because it is a vital part of the spread of FOSS.

[mrgnash]

I gave up on it as well.. but I can't really say whether it was better or worse than other word processors for me, because I don't like any of them. Now I'm a very happy LaTeX user :)

[bruce89]

I don't have OO.o installed here, but if I'm not mistaken, there is a thing called DicOO.o in the file menu somewhere where you can install dictionaries.

Judging by this thread's title, it's a shame there's no grammar checker.

[mthei]

I dont see anything wrong with the title.

Edit: That was very obviously a joke, before I get condemned for my poor grammar.
Edited again: I had this same problem last year when I was still in university, and was very annoyed about the lack of Canadian English. It's a shame that it still does not support it, as otherwise I'd use OpenOffice. I had only switched to AbiWord because it came installed by default in Fedora, and while it works just as well, Gnumeric is hardly a solid replacement for OpenOffice.org-calc and it would be nice to have a working presentation program.

[bruce89]

I dont see anything wrong with the title.

Edit: That was very obviously a joke, before I get condemned for my poor grammar.

I'm rather horrible, sorry.


I had only switched to AbiWord because it came installed by default in Fedora, and while it works just as well, Gnumeric is hardly a solid replacement for OpenOffice.org-calc and it would be nice to have a working presentation program.

I've found Gnumeric to be the best spreadsheet program I've ever used. Bloody quick, and loads of functions. I wonder what you find wrong with it.

I do share your annoyance about a presentation program, but I don't need one anyway.

[Foster Grant]

Gnumeric doesn't support OpenDocument format yet.

AbiWord needs an Autocorrect function --- I'm a writer and I use that a lot. As yet, AbiWord is still feature-deprived.

[bruce89]

Gnumeric doesn't support OpenDocument format yet.

I don't really care what format it uses, as long as it works.

[LookTJ]

It works fine for me. Just hate the fact it doesn't underline the incorrect words gets to me sometimes.
So I either click spellcheck from the menu or just hit F7 when I'm done writing my school work. I also have to set the margin to 1", but not the point.

Edit: I didn't notice the autospellcheck icon, now I can check spellings as I type.

[RiceMonster]

I wish abiword could view .doc files as well as OpenOffice.org writer, because I like Abiword more.

[LaRoza]

I wish abiword could view .doc files as well as OpenOffice.org writer, because I like Abiword more.

I use Abiword (smaller and faster), but I don't know why it doesn't support odf.

[bruce89]

I wish abiword could view .doc files as well as OpenOffice.org writer, because I like Abiword more.

AbiWord uses wvWare, which is GPL, hence it can't be used with OO.o as it's LGPL.

I assume that both will get better as the specifications are (will be) released. (although the licence may be odd)

[LaRoza]

AbiWord uses wvWare, which is GPL, hence it can't be used with OO.o as it's LGPL.

I mean why Abiword doesn't support ODF. MS Office will be supporting ODF, so it can't be a license problem can it?

[bruce89]

I mean why Abiword doesn't support ODF. MS Office will be supporting ODF, so it can't be a license problem can it?

Lack of developers I think.

[pedrogent]

I don't have OO.o installed here, but if I'm not mistaken, there is a thing called DicOO.o in the file menu somewhere where you can install dictionaries.


The problem with the DicOO.o thing is that it opens up a pop-up box and the text doesn't fit in it and there's no way of making the box bigger so it's unusable.

This problem *has to be fixed*. Spread the word - spellchecking = important in word processors. You want people to use your word processor, put a spellchecker in it! It's 2008 people. Firefox will spellcheck for me yet OpenOffice won't! What is that all about?

[barbedsaber]

I just discovered, abiword is all well and good, until you need to hand up something as a power point presentation.

[NovaAesa]

My OOo spelling doesn't work at all. And I refuse to change my language to US English just for a fix.

[jelofson]

Agreed! That DicOO.o is horrible. How am I supposed to use it when I can't read any of the text in the dialog and can't resize it. No Canadian dictionary? That is borderline retarded. You know, I love linux and the open source community, but these little things do NOT bode well for the OS and the apps running on it. Why should I have to change my language settings to US English? Irritates me.

[andrewabc]

Agreed! That DicOO.o is horrible. How am I supposed to use it when I can't read any of the text in the dialog and can't resize it. No Canadian dictionary? That is borderline retarded. You know, I love linux and the open source community, but these little things do NOT bode well for the OS and the apps running on it. Why should I have to change my language settings to US English? Irritates me.

I'm quite certain there are Canadian dictionaries.
Unless you mean the bug?
https://bugs.launchpad.net/debian/+source/openoffice.org/+bug/44100

Dicionary list:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries

[sydbat]

I have had no problem with Canadian English as a spellcheck in OOo. Nor have I had a problem with getting the dictionary from dicOOo and installing it via the built in dictionary installer (full screen). I have been able to do this in both Windows and whatever Linux flavour since first using OOo (v. 1.1.2). Everyone I know who uses it has no problems either (and I've installed/got people to install over 50 times).

I think that it might just be some people's installs that do not work well.

[Kvark]

If you think spell checking for English is bad you should try Swedish; I've never seen any open source program get that right. Giving a Swedish dictionary to a spell checker designed to handle English doesn't work well.

