"Automatic Spell Checking" for only the current paragraph?

English
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#1

I routinely work with documents, that contain plenty of parts, where spell-checking is not appropriate. The most obvious example would be code snippets and quotes from Emails with typos, but also e.g. titles of referenced bug tickets.

For those parts, having automatic spell checking enabled leads to constant visual noise, that I want to avoid, while maintaining the on-the-fly checking of text I am writing.

Partly, the issue can be solved by setting the language to “none” for paragraph and character styles. But in some cases, this would be inappropriate or lead to follow-up issues (e.g. using the “Source Text” character style changing the font size in headings).

As an alternative, I was wondering if it is possible to show the spell-check markers only for the paragraph I am currently editing – instant feedback as before, but only for the part where I currently need it.

#4

How have you configured your Source Text style? It should not change font size unless you touched the setting.
It may also result from a bad choice of the “common text” and “source text” font faces. Frequently they have not the same x-height and leads to forcing font size. And this “locks” the size in the character style, making it unusable inside other paragraphs where font size is different.
So take great care in choosing “matching” font families when you have a document requiring several font faces.

#6

How have you configured your Source Text style? It should not change font size unless you touched the setting.

I can confirm that. I did not remember having changed the font-size, and LibreOffice doesn’t list the changed properties, so I wrongly assumed that character styles have fixed font sizes associated.

It may also result from a bad choice of the “common text” and “source text” font faces. Frequently they have not the same x-height and leads to forcing font size.

Seems to be the case. Sadly, I can’t find a combination that looks good in that regard. In the combination of “Liberation Serif”, “Liberation Sans” and “Liberation Mono”, the “Mono” face looks too large when used within the same paragraph. Do you have recommendations?

#8

I selected the TeX Gyre family which is an open source project for URW++ fonts replacement (see http://www.gust.org.pl/projects/e-foundry/tex-gyre).

My choice is TeX Gyre Termes for serif and TeX Gyre Cursor for monospace. They mix relatively well without needing font size adjustment.

Since I only use sans in headings, I opted for a totally different face Gill Sans.

#2

Maybe the alternative route is easiest, if you accept that you first enter text, then format it.

  • Set Language to None in the Default paragraph style (which will affect all paragraph styles), so that your text won’t be spellchecked.
  • Make one special paragraph style (called InputText) with Language set to your input language (link it to a function key like Ctrl+9 to make that work faster).
  • When you start entering new text in a new paragraph, apply the InputText style and type away. When you are finished typing and editing that paragraph, apply the proper paragraph style, be that Heading 1, Text body, Source code, or whatever. Then move on to the next paragraph.
#5

I am trying to reduce distractions during text creations. The suggested workaround would sadly rather increase them.

#7

Why? Only the paragraph that you are writing, will be spell-checked, the rest won’t. Wasn’t that exactly what you want?

#9

Why? Only the paragraph that you are writing, will be spell-checked, the rest won’t. Wasn’t that exactly what you want?

In principle yes, but it is a means to the ends of reducing distractions. As such, compromising the input workflow in the process is not viable, making turning off automatic checking wholesale the more attractive option to me. (Others finding this thread might very well profit from your suggestion though, so it is no less valuable – just not suitable for me.)

#10

Then create adequate paragraph and character styles, some of which having language set to None. I remind you that styles don’t describe typographical properties which frequently results in ambiguities (e.g. italics is used both for foreign words and emphasis). Styles are a semantic markup where the author hints at the significance of the text. Thus you can have a “foreign” and an “emphasis” style. Taht both display as italics is only a consequence of the limited variants in typographical attributes. Assign visual characteristics to styles as a second step after defining their semantics, not the other way round (italics is given a name and is used everywhere irrespective of meaning).

With consistent styling, you have no clutter at all.

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