Installed Apache OO 3.4, now no Thesaurus

[BigSky27]

The thesaurus function has worked flawlessly until today, after having installed 3.4.
(In Windows) a right click on a word used to open the drop-down menu, wherein one could choose "synonyms,"
but that choice no longer appears, and the Thesaurus choice in the "Tools" menu is grayed out.

Is this problem associated perhaps with moving to 3.4, or not?

I have renamed the registry-oriented file to "old" to re-set the user profile, then re-started OOo 3.4,
and although the "synonyms" choice appears at first (but no synonyms are found), then the "synonyms" choice stops appearing...

Additionally, I have checked to make sure the Thesaurus/Dictionary is installed (it is). I have also made sure the boxes
for Dictionary and Thesaurus are checked in the Options Section (Language Settings; Writing Aids)

[Hagar Delest]

Additionally, I have checked to make sure the Thesaurus/Dictionary is installed (it is). I have also made sure the boxes
for Dictionary and Thesaurus are checked in the Options Section (Language Settings; Writing Aids)

Try to uncheck and then recheck them.

[BigSky27]

I unchecked them, closed writer; opened writer, and spelling was gone, as was thesaurus.

Closed writer, re-opened it, checked spell checker and thesaurus, spell-check works again, but thesaurus does not.
(Thesaurus is still grayed out in tools menu, and right-click doesn't activate thesaurus either -- even though its activation box
is checked in Options > Language > Writing Aids.)

It is interesting that when clicking the EDIT button in the Writing Aids box (when Thesaurus is the item selected, with box checked),
The Edit function box opens but highlights Hunspell, rather than Thesaurus... I cannot get the edit function to do anything with
the Thesaurus.

[PGAGA]

May 15, 2012

My best guess here is that the thesaurus is not installed for the language which you are using or a Win7 permissions issue is keeping AOO from accessing it. Try installing one of the dictionaries from here:

http://libreoffice-na.us/English/dictionary.html

Phil

[Hagar Delest]

Well, weird...
If you create a new user on your machine, does it work?

What language BTW?

Else, try to remove the dictionary extensions and to reinstall them (they should be in the folder Program Files/OpenOffice.org3/share/extensions/install). Close AOO between.

[BigSky27]

Installed the large dictionary... OO asked to be sure I wanted to replace the existing dictionary (yes),
and it shows installed, but Thesaurus is still grayed out...

[Hagar Delest]

Language is English?

[BigSky27]

Running OO under a new account did not bring up the Thesaurus.

Removed the existing dictionary extensions as suggested. Re-installed the large English (US) dictionary from
libreoffice as suggested above. Still no thesaurus.

Could this problem have something to do with the fact that, in Writing Aids, the listed Thesaurus is "OpenOffice.Org New Thesaurus" ?
Interesting that no matter what dictionary I have, any change does is not reflected in the Writing Aids box... it just says "Hunspell" for the spell checker and
"OpenOffice.Org New Thesaurus" for the Thesaurus, but I don't think either of those is installed.

BTW, when I was looking through the Options menus and came across the Update options, I asked it to do a manual update and the
entire system froze. Keyboard became non-functional; couldn't even start Task Manager. Had to do a hard reset

[Hagar Delest]

Are the entries checked?

Forget about the update feature, it is not functional anymore since the transfer of the code to ASF.

[BigSky27]

Yes, they are.

BTW, I uninstalled 3.4 and removed all traces, then re-installed 3.4.
The keyboard was deactivated; couldn't type a single letter in a new, blank document.
So: uninstalled 3.4, removed all traces, and re-installed 3.3.
Now I can type, but Thesaurus is still grayed out, and a right click won't call it up.

[Hagar Delest]

In this case, reset again your profile and you should get the normal behavior you used to have with 3.3.0.

I've no idea what could be wrong with 3.4 here...

[BigSky27]

Before receiving your post (Hagar... 2:37 pm) I did the following:

System restore to the point just before installing 3.4.
This necessitated reinstalling 3.3 (I suppose from the mess from my post 2:26 pm)
Now I am running 3.3 again. However, Thesaurus still would not work until I looked at
Writing Aids again and UNCHECKED THE HYPHENATION option. Now, Thesaurus works again in 3.3.

