Checking Spelling and Grammar

Getting Started with Apache OpenOffice 4

Chapter 3: Getting Started with Writer

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• What Is Writer?
• The Writer interface
• Changing Document Views
• Moving Quickly through a Document
• Working with documents
• Working with text
  • Selecting Items That Are Not Consecutive
  • Selecting a Vertical Block of Text
  • Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Text
  • Finding and Replacing Text and Formatting
  • Inserting Special Characters
  • Inserting Dashes and Non-breaking Spaces and Hyphens
  • Setting Tab Stops and Indents
  • Changing the Default Tab stop Interval
  • Checking Spelling and Grammar
  • Using Built-in Language tools
  • Using AutoCorrect
  • Using Word Completion
  • Using AutoText
• Formatting Text
  • Formatting Paragraphs
  • Formatting Characters
  • Auto-formatting
  • Creating Numbered or Bulleted Lists
  • Hyphenating Words
• Formatting Pages
  • Which Layout Method to Choose?
  • Creating Headers and Footers
  • Numbering Pages
  • Changing Page Margins
• Adding Comments and Graphics to a Document
• Creating a Table of Contents
• Creating Indexes and Bibliographies
• Adding Images and Other Graphics
• Adding Tables, Spreadsheets, and Charts
  • Creating a Table from a Calc Spreadsheet
  • Creating a Chart
• Adding a Movie or Sound
• Printing
• Using Mail Merge
• Tracking Changes to a Document
• Using Fields
• Linking to another part of a document
  • Using Hyperlinks
  • Using Cross-References
  • Using Bookmarks
• Using Master Documents
• Creating Fill-in Forms

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Checking Spelling and Grammar

Writer provides a spelling checker, which can be used in two ways.

	AutoSpellcheck checks each word as it is typed and displays a wavy red line under any misspelled words. When the word is corrected, the line disappears.
	To perform a separate spelling check on the document (or a text selection) click the Spelling and Grammar button. This checks the document or selection and opens the Spelling and Grammar dialog if any misspelled words are found.

Here are some more features of the spelling checker:

• You can right-click on a word with a wavy underline to open a context menu. If you select from the suggested words on the menu, the selection will replace the misspelled word in your text. Other menu options are discussed below.
• You can change the dictionary language (for example, Spanish, French, or German) on the Spelling and Grammar dialog.
• You can add a word to the dictionary. Click  Add  in the Spelling and Grammar dialog and pick the dictionary to add it to.
• Click the  Options  button on the Spelling and Grammar dialog to open a dialog similar to the one in Tools → Options → Language Settings → Writing Aids described in Chapter 11. There you can choose whether to check uppercase words and words with numbers, and you can manage custom dictionaries, that is, add or delete dictionaries and add or delete words in a dictionary.
• On the Font tab of the Paragraph Styles dialog, you can set paragraphs to be checked in a specific language (different from the rest of the document). The font of a Character Style can also be set to its own language. See Chapter 7 (Working with Styles) in the Writer Guide for more information.

Writer does not include a grammar checker, but you can install an extension such as LanguageTool (from https://www.languagetool.org/) and access it from Tools → Spelling and Grammar. (See Chapter 11 for more about installing extensions.)

LanguageTool adds a new menu item and sub-menu to the Tools menu, from which you can configure the tool and check or recheck the document.