LO3.5.3 Writer Spell Check doesn't work

SO am trying to set the spell check language in Libreoffice 3.5.3 writer and am having no luck. Just doesn’t want to work.

I click on Tools > Language > For all text…

And nothing happens…

I have also tried just going to Tools > Spelling & grammar
-When I do this in the language it is blank, it says spell check at beginning of document I click yes then it closes down.

forgot to mention running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x64

This may well be related to the issue that OO has with non-US or UK English dictionaries. I was having the same problem with NZ English selected, but as soon as I swapped the document language to UK English, spellcheck worked fine.

English language settings that may be problematic are the following:

Australia
Canada
India
Jamaica
New Zealand
Philippines
South Africa
Namibia
Zimbabwe
Trinidad

Personally I think they should leave these out if they don’t work. It’s pretty confusing. (Although maybe the date and currency localisation and so on works ok.)

That has been fixed in LibreOffice 3.6.0.0.beta2. → https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19264180/LibO/language_modules_en_360beta2.png

And broken again in 4.1.2.3

@mikro2nd – Please file a new question for version 4.1.2.3 (with a more detailed description).

Sorry same problem.
LibreOffice 3.5.3.2
Ubuntu 12.04

I have just noticed the same problem with 3.5.4.2. I also noticed that when I did a manual spell check, the window that was displayed had NO language associated with the text document I was checking!!! I checked the Properties for the document and there seems to be nowhere to set the language. Could this be the problem? How does LibreOffice know in what language the document has been written so that it can carry out the correct spell check?

“How does LibreOffice know…” · (1) Menu Tools → Language · (2) Status bar (3rd field from left); right-click · (3) Help (F1), LO Writer → Tab ‘Find’ → Search term: language → 'Selecting the Document Language ’ etc. · (4) WikiHelp → http://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Selecting_the_Document_Language

This may well be related to the issue that OO has with non-US or UK English dictionaries. I was having the same problem with NZ English selected, but as soon as I swapped the document language to UK English, spellcheck worked fine.

English language settings that may be problematic are the following:

Australia
Canada
India
Jamaica
New Zealand
Philippines
South Africa
Namibia
Zimbabwe
Trinidad

Personally I think they should leave these out if they don’t work. It’s pretty confusing. (Although maybe the date and currency localisation and so on works ok.)

same problem Libreoffice 3.5 on window xp

For OS Windows:→ Why is the spell checker not working in 3.5.4?

I deleted the profile directory and restarted LibreOffice. It created a new profile directory and then the spell check is working.

Same problem on Win7 64bit. Using Australian dictionary. On-the-fly checking doesn’t work, but a manual scan does.

I seem to remember this all working on an older version, not 100% sure

I’ll try deleting the profile directory (if it exists in Win7). Otherwise I think using the UK dictionary

I had similar symptoms in LO3.5.5 for Mac OSX - I fixed it by resetting the language in the preferences:

  1. Select Tools>Languages>For All Text>More…
  2. In the Options-Language Settings-Languages window, map sure you have the correct dictionary selected
  3. Uncheck For the current document only
  4. Click OK

My symptoms went away and the spell check started working as expected. I don’t know why this worked but it’s worth a shot…

I have libreoffice 3.6.2.2 installed in ubuntu 12.10. I had the same problem with English(Canada). I went to check to English (UK) and noticed that their is an icon indicating the availability of dictionaries for each language under "tools->options->Language Settings->Languages. I switched to Engligh (UK) which had a dictionary installed and spell check began working. Later I noticed that there is an [extension available with US, British, and Canadian Dictionaries] (http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/american-british-canadian-spelling-hyphen-thesaurus-dictionaries). I installed the extension, restarted libreoffice, and was able to switch back to English (Canada), which now showed a dictionary icon, and spell check worked properly.

There may be other extensions available…in other languages to install the dictionary that you need.

I understand what Libreoffice is doing now, but it would make sense if the developers added a warning in the spell checker stating that “no dictionary is available for this language” or something similar.

My experience is with the Canadian version of the extension posted, as of 2013-01-18, at http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/american-british-canadian-spelling-hyphen-thesaurus-dictionaries/folder_contents

The spell check fails to detect American spellings as incorrect. The extension that fails is kpp-canadian-english-dictionary-674277-word-list.oxt

This is fixed by removing the noted extension, deleting the libreoffice config (there’s a way to remove just the dictionary pollution, but I don’t know it)
rmdir -rf ~/.config/libreoffice

I installed an earlier version of the extension I had around named Canadian_English_spellchecking_hyphenation_thesaurus–en_CA_2_0_0____2008-07-02.oxt

Spell checker now works as desired.

The extension does not appear to be findable with google. I did find a reference to it in the DVD listing from libreoffice.

I will leave it up on dropbox for a couple of weeks or so.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/46218832/Canadian_English_spellchecking_hyphenation_thesaurus--en_CA_2_0_0____2008-07-02.oxt

the technical bits:
“Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS” 2.6.32-45-generic #102-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 2 22:38:04 UTC 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux
LibreOffice 3.5.7.2 Build ID: 350m1(Build:2)