How to use the [Multiple] option for "Language"?

[KlausB]

For me it is the norm to write multi-lingual documents, and constantly explicitly setting the language for paragraphs or word sequences is a nuisance. Chrome was for a while able to set multiple languages for spell-checking, without having to manually switch between the two.

Now recently I noticed that an entry “[Multiple]” has appeared in the language selection, but I can’t quite make sense of what it actually does. There doesn’t seem to be an option to specify which languages are in “multiple”.

How is this feature used?

[Hrbrgr]

@KlausB

How is this feature used?

To be honest, I don’t know and have never used it.
But I have a guess.
For example, if you download LibreOffice in English, several other languages and dictionaries are installed in the package.
Or you can do a custom installation.
So it could refer to what is installed.

---

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Videos/LibreOffice_6-4_Installing_under_Windows_10#Custom

[cwolan]

Release Notes 24.8 :

Although it was already possible to type their ISO 639-2 codes by hand, “[Multiple]” (mul) and “[Undetermined]” (und) are now listed at the top of language lists (along with “[None]”, zxx). (Eike Rathke, Red Hat) tdf#160256

⠀

[KlausB]

@Hrbrgr

So it could refer to what is installed.

That’s apparently not it, see this text sample and what gets marked:

With [Multiple] selected as the language, nothing gets marked as incorrect, including complete garbage.

@cwolan

Release Notes 24.8 :

So it looks like “[Multiple]” isn’t really a feature, but more a compatibility thing to support a standard.

I also noticed, that when doing an active spell check, the language “[None]” is selected, which explains why it effectively disables spellchecking.

Net insight: [Multiple] isn’t useful for spellchecking and LibreOffice doesn’t have any form of automatic multilanguage spellchecking support.

[Villeroy]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=160256

@KlausB

LibreOffice doesn’t have any form of automatic multilanguage spellchecking support.

It has a semi-automatic feature for thousands of similar tasks, however, ignored by the majority of users. I’s called “Styles”.