However, I am reluctant to reinstall 3.4 because, when it was the installed version, I noticed that
Hyphenation was ALREADY unchecked in 3.4, yet Thesaurus still wouldn't work.

[PGAGA]

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

When you installed 3.4 did you migrate your profile. Languages are extensions and how they are handled has changed from 3.3 to 3.4. So if you migrate you create a broken installation. Backup you 3.3 profile before installing 3.4 again, so you have it in case you back out again.

As for unchecking hyphenation - back in the days of StarOffice 7 (OOo 1.1.x) CorrectSpell had merged hyphenation and thesaurus - but that is not the case here.

Phil

[BigSky27]

In response to Phil (5:42 pm): No, I did not migrate my profile when installing 3.4. Just installed on top of 3.3.

Also in response to Phil ("As for unchecking hyphenation... had merged hyphenation and thesaurus - but that is not the case here."):
The truth is, as illogical as it may sound, that I only got the Thesaurus to work again by unchecking the hyphenation option box!

Added to this post: I tried to install 3.4 in its own newly named directory, hoping it would leave 3.3 alone so I could observe the behaviors of
3.3 and 3.4 independently, but it still removed 3.3, and it still had no Thesaurus.

So I did a system restore, re-installed 3.3, and now 3.3 is what I will stick with for the time being. BTW, this installation of 3.3 has a Thesaurus
even WITH the hyphenation turned on... which confirms Phi'ls remark that hyphenation and thesaurus should not conflict with each other...
so now, I am at a loss to explain much that I am curious about.

[PGAGA]

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

I tried to install 3.4 in its own newly named directory, hoping it would leave 3.3 alone so I could observe the behaviors of
3.3 and 3.4 independently, but it still removed 3.3, and it still had no Thesaurus.

This is a migration. 3.3 and 3.4 use the same profile, so you need to rename the 3.3 profile to avoid migration.

Phil

[Ferret]

I got mine to work!
I had the same problems as described above.

I'm in the USA. So in the extension manager, I removed all the dictionaries except the "American English Spell Checking 1.0" and the "English spelling and hyphenation dictionaries and thesaurus 2010.03.16" [I don't ever see a need for me to have the Australian, Canadian, and British extensions in there too.]

Control F7 now brings up the thesaurus.
So does right clicking the word... SYNONYMS > THESAURUS (an extra step from prior versions)

[JXUK]

I can verify Ferret's solution works on my new system; Gateway DX4831-01e, Win 7 Home Premium x64.

When I updated to AOO 3.4 I allowed the installer to install over top of OOo 3.3, and when I went to use the Thesaurus for the first time it was grayed out.
The only thing I was uneasy about was the installer adjusted something in the .NET Framework or the C++ 2008 Redistributable on my system, Don't remember, but it doesn't seem to have hurt anything.

After removing as much as I could (see snip) I tested for the thesaurus. It works under; Tools\Language\Thesaurus, Control F7, and right clicking the word, and going to, Synonyms\Thesaurus.

I tried to delete the "French Classic, and Reform Extension, but it is locked somehow. It doesn't seem to inhibit the Thesaurus feature so I can live with that unless anyone would care to elaborate on how to remove it, and even though I do not have Presentations installed the Presentations Minimizer extension does not seem to bother it either. I thought in case I want to add Presentations at a later time it is already there.

Here are my settings under; Tools\Options\Writing Aids:

If I could rep Ferret I would, but I can't seem to find where to do that, so, I guess this will have to do:

....Thank you Ferret!....

[somersbyman]

I, too, had no access to the Thesaurus when I installed Apache Open Office 3.4.

My solution - and this will be no good to you if you use US English (sorry!) - was this:

I changed all my language options to Australian, because I noticed in the Extensions Manager that the Australian dictionary includes a Thesaurus. The American option does not. Why not is...I think we all agree...very odd.

