Head in the sand regarding spell checking not being a disaster. [closed]

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Spell checking works out of the box only if you chose the right language at download page. Otherwise you need to download language pack separately.

LibreOffice supports over hundred languages but you don't want all locals, all help files and all dictionaries as that would be a huge download - you hopefully need only one and you specify which one. LibreOffice can be used on virtually any operating system which complicates things even more and you need to make tweak here and there.

There is some room for improvement but it does works.

Being broken is not the same thing as being slightly outdated. And again, LO expect you to provide language files: translated user interface, translated help and spell checking dictionary as addition to core installation.

It's all about knowing your office suite. It has it's hiccups but the way I see it, LibreOffice doesn't have alternative.

Use bugzilla to report bugs or enhancements request if you find something not working. But read documentation first. This is a wrong place for this and I'm also breaking the rules by answering this as we're about to turn QA site to plain old forum.

The funny part is that development is focused on stuff users don't see or don't care instead of focusing on things users care about. They tend do be neglected and this causes frustration as you still see bugs from ten years ago that affects you every day.

I can understand frustration about such a question but usually complaining user is to be blamed. Let me explain.

First steps with LO are easy because basic tasks can be readily achieved thanks to a not-so-bad interface and a rather intuitive set of features. However when demand for advanced capabilities grows, intuition is no longer sufficient to "configure", "control" or "drive" the application. You must read the manuals and learn between the lines what is implicitly refered to, such as deep-rooted principles (which I call the usage philosophy).

Unfortunately, this second stage is not followed by the vast majority of users because, once again, LO is easy to use for basic tasks.

Now how does spell-check works? Remember that LO can handle very complex documents, e.g. multi-lingual ones. Consequently, when it sees a specific run of characters, which is colloquially called a word, it must know which language it belongs to. This is settled by Tooks->Options->Language Settings->Languages which acts as a global "ancestor" to Default Style and is correctly saved in the user's profile (and does not spontaneously revert).

I never had trouble with additional settings in Language Settings->Writing Aids. On the contrary, I set there all the languages I may potentially encounter in my documents.

The key point is to correctly configure the exceptions to the default language through paragraph/character styles. Of course, the needed language packs must have been loaded beforehand.

When I see Spellcheck is complete too quickly, I suspect bad configuration and I'm usually right. I spend some time applying step-by-step a procedure I've created when upgrading version. Too frequently enough, alas, I miss some step and spellcheck does not work on first try, but it can be corrected.

I do not say everything is perfect. There is (a large) room for improvement but remember that you have a complex application in your hands and you cannot master it if you don't invest in learning it. Manuals are neglected. They are not perfect either, sometimes lag after version release but they nevertheless contain a loadful of information worth studying. After all, you learned how to drive a car and were allowed to drive alone only after some coached training.

Sorry for also deliberately breaking the rules but ranting won't solve your problem. If there is no definite solution, there are workarounds. Give specific context and we'll try to help in the best of our knowledge.

I totally agree I do not use Libre Office because it's free(even so that is nice) and YES I did donate $50 when I installed it the first time. But then I realized that this was actually a waste of money. I do NOT have the time to figure out why the spell-checker does not work. I downloaded the latest version and started a new document and deliberately misspelled a word. The spell-checker did not work. It might be that there is a button hidden somewhere I have to press, but I do not have the time... anyway it says that the spell-check is complete, while it is not. Fortunately I am not a poor man and I have to do what I hate the most... give more money to Microsoft, but at least their spell-checker does work. I am appalled by the patronizing and insulting answers people get as a response to their questions.

KB