Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 10406
Spell-Check Languages need to be more convenient to change.
Last modified: 2010-11-10 16:05:11 UTC
OpenOffice.org has very robust language configurability. This is an area in which OOo is head and shoulders above the competition, but do to design, it is currently hidden and a little inconvenient. One of the most important tools in enterprise environments, particularly in large corporations, is the ability to work effectively in more than one language. OOo is one of the only word processors that lets you change languages on the fly, and has spell checkers in hundreds of languages available for free download. The only problem, is that the current UI setup makes this "on-the-fly" switching very cumbersome, and not very convenient for routine switching from one document to the next. There needs to be a language submenu in the "Tools" menu, which would let one quickly and easily switch between installed dictionaries. Also, in the "Language Settings" area of the preferences, in the area where it lists languages that are both installed and installable, there should be an option to download a language if, when you click on it, it is not installed. There are currently seprate programs/tools available for this, but this is one step too many for a newbie, or your average office worker who will be using this program. Thank you. We can help make this porgram the best there is for any environment.
Reassigned to MRU
MRU->BH: This sounds like quite useful features for handling with our installed/not installed language modules.
Set to "NEW"
Patches to add Language pulldown to Toolbar provided in issue 23518
This should include changing the language of a single paragraph and of selected text. Documents in multiple languages are quite common. An example is a scientific text not written in English. The bibliographical references would be mainly in English and maybe short phrases with technical terms. An other example might be an English text about Spanish literature. It would contain large quotes in Spanish.
I'd suggest the following option: to introduce a clickable area with names of languages in the status bar (like MS Word has) and, if possible, list there only languages with spellcheck modules installed. This area should display the current language and allow to switch it on, say, right-click or double-click. I attach a small screenshot of what I'd like to see.
Created attachment 31537 [details] Screen shot of easy langugage choosing in MS Word
Created attachment 31538 [details] Screen shot of easy langugage choosing in MS Word
This is all very nice, but what people are really used to when writing in multiple languages in the same document, is the automatic language setting by just switching keyboard. Example: you start writing in english, then switch to greek keyboard (alt+shift etc.) and continue writing in greek. OO should correctly identify the greek words and apply the correct spellchecker. This happens in MS Word and this is usually the first thing new users complain about.
> automatic language setting by just switching keyboard. I'm not enthusiastic about that feature of MS Word: it's quite buggy and creates more problem that it solves. If to be introduced to OOo, it must be a switchable option.
>> automatic language setting by just switching keyboard. >I'm not enthusiastic about that feature of MS Word: it's quite buggy and creates >more problem that it solves. If to be introduced to OOo, it must be a switchable >option. in my opinion, this is one of the most valuable features of MS Word. And, as I said, in my experience this is the first thing users ask about when they start using OO. A menu item for this won't make the difference. In any case, the language property of a text passage or a paragraph or a document has nothing to do with character formatting.
Very similar to OOo 3.0 task i20710. *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 20710 ***
time for closing
Created attachment 73078