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andreas_g4 · Apr 19, 2003, 09:57 AM

I have English selected as main system language due to several reasons.
Is it anyhow possible to have Cocoa doing the spell checking in different languages, in my case, German?

Mastrap · Apr 19, 2003, 10:03 AM

I've tried that - so far without success. I'd really like to be able to spellcheck more than one language. I'm bilingual and switch languages, for correspondence, several times a day.

andreas_g4 · Apr 19, 2003, 10:10 AM

Originally posted by Mastrap:
I'm bilingual and switch [...] several times a day.

Wow. How did your social environment react to this?

Back to topic: That's awful. I hoped it was only my stupidity that I found no way to do this...

Espen Isaksen · Apr 19, 2003, 11:12 AM

Yeah it really sucks! Give Apple feedback about so this can be implemented soon!

http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

Developer · Apr 19, 2003, 06:43 PM

Originally posted by Mastrap:
I've tried that - so far without success. I'd really like to be able to spellcheck more than one language. I'm bilingual and switch languages, for correspondence, several times a day.

You can switch spell checking to whatever you want, including multilingual. Independent of system language.

Espen Isaksen · Apr 20, 2003, 03:45 AM

Originally posted by Developer:
You can switch spell checking to whatever you want, including multilingual. Independent of system language.

I should probably have been more precise: I cannot spellcheck in Norwegian.

Yeah I know it is not the most used language, but I can't understand why it can't support more languages. I would suppose this is just a question of buying the dictionaries?

Mastrap · Apr 20, 2003, 04:02 AM

Originally posted by Developer:
You can switch spell checking to whatever you want, including multilingual. Independent of system language.

How?

Espen Isaksen · Apr 20, 2003, 04:09 AM

Originally posted by Mastrap:
How?

In a document go Edit > Spellchecking > Spellchecking and change you language. Or just right-click and go Spellchecking > Spellchecking.

Millennium · Apr 20, 2003, 07:54 AM

Under the Spelling menu, click "Spelling..." and use the Dictionary menu in the palette that pops up to change the language.

Unfortunately, this has to be done on a per-document basis. The only way to permanently change the spellchecking language is to change the OS language. Whether this is a feature or a bug depends on your point of view.

Developer · Apr 20, 2003, 08:48 AM

Originally posted by Millennium:
Unfortunately, this has to be done on a per-document basis. The only way to permanently change the spellchecking language is to change the OS language.

That's not true either. It has to be done on a per app basis, but it sticks and is independent of the system language.

Developer · Apr 20, 2003, 09:01 AM

Originally posted by Espen Isaksen:
I should probably have been more precise: I cannot spellcheck in Norwegian.

Yeah I know it is not the most used language, but I can't understand why it can't support more languages. I would suppose this is just a question of buying the dictionaries?

It took rather long until Apple included the other languages as well. I don't know what the problem is. It shouldn't be more than buying those dictionaries or paying someone to make them.

Maybe this can help for the time being

http://www-ciir.cs.umass.edu/~leouski/cocoaspell/

calumr · Apr 20, 2003, 10:01 AM

I thought I remembered a French Apple employee at the WWDC last year claim that the spell checker could switch languages automatically. Apparently he could start typing an email in French (when his system language was English) and the spell checker would eventually get the hint and switch languages.

Mastrap · Apr 20, 2003, 11:11 AM

Originally posted by Millennium:
Under the Spelling menu, click "Spelling..." and use the Dictionary menu in the palette that pops up to change the language.

Unfortunately, this has to be done on a per-document basis. The only way to permanently change the spellchecking language is to change the OS language. Whether this is a feature or a bug depends on your point of view.

Duh. I never even saw that. Thanks to everyone who pointed it out. Very cool.

proux · Apr 20, 2003, 11:53 AM

Any chance to get that to work in Office vX too?
See I write a lot in french but the US Office version can only spellcheck english...

Espen Isaksen · Apr 20, 2003, 12:04 PM

Originally posted by Developer:

Maybe this can help for the time being

http://www-ciir.cs.umass.edu/~leouski/cocoaspell/

I installed this thing right away and it works as a charm. Thanks!

Mastrap · 01:54 AM

Originally posted by proux:
Any chance to get that to work in Office vX too?
See I write a lot in french but the US Office version can only spellcheck english...

I am bumping this one. I'd be very happy if this would be possible. I tried playing around with the "custom dictionary" options in Office preferences but without success. Seems the other dictionaries don't come pre-installed.