How to add a language to Tools | Language | For All Text

janvlug · April 28, 2024, 8:01am

I’m using Fedora 40 with Libreoffice Writer 24.2.2.1

In general, I use two languages for text documents: English or Dutch, the default seems to be English (USA). All OK so far.

When I want to start a new document in Dutch, I would expect to be able to do:

File | New | Text Document
Tools | Language | For All Text | check Dutch

However, Dutch is not in the presented languages:

How can I add Dutch to this menu (and remove Esperanto)?

Version info:
Version: 24.2.2.1 (X86_64)
Build ID: 420(Build:1)
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 6.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (en_US.utf8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

Villeroy · April 28, 2024, 8:30am

Open your template for editing. If you don’t use a template, start a new document.
menu:Tools>Options>Languages&Locales>General…
Under “Default languages for documents” choose “Dutch” language and check “Current document only”, confirm dialog.
menu:File>Templates>Save As Template… and save the current document as a template.

For a new Dutch document, open that template via menu:File>New>Templates… [Ctrl+Shift+O] and pick your Dutch template.

ajlittoz · April 28, 2024, 11:33am

@Villeroy Just FYI, I don’t know if this is a bug or something with my configuration (Fedora 40, KDE Plasma desktop), but Current document only has no effect. It changes globally the languages and I must explicitly revert to my preferred language after an experiment; otherwise, next time I open Writer the language (“for all documents”) is changed…

mikekaganski · April 28, 2024, 8:11am

You can’t. This menu is populated automatically, based on complex (and flawed) logic: tdf#95274.

janvlug · April 28, 2024, 8:28am

Thanks. Not the answer I was hoping for, but at least I know now that it is not possible.

For other readers who might have the same question, here is my work-around ot set all text of a document to a certain language:

Create a new document with: File | New | Text Document
Type a little bit of text
Select all text with Ctrl-A
Right-click in the highlighted selected area
Choose Character | Character…
In the Font-tab set Language to the language you want to use, click OK

Now the language for all text in the document is changed to your preference.

ajlittoz · April 28, 2024, 8:39am

Mmmmh … This is direct formatting. You’ll lose the language specification if you Ctrl+M on a part of the document. Better workaround: create a custom template as suggested by @Villeroy and modify Default Paragraph Style language to Dutch. Save this template under your preferred name.
The reason why this works is Default Paragraph Style is the ancestor of all other styles. What you set there is forwarded to all others (unless they override the setting). This inheritance is the reason why Default Paragraph Style should not be used for any text because any customisation to it also affects other styles. The “standard” style for text is Body Text.

Villeroy · April 28, 2024, 10:54am

The method I’ve outlined switches the language of all paragraph styles and character styles unless they have some other language explicitly set. Any shapes added to the document will inherit the chosen language as well.
Likewise, you may modify the language of a spreadsheet’s default cell style without affecting the setting for existing or new shapes to be added.