[jelofson]

I think I figured out why the dictionary installer was not working. I believe it's related to desktop effects. I tried it on my laptop which doesn't have effects enabled and it worked (at least it loaded properly). I turned off the desktop effects on my desktop and the installer now comes up at the correct size. I still think that my locale (en_CA) should be installed by default or at least a warning should come up telling me I don't have any the correct dictionary installed. Otherwise, there is a false sense of security. My apologies for seeming grumpy, however.

[kaston]

i tried to change my language from english (canada) to english (uk) by following the oo help and going to Tools - Options - Language Settings - Writing Aids, in the Available language modules list, selecting one of the language modules and then clicking Edit. but when i change the language to UK and click close it doesn't save the setting. if i go back, it's still set as canadian. how do i fix this?

[tom66]

I've had no problem with Ubuntu's spell checker, I would compare it to par with MS Office's spell checker. Furthermore, I have tested it on both Ubuntu and Windows XP.

If it's any help, I use compositing effects fine with a spell checker.

[Hagar Delest]

For all the spell check issues, see here: [Tutorial] Spell check and Language configuration (http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=67) and make sure the language in the Default paragraph style is correct, especially if you've a custom template (then, edit it).

For the wizard, it's indeed a bug with the Ubuntu version of OOo and Compiz, no such problem with official (Sun's) version.

[cobolt01]

In the South African English spell checker, the checker sees words like buildings and shows it as miss-spelt. When giving suggestions it comes up with building and building s. I just don't understand that. Why would it be fully working but configured to be retarded? Anywas, changing it to GB english fixed it but now South African words like Bakkie and Braai are still wrong xD.

[Gallo_Pinto]

Just to set the record straight here, because I have had and fixed this problem on at least 4 different linux distros, including ubuntu gutsy and kubuntu hardy.

If your spellchecker is broken (will never find an error) it is because you have the wrong English language setting selected.

Go to Tools | Options | Language Settings | Languages

now in the lower half of this box is a dropdown to select "Default Language for Documents". Select one with a blue "ABC Checkmark" logo beside it. English (UK) and English (USA) work. English (Canada) does not.

Anyone having this problem, this *is* the fix. It is a problem in OO.o regardless of version or distro.

[init1]

Of course, you're not missing much if it does brake. I often have to use Google, since Open Office often incorrectly guesses what I was trying to spell.

[Ciansy]

I had a problem with OO spellcheck which I fixed by doing the following:

Tools ---> Options ---> Language Settings ---> Writing Aids ---> New ---> select your preferred language, give it a name and click ok.

I hope this works for anyone who ends up in the same situation as me!

[andrewabc]

That didn't work.
I want Canadian English, but it is not installed, and I have to download and install en_CA_2_0_0.oxt extension, but that only works for openoffice 3.0. So I'm stuck with openoffice 2.4 and no spellcheck or anything on intrepid ubuntu.

[Hagar Delest]

Have you checked that one: [Tutorial] Spell check and Language configuration (http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=67)?

[andrewabc]

Have you checked that one: [Tutorial] Spell check and Language configuration (http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=67)?

Thanks that seems to work. Although it froze when downloading the dictionaries and I had to kill openoffice.

I tried again and it worked better, but eventually froze again once done downloading. For some reason it downloaded thes_en_US_v2.zip, even though I only selected English Canada languages...

EDIT:
I was about to kill it again but it unfroze and it appears that English Canada is working. No confirmation box or anything that it did install (I tried pressing cancel when it froze but that did nothing)

[Tomatz]

I usually spell well enough not to need a spell checker, so I don't know.

But you live in Yorkshire?


:lolflag:

[studavis]

Hope you can solve this one too:

English UK selected, shows as english in all documents.

Spellcheck works but (in same document):

"mobilise" is accepted and "mobilize" shows error (correct)
BUT
"finalize" is accepted and "finalise" shows error!!

Any ideas?

[Stevo954]

I have never had one stitch of trouble with the Open Office spell checker ( or any other function of OOo). Used it on Windows, Puppy, and Xubuntu.

[JackieChan]

At least it's not as broken as the grammar editor on Microsoft Office. You keep hitting ignore once, and it just lights up again in a couple minutes. It's so annoying....

[lawentzel]

I had this problem and I've just fixed. I started out by reinstalling Open Office. This was a waste of time. So then, in Synaptic I searched for "dictionary". In there is a "MYSPELL". Reading the description it says it is used with Open Office and Mozilla. This was not installed. I've installed it, and everything works PERFECTLY. Hope this helps others who are having this problem.

[andrewabc]

It should be fixed in 9.04 by default.
Go to openoffice website and download your language dictionary, add it as an extension.

The previous problems were related to dictionaries at openoffice not working easily with OOo2.4.1, since they were repackaged to work with 3.0 extensions.
At least that is what I remember. You shouldn't have to install 3rd party programs.

[brightthings]

lawentzel (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=245405), thanks for the tip. My OpenOffice refused to put the squiggly red line under misspelled words. I didn't realize at first and that created a few problems for me. Installing myspell, which automatically got rid of hunspell, did the trick. Everything seems to working as it should now.