OpenOffice now underlines everything as errors

Ravioli · Oct 7, 2015

It's this stupid software again, but I need to use it for several reasons. It's the 4.1.1 version. I opened my MS as usual and find everything, literally everything, underlined in red. The language is set to English (us). I haven't done anything out of the usual last time I used it. De- and reinstalling didn't help. Only a few names it used to underline until I added them to the dictionary, are not underlined now. What can I do?

EDIT: Fixed it. If this happens do you, rename the folder called "user" in the folder "4" under OpenOffice in Windows Explorer. That way at the next startup, the program is forced to create a new user folder and reset user settings, which had somehow gotten messed up.

VeryBigBeard · Oct 7, 2015

OpenOffice is annoying like this. The good news is it's mostly specific to the English (US) spellchecker. Turn it to UK or Canadian English and you'll be fine. It may still flag color/colour. Even better, you can also just turn off the underlining by unclicking AutoSpellCheck in the Toolbar (it's next to Cut/Copy/Paste on mine and I think always has been but I customize my toolbars so it may be somewhere else by default)..

In general, it's probably not a great idea to go renaming a program's internal folder structure. I'm actually a bit surprised OpenOffice kept working at all without being able to find user settings. Well-developed software will sometimes adapt like that, but don't rely on that strategy because less well-developed software won't.

Instead, go Tools/Options/Language Settings/Writing Aids, where you find a more reliable way than above to disable your spellcheck. And a massive load of other settings. One of the only reasons I'm still loyal to OpenOffice instead of LibreOffice is I have my OO heavily customized and I don't really want to do it all over again for LO. (Also, LO crashes every time I try and save.)

Osulagh · Oct 7, 2015

BTW, switch to Libreoffice.

Ravioli · Oct 8, 2015

VeryBigBeard said:
OpenOffice is annoying like this. The good news is it's mostly specific to the English (US) spellchecker. Turn it to UK or Canadian English and you'll be fine. It may still flag color/colour. Even better, you can also just turn off the underlining by unclicking AutoSpellCheck in the Toolbar (it's next to Cut/Copy/Paste on mine and I think always has been but I customize my toolbars so it may be somewhere else by default)..

But I need the spell checker... It's not like I manually find errors in 400+ pages with my naked eye..

In general, it's probably not a great idea to go renaming a program's internal folder structure. I'm actually a bit surprised OpenOffice kept working at all without being able to find user settings. Well-developed software will sometimes adapt like that, but don't rely on that strategy because less well-developed software won't.

Seems like OO automatically re-creates this folder when opened after the old folder was renamed. This new folder is uncorrupted, so the underlining bug isn't there.

Instead, go Tools/Options/Language Settings/Writing Aids, where you find a more reliable way than above to disable your spellcheck. And a massive load of other settings. One of the only reasons I'm still loyal to OpenOffice instead of LibreOffice is I have my OO heavily customized and I don't really want to do it all over again for LO. (Also, LO crashes every time I try and save.)

I downloaded LO, but for now, I'm sticking with OO simply because I'm crap at formatting and OO has this nifty Kindle-specific template I'm currently writing in.

kennyc · Oct 8, 2015

Osulagh said:
BTW, switch to Libreoffice.

Why? What's the big advantage?
I've been using Word forever and currently have Office 2010 thanks to an employeer deal I no longer have access too. I would like to upgrade, but I don't think I'm going to pay Microsoft it's blood money nor Rent it's Office software on a monthly basis?

(this is the kind of thing that makes me crazy and why I'm still with Office/Word for compatibility with publishers/others)
From the wiki page:
(I don't like having to use filters and import and export and I need full compatibility with the standards which unfortunately are MS formats)

LibreOffice uses the international ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument file format as its native format to save documents for all of its applications (as do its OpenOffice.org cousins Apache OpenOffice and NeoOffice). The OpenDocument file format is now also supported by all major competing office suite applications (proprietary and open source). LibreOffice is also compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office,[SUP][9][/SUP]through a variety of import/export filters. The file formats of Microsoft Office are well supported, though some layout features and formatting attributes are handled differently in the application or are not entirely supported in the filters.[SUP][10][/SUP]

P.S. just downloaded and installed LibreOffice.....looks good....supports docx....more testing to do.

