How to spell check a text document?

English
#1

In LibreOffice 7.4.3.2 on MacOS 14.2.1 I want to spell check a text document. The text document has been opened and then I click on the “ABC” spell check item.

A window opens where the field for “Text language” is empty. When I select any language, nothing happens.

When I go to “Tools” → “Language” → “For Selection” the language is selected, but I cannot select that language for

“Tools” → “Language” → “For Paragraph”
“Tools” → “Language” → “For All Text”

I also went to “Tools” → “Language” → “More Dictionaries online” and installed the language pack for the language I want the document spelled. But again, nothing works. Really??

So how can I spell check a text in LibreOffice. (And why is this so extremly user-unfriendly?)

#2

Because it usually needs no interaction. My texts are checked when I type, no need to go to any settings. (Not what I call unfriendly, but ok MacOS is another world.)
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So I guess you are in the situation of having a broken car and complaining why driving is so complicated while the question should be why is it broken.
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The other answer why this can be complicated is the possibility of documents in many languages. Language is therefore a property of the paragraph/text itself. This prevents for example my German spell-checker to “correct” french or english text. Have you checked the settings of your text?
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Maybe the following can be useful, even as it was written for OpenOffice long ago:
https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67

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#5

It again does not work for me. I restarted LibreOffice and I CANNOT SELECT the language. How can I select a language for spell check? How to do that???

#9

Unfortunately spellchecking for me with LibreOffice on macOS has been very inconsistent and frustrating over a number of versions, and it can be quite difficult to try and reproduce someone’s own situation, which I’ve found can also depend on the language defined more generally at the OS level.

In contrast, Microsoft Word spellchecking on macOS has had no such issues and I’m fortunate to be able to fall back to spellchecking my documents in Word when this refuses to work in LibreOffice.

I don’t know for certain, but the app store version of Libre Office, whilst integrating a number of non-English language interfaces, doesn’t appear to have correctly included and/or configured, the relevant spellcheck dictionaries.

#10

See for example, tdf#109090

#3

The setup in LibreOffice IS very user unfriendly and confusing and non-intuitive.

It turns out there was a language selected (german), but the relevant package was outdated or not installed. But that was not conveyed to the user. Also, when selecting this incorrect package, a notification with a link to the option to install a language package would be what I would expect. But just doing nothing, no information, that is really bad UX. That should be fixed. I will try to contact a developer or create a ticket!

#4

Yes, please do it.

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/

But you have used an answer-solution box here, that is not correct because you have not written a solution. Please use comments. Thank you.

#6

Bug created

#7

And what’s the bug number?
Use tdf#xxxxxx format.

#8

I do not know what a “tdf” format is. But it has the number:

tdf#159470.

1 Like

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