[Solved] Stupid French "Classic" Dict broke spell checker

[Husoku]

Hello OO!

It's been a while since I've snuck around here but I'm back!

A couple months ago I upgraded to v3 and resumed using Writer for all my docs.

There was a green download arrow and a continuous pop-up bubble (as I recall) that was telling me to upgrade my French dictionary.

I kept closing the bubble and tried to ignore it but every day it was annoying me so I finally gave in and downloaded the update or add-on, again, I forget exactly how it was worded...

Immediately following this, every single word entered into Writer, spelled correct or not speeled corect, will give a red wavy line underneath each and every single word on every page! ahhh!

I checked around in menus and such, and couldn't figure it out. I did notice in the Tools > Language drop down menu choices, a check-mark for English only exists for the "For Selection" option and not for the "For Paragraph" nor the "For All Text" options.

Please consider the following images:

Here we see a check mark for the "For Selection" option of "English (USA)":


But here, no matter how many times I click on it, I can never get a check mark to appear. Is this normal? Is this unrelated to the error at hand?
It's the same for the "For All Text" options: No check mark despite clicking on it.


Short of attempting to uninstall/reinstall, is there any way to resolve this? What's up?

Thanks! I really appreciate your help!
Mike

[Husoku]

Whoops, I forgot to include a screen shot of Writer detecting misspelled words:

[bobban]

The lack of checkmark in the screenshot you show is not important because there is never one displayed there.

Go to: Tools->Options->Languages->Language Settings->Languages->Default languages for western documents

Does your chosen language has the ABC tick symbol?

Also, make sure to have a good look through the spellchecker tutorial.

What extensions do you have exactly?

[Husoku]

Here is a screen shot of the window you mentioned:




I have no extensions, I didn't even know there were extensions for OO software?

I wish I had never clicked on that stupid green arrow that kept appearing in the upper right hand corner of Writer. Also, I wish I had documented exactly what it was I installed. All I remember is it was some sort of update for a French dictionary. Of course I don't speak/read/write French, but every_single_time_I_opened_the_dang_program_it_kept_bugging_the_heck_outta_me so I just clicked on it and installed it!

I never knew it would cause this much trouble.

This happened a couple of months ago, and since this has happened, I've *UNFORTUNATELY* been surviving on Microsoft Word 2003, WHICH I HATE but at least it has a working spell checker!

And now it is nearing College finals week and I have a lot of essays to write, so this is why I am here seeking help.

I am *this* close to just uninstalling the entire OO and then reinstalling it.

Please advise! Thanks
Mike

[Hagar Delest]

Does it help: [Solved] Odd Spell Check Disaster after update?

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[bobban]

I would definitely check out the thread Hagar linked to.

I suspected it might be this same problem, but you said it started a few months ago and was related to the French dictionary so I wasn't sure. Anyway, you have the same symptoms and the solution might be the same for you.

OOo thinks it has the en-US dictionary, but in the case of the thread Hagar mentioned, a corrupt dictionary update caused this. The easiest solution is to go into your extension manager, and remove all dictionaries. If you have never added a personal extension then this will mean everything in there, because OOo (English US) ships with three dictionaries installed (English, French and Spanish).

At this point you should be able to verify that no dictionary is installed by seeing no 'ABC tick' next to English(US), or any other language if you uninstalled everything.

Now you can reinstall the standard English dictionary by finding the "share\extension\install" folder within your install directory.
On my computer: "C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\share\extension\install"

In there simply run "dict-en.oxt" and you should have your dictionary back next time OOo is restarted (remember to exit quickstarter!).

[Husoku]

The easiest solution is to go into your extension manager, and remove all dictionaries. .................

Check this out, this is EXACTLY what I was annoyed beyond control day after ...... day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after ...... by Writer to install: French "Classic and Reform 1990" spelling, thesaurus and hyphenation

Screen shot:



Why? Why this? Who programmed Writer to have such a nerve?

I uninstalled all those stupid dictionaries I don't use and followed your instructions by reinstalling dict-en.oxt.

Now everything works great!! Spell check is back, and I don't have squiggly lines under correctly spelled words anymore!


Ok, so this was VERY VERY frustrating and I would like to know why Writer is programmed to automatically and intrusively annoying it's user to install a French "Classic and Reform 1990" dictionary ?????

What, is this software programmed in France? East Canada?

Seriously, after discovering what the cause of this is and how to fix it, I AM PRETTY UPSET WITH THIS. I was pestered and annoyed day after day after day........... to install something that broke itself.

Wow. Great. Up until now I have had only but good words about OO, but now I have something to warn potential users of: The software breaks itself.

Sorry for my poor attitude

Mike

[Husoku]

bobban, I must thank you very much for your help, I really appreciate it! You saved my Writer and have prevented future usage of MS Word!!

[bobban]

Glad you got it sorted, I know this can be very frustrating.

From the screenshot of your extension manager I can see that you do indeed have the corrupt version of the Australian English dictionary that caused this problem. The version marked 2008.11.20 removes the standard English dictionary files, while letting OOo think it still has them, hence you see the 'ABC tick' for US(English). So, because OOo thinks it has the dictionary, but has no words for it, it can't match any word so marks them all as errors.

Ok, so this was VERY VERY frustrating and I would like to know why Writer is programmed to automatically and intrusively annoying it's user to install a French "Classic and Reform 1990" dictionary ?????

As I said the fault was the corrupt Australian English dictionary (this version became an available update for anyone with the standard English dictionary for just a few hours on the 20 November 2008 and many people sucked it down unfortunately. It was an accident that was soon discovered and the update removed from the auto-updater). I don't know why the French and Spanish dictionaries are included in the English OOo package exactly, but I assume that the intention is to cover some of the other most popular Western languages. They can be easily removed.

Well done getting it fixed, and happy spell checking.

[Hagar Delest]

I don't know why the French and Spanish dictionaries are included in the English OOo package exactly, but I assume that the intention is to cover some of the other most popular Western languages.

What I do know is that in previous version, dicts that were not installed by default (French among them) had an incompatible license. For 3.0, perhaps the 3 mentioned here were the first to have been repackaged as extension with the right license.

[bobban]

Yes, that would explain it Hagar. I've heard too that licensing is important for an automatic install but I really am without a clue when it comes to the various types of licenses.