This solution is a good (and immediate) fix if you live in Britain. Or use British English, because the Aussie dictionary is - as far as I can tell - almost identical.

You simply need to close OO and then open it again. The new dictionary is in use, and the Thesaurus is no longer greyed out. Huzzah.

Good luck to our US English speaking/writing friends!

somersbyman

[Iasonas]

Is there a way to download the earlier version so that I can get rid of this one and do my work? I wasted too much time trying to figure out things.
I even tried to add an Australian Dictionary, ...just in case something may happen, and the program kicks it out.

[Bill]

I even tried to add an Australian Dictionary, ...just in case something may happen, and the program kicks it out.

Australian English should already be included in the default installation. Try resetting your user profile, then disable the New Zealand English extension in the Extension Manager. I did this a couple of days ago and the Thesaurus has been working since then with English (US). It also appears to be working with English (UK), English (Canada), English (Australia) and English (South Africa).

[Iasonas]

Try resetting your user profile, then disable the New Zealand English extension in the Extension Manager.

Thanks Bill, but how do I actually reset user profile? Is that something to do in OO or on my Mac?

[Hagar Delest]

See here how to reset your OpenOffice user profile.

[AslanMajor]

Oh thanks, this really helps a lot.

[RodneyBlair]

Tools >Options >OpenOffice.org > Java
uncheck Use a Java runtime environment. Exit AOO, restart then return to tools to check Use a Java runtime environment.

It worked for me. Good luck!

[frank414]

tools/extension manager...

Uncheck all dictionaries except the English dictionary with thesaurus.

[Jmr]

I was also having trouble with the thesaurus as it stoppped working after it had been working (new install) for a several days. So i thought i'd share my comments here as either advice as a quick work-around (no deleting, unstilling or reinstalling needed,) or perhaps even shed some light on what the real issue is. (Does anyone know if there is a current bug related this?)

First of all, I did find the answer for getting things working again, in this thread. So my thanks goes out to all who have praticipated and contributed.

Simply put, I followed the advice of others by going to the "Extension Manager" in the Tools menu. From the Extension Manager, I disabled all but one dictionary with the word thesaurus in its description (I'm in the USA, so the English dictionary was enabled). Then I closed OpenOffice. Once I restarted OpenOffice, the thesaurus did work again. Note that I did NOT remove or delete any dictionaries or do any uninstalling or reinstalling of OpenOffice.

But what was intersting to me, was I went back into the Extention Manager and re-enabled all of the disabled thesaurus dictionaries, one at a time. For each dictionary that I disabled, I'd re-enabled it, checked that it worked, closed OpenOffice and then re-opened it again. Then I re-enabled the next dictionary, until they were all re-enabled. At this point, I found that all of the dictionaries bundled with the original OpenOffice 3.4 were working with the Thesaurus again.

***************************************************

I'm including further details of my setup if anyone would like to know more details (there does appear to be something quirky happening when multiple Thesaurus dictionaries are in use):

I have a new machine on which I recently instlled OpenOffice 3.4. Since there have not been any previous version of OpenOffice installed in the past, this was a clean install.

The thesaurus had been working fine for several days. I opened new documents in the ODT extension, I created my own template using OTT file extensions, and no trouble with with the thesaurus. It worked fine without any issues. I also used documents of the DOC and DOCX types and also had no issues. Until this morning. When I opened any of the documents that I had been using over the past 3 or 4 days, the thesaurus had stopped working; the thesaurus in the tools menu had indeed become grayed-out.

[RoryOF]

I would suggest, as a quick trial fix, that you disabled all dictionaries bar the main dictionary/thesaurus for the language in which you write. You might then, over time, reenable individual dictionaries until your thesaurus fails again. This might be because of one specific dictionary, or perhaps because of the total number of enabled dictionaries. If the cause could be pinned down it woulld be of help in finding a permanent fix.

[dbanks]

In the US & Had the same issue. I followed almost all suggested here with no success. I finally just uninstalled and installed again new. Works fine now. Must have been in the updating of existing settings. Now I have to personalize my setting again.

Hope this helps.