Thanks for the Recommendation!

VeryBigBeard · Oct 8, 2015

Ya, kennyc, OO and LO both support everything Microsoft can think of, and usually with fewer compatibility problems. The only issue is with some of MS's crazy auto-style formatting, but that stuff's fairly useless anyway.

Ravioli, you can still activate the spellcheck by going going Edit/Spellcheck. It's just not a very good spellcheck. The underlining isn't a bug--that's how the thing works. It has big problems recognizing even some basic words. But this is true of most spellchecks and relying on them for much of anything is a recipe for disaster. I also find it very hard to catch errors on a screen, so I print out most of my pages (once I've got the story where I'm happy with it, to save on ink/paper) and read them in a favourite chair, more like a reader would. It's a good way to force myself to read like a reader. Reading aloud can also help spot errors, as well as catch clunky sentences.

kennyc · Oct 8, 2015

Well, I've wanted to use open office in place of MS office for some time, but the current OO release does not support .docx files. LibreOffice does, so that's one main thing I need. WPS office supports docx but only in the PAID version. I'd much rather give my money (donation) to LibreOffice. Woo-Hoo!

P.S. am searching for how to find Readability ... reading level ... doesnt appear to be built in...does anyone know if there is an extension that will do this?

Jamesaritchie · Oct 8, 2015

MS Office is infinitely better in many way. It does things OO and LO can't even attempt. It's also the same software most agents and editors use, and this can be important. Very important, precisely because of some of the things MS Office can.

OO has been the worst sort of junk for quite a while. LO is good, and very much like MS Office 2007. It is not as good in any way as an up to date MS Office. It's not as good as MS Office 207, either, because 2007 also did some important things that LO still can't do.

If all you want to do is write, then almost any processor or office works just fine. Up to a point. But if you want to work on a manuscript in real time, and with your word processor, with agents and editors, you need MS Office. It's simple the only office suite out there designed to do everything you need to do as a businessperson.

I have and use LO. I've also used OO since well before it was named OO. but if you want to write as a business, MS Office will give you a lot of advantages no other system can offer.

Xelebes · Oct 8, 2015

Yeah, I do notice that there is quite a few things one can do in MS Office that you can't do with LO or OO, especially handling larger chunks of data. (Want to handle 100 000 rows of data? Can't do that with LO or OO.) Typically, whichever feature MS Office has, LO tags along and tries to emulate it. Most of the time it is successful, other times there are hitches that you will have to figure out workarounds.

But for the most part, especially writers, getting the rough draft done on LO or OO doesn't hurt.

Matera the Mad · Oct 8, 2015

What a coinky-dink -- my spell-checker just automatically updated while I was reading this.

In general, open source software seems quite flexible about rebuilding user data. I have frequently done an "Arrgh where is it...ah! Delete!" hunt when some proggy goes a mite pear-shaped. It's no more more painful or potentially destructive than deleting normal.dot.

I use Libre Office for most things at home. BTW, I found out by accident that LO Draw can open a MS Publisher file. You can't edit it and re-save, but if you need to get some information out of xyz.pub and don't have the required M$ware handy, you have a good chance of being able to read it and copy the needed stuff to paste elsewhere. Some things get garbled, either due to the same kind of corruption in the pub file that produces godawful messed-up printouts (while the same file, saved as PDF, prints just fine), or because of font differences, or just Publisher quirks, but as you can see it doesn't lose much in translation.

It just happened that one day, at home in Linux, I accidentally double-clicked a pubby instead of the PDF next to it, and LO! It opened.

TedTheewen · Jul 27, 2017

While necroposting is a sin, this exact problem manifested tonight for me, just after I updated my anti-virus software, AVAST.

As mentioned, I went into tool and disabled the spellchecker and one by one, re-enabled it. What I found is as long as I don't have it checking my spelling as I type, I'm fine.

A spellchecker is pretty much the whole reason I use a word processing program. This is frustrating.

OpenOffice now underlines everything as errors

Ravioli

Crazy Cat Lady

VeryBigBeard

Preparing for winter

Osulagh

Independent fluffy puppy.

Ravioli

Crazy Cat Lady

kennyc

VeryBigBeard

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kennyc

Jamesaritchie

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

TedTheewen

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