Aughhghgh Spellchecker
So recently, it had been kind of bothering me that my version of Open Office didn't have Portuguese spellcheck. I downloaded the most recent version when I got this computer, and it didn't come with it--which is kind of strange because the version I had on the netbook I used in college definitely DID come with it, along with those for many other reasonably 'major' languages. (And it saved my ass when writing essays for Portuguese class, lol!) As far as I know, the O.Office version I got on this computer only had Spanish from Spain, French from France, and a handful of English varieties, and that's it.
I finally decided to look into getting a new Portuguese one, and I found an extension dictionary that I could download for free. Simple, right? But...once I opened it, it claimed to be "enabled", but there was no Portuguese spellchecking. It didn't work. I drove myself in circles downloading and re-downloading, poring through menu options, but I never found any sort of "enable extensions/dictionaries" option to make everything suddenly work. Finally I decided to see if I was using the right version of O.Office, and while I didn't seem to be using the *wrong* one, there was a new version available, so I downloaded and installed it.
When I opened the new processor, I found that, finally! Portuguese spell check, it works! Omg yay! But then my hopes were dashed when I realized that I no longer had Spanish spellcheck. Uh. What? So I went to the extensions site and downloaded a bunch of Spanish dictionary packs...Spain and Latin America, Spain by itself, Mexican Spanish...all of them seemed to create the same problem as before, where they registered as "enabled" but their function was not...functioning. Closing and reopening O.Office had no effect. So, on a hunch, I deinstalled the new processor and just reinstalled it.
As I had kind of suspected, when I opened it up again after the reinstall, all SORTS of Spanish spellcheckers worked! And the Portuguese one, hallelujah. Something is wrong with their extensions such that they only fit in the way they're supposed to if you reinstall the whole freaking program. What. A pain.
But yeah, I think I'm going to go through right now and download ALL the language pack extensions I could possibly want (well, all the ones that happen to be free), and just reinstall the O.Office *one more time* and be done with it. Ugh. I can't really complain THAT much though, because on Microsoft Word, pretty much ALL language dictionary packs beyond like, maybe French or Spanish, aren't available for free.
In the end, I'm just really glad I figured it out.
EDIT: awwww yea, it worked. :) I now have spellchecking capacity in not only Spanish and Portuguese, but also French, German, Italian, Danish, and Esperanto, lulz. Cause why not? I also have spellcheck in Zulu, randomly. I don't know what pack that came in, I didn't download it on purpose...but cool I guess, it's there! The packs are legit, too, it's awesome. When I have language set to Spanish (Peru), Tlaxcala and tecolote come up on the spell check...when I switch the language to Spanish (Mexico), they don't. I'm quite pleased. All the frustration was definitely worth having spell check if I ever want to write in any of these languages. It's such a useful tool.
I finally decided to look into getting a new Portuguese one, and I found an extension dictionary that I could download for free. Simple, right? But...once I opened it, it claimed to be "enabled", but there was no Portuguese spellchecking. It didn't work. I drove myself in circles downloading and re-downloading, poring through menu options, but I never found any sort of "enable extensions/dictionaries" option to make everything suddenly work. Finally I decided to see if I was using the right version of O.Office, and while I didn't seem to be using the *wrong* one, there was a new version available, so I downloaded and installed it.
When I opened the new processor, I found that, finally! Portuguese spell check, it works! Omg yay! But then my hopes were dashed when I realized that I no longer had Spanish spellcheck. Uh. What? So I went to the extensions site and downloaded a bunch of Spanish dictionary packs...Spain and Latin America, Spain by itself, Mexican Spanish...all of them seemed to create the same problem as before, where they registered as "enabled" but their function was not...functioning. Closing and reopening O.Office had no effect. So, on a hunch, I deinstalled the new processor and just reinstalled it.
As I had kind of suspected, when I opened it up again after the reinstall, all SORTS of Spanish spellcheckers worked! And the Portuguese one, hallelujah. Something is wrong with their extensions such that they only fit in the way they're supposed to if you reinstall the whole freaking program. What. A pain.
But yeah, I think I'm going to go through right now and download ALL the language pack extensions I could possibly want (well, all the ones that happen to be free), and just reinstall the O.Office *one more time* and be done with it. Ugh. I can't really complain THAT much though, because on Microsoft Word, pretty much ALL language dictionary packs beyond like, maybe French or Spanish, aren't available for free.
In the end, I'm just really glad I figured it out.
EDIT: awwww yea, it worked. :) I now have spellchecking capacity in not only Spanish and Portuguese, but also French, German, Italian, Danish, and Esperanto, lulz. Cause why not? I also have spellcheck in Zulu, randomly. I don't know what pack that came in, I didn't download it on purpose...but cool I guess, it's there! The packs are legit, too, it's awesome. When I have language set to Spanish (Peru), Tlaxcala and tecolote come up on the spell check...when I switch the language to Spanish (Mexico), they don't. I'm quite pleased. All the frustration was definitely worth having spell check if I ever want to write in any of these languages. It's such a useful tool.