Can I have dual spelling/character languages?

[ericjt]

I'm working on a book that includes both American, English, and Netherlands Dutch, and I would like for it to do the spellchecking on both simultaneously. I am on Publisher v2 on a Mac that is on macOS Ventura. Outside of Publisher for Mac is already set to do spellchecking from both English and Dutch and it works fine everywhere but in Publisher. Publisher checks spelling correctly if I set the typography spelling language to one language or the other, but it won't do them both at the same time. This makes it really hard to do a proper spell checking because there's always something on the page that's underlined in red and in the preflight panel. 

Is there someway to make the app have dual language spelling? I think that would be pretty useful for a number of people.

[walt.farrell]

You can specify the Language for each word in your document, and the Spell Check will use the appropriate dictionary.

It's controlled by the Language setting in the Character panel, or more usually in the Text Styles you define for the document. Then you just assign the proper Text Style for the words that need something different from your default.

[David in Яuislip]

In V1, anything added to
C:\ProgramData\Affinity\Common\1.0\Dictionaries\en_GB
supplements the basic en-gb rules in
C:\Program Files\Affinity\Publisher\Resources\Dictionaries\en-GB

Here I have modified en_GB files plus the nl-NL Hunspell files

 

Dutch ok, Hungarian fails, English ok

[thomaso]

30 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said:

Dutch ok, Hungarian fails, English ok

Is in your example just the selected frame set to "English" …

… or do the different texts have different languages assigned individually?

[David in Яuislip]

12 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Is in your example just the selected frame set to "English" …

Yes. Text pasted in with Edit/Paste without format

[thomaso]

35 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said:

Yes.

Then all text in this frame is set to English … while your NL.dic seems to exceed the English dictionary by Non-English words.

1 hour ago, David in Яuislip said:

Here I have modified en_GB files plus the nl-NL Hunspell files

Do you see an advantage … or why do you try / mention this?

I assume this way spell-checking gets more or less useless, for instance for misspelled words in a sentence of one language that exist in another language / the added dictionary (with same or different meaning), for instance | mine - mijn - mein  |  mon - moon - mond - monde - mohn  | etc.

[David in Яuislip]

Then all text in this frame is set to English - Correct

Do you see an advantage … or why do you try / mention this? - Yes, it applies both Dutch and English dictionaries. I originally thought I'd have to clear the C:\ProgramData\Affinity\Common\1.0\Dictionaries\en_GB folder, add the Dutch files and rename to en-GB but then I tried what I've described and it works as shown

I assume this way spell-checking gets more or less useless, for instance for misspelled words in a sentence of one language that exist in another language / the added dictionary (with same or different meaning), for instance | mine - mijn - mein  |  mon - moon - mond - monde - mohn  | etc. - Correct. If an English word is misspelled but is valid in Dutch then no error will show. But since my English speeling is impeccible I don't see a problem....

[thomaso]

37 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said:

Correct. If an English word is misspelled but is valid in Dutch then no error will show. But since my English speeling is impeccible I don't see a problem....

Good on you. How do you detect misspelled words in Dutch text if they exist in English?
And how do you choose a correction if both languages are listed*, for instance with "Theze uit finding is van mine allon" ?
(* btw., are they sorted by language, or chaotic as usual + mixed?)

[David in Яuislip]

How do you detect misspelled words in Dutch text if they exist in English? - As above but reversed, if a Dutch word is misspelled but is valid in English then no error will show, ie you don't.
And how do you choose a correction if both languages are listed*, for instance with "Theze uit finding is van mine allon" - That wouldn't happen if I were compiling a document with various languages; the quality procedure would require submissions to be certified as correct, I wouldn't rely on me and a computer program

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, David in Яuislip said:

And how do you choose a correction if both languages are listed*, for instance with "Theze uit finding is van mine allon" - That wouldn't happen if I were compiling a document with various languages; the quality procedure would require submissions to be certified as correct, I wouldn't rely on me and a computer program

So your principle would not detect "mine" as misspelled within a Dutch phrase?

If your text input has "to be certified as correct" (= does not contain any misspelled word): What is your use of such an extended dictionary?

[David in Яuislip]

So your principle would not detect "mine" as misspelled within a Dutch phrase? - Correct

If your text input has "to be certified as correct" (= does not contain any misspelled word): What is your use of such an extended dictionary? - If the Dutch is correct and the English is correct then there is no need for any spelling check at all 

[Oufti]

12 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said:

If the Dutch is correct and the English is correct then there is no need for any spelling check at all 

So, what is the purpose of any combined dictionary?

[R C-R]

@David in Яuislip, just curious but why have you started not using the usual quote - response format & instead use plain text for the quote & italics for your responses?

[David in Яuislip]

16 hours ago, R C-R said:

just curious but why have you started not using the usual quote - response format & instead use plain text for the quote & italics for your responses?

If I reply to a single point then the highlight/quote selection works ok
If there are multiple points then I tend to copy the post into a text editor and write the replies there
Just me being lazy

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, David in Яuislip said:

Just me being lazy

"lazy" in what way?

The workaround via copy/paste > text editor > copy/paste  requires more clicks/steps than just to select + "Quote" click within the browser window.

Is it a similar kind of laziness that lets you work with an extended multi-language dictionary?

[ericjt]

Is there a way to actually create a Dictionary file, like in Hunspell that combines both English and Dutch, or any two languages? 

[walt.farrell]

26 minutes ago, ericjt said:

Is there a way to actually create a Dictionary file, like in Hunspell that combines both English and Dutch, or any two languages? 

Probably. The format is documented.

But as discussed above, it will make spell checking much less accurate.

And if you really want that, it would be easier to just add additional files into the directory as David mentioned.