Unable to find French Canadian (fr-CA) dictionary for Affinity Publisher

[eu0hjln4]

Hello,

As part of my work, I am using Affinity Publisher to help edit a thesis that is written in Canadian French. Preflight gives me a warning for literally every single word telling me I am missing the dictionary for fr-CA. I am aware we can download additional dictionaries from the LibreOffice dictionaries page however I have looked and they don't seem to have one for Canadian French.

My current workaround is to use search and replace to change the language for the text of the entire document to French French (fr-FR), however, this then makes it impossible for me to hand the document back to author as I cannot change it back to fr-CA and, of course, this presents its own challenges as the document is not written in French French.

Does anyone know where I could get such a Canadian French dictionary?

Many thanks in advance!

[Pšenda]

 

 

[anto]

5 hours ago, eu0hjln4 said:

Does anyone know where I could get such a Canadian French dictionary?

If you've tried everything and nothing works, you can try downloading a trial version of Indesign and see if their dictionaries work. They have Canadian French. But after the trial period is over, I don't know how legal it is. Maybe someone here will tell you.

[MikeTO]

18 hours ago, eu0hjln4 said:

As part of my work, I am using Affinity Publisher to help edit a thesis that is written in Canadian French. Preflight gives me a warning for literally every single word telling me I am missing the dictionary for fr-CA. I am aware we can download additional dictionaries from the LibreOffice dictionaries page however I have looked and they don't seem to have one for Canadian French.

My current workaround is to use search and replace to change the language for the text of the entire document to French French (fr-FR), however, this then makes it impossible for me to hand the document back to author as I cannot change it back to fr-CA and, of course, this presents its own challenges as the document is not written in French French.

Hi and welcome to the forums. Are you using macOS or Windows?

I can't speak to Windows, but macOS supplies one French dictionary for both France and Canada. I believe this is because it's just a spelling dictionary and the dictionary is a superset of France and Canada spelling and serves both equally well. Apps like Microsoft Word also provide grammar checking and would therefore need a more specific dictionary.

If I write text in French (Canada) in Microsoft Word and import it into Publisher, it imports as French (without anything in brackets). Therefore it spell checks correctly with the built-in macOS French dictionary. I don't use LibreOffice but I tried files created with Google Docs and got the same good results.

Since your text is obviously importing as French (Canada) from LibreOffice, I suspect you might be on Windows and things are working differently. Or perhaps it's just how LibreOffice creates the file compared to how MS Word.

Could you upload a small test file? Just type a few words Canadian French and save it in whatever format you're using to import into Publisher. I'd like to see how it opens on macOS.

Good luck

[eu0hjln4]

13 hours ago, anto said:

If you've tried everything and nothing works, you can try downloading a trial version of Indesign and see if their dictionaries work. They have Canadian French. But after the trial period is over, I don't know how legal it is. Maybe someone here will tell you.

Ah, I had never thought of that. I will see about how legal that is — it's certainly not a bad idea. Thank you!

[eu0hjln4]

1 hour ago, MikeTO said:

Hi and welcome to the forums. Are you using macOS or Windows?

I can't speak to Windows, but macOS supplies one French dictionary for both France and Canada. I believe this is because it's just a spelling dictionary and the dictionary is a superset of France and Canada spelling and serves both equally well. Apps like Microsoft Word also provide grammar checking and would therefore need a more specific dictionary.

If I write text in French (Canada) in Microsoft Word and import it into Publisher, it imports as French (without anything in brackets). Therefore it spell checks correctly with the built-in macOS French dictionary. I don't use LibreOffice but I tried files created with Google Docs and got the same good results.

Since your text is obviously importing as French (Canada) from LibreOffice, I suspect you might be on Windows and things are working differently. Or perhaps it's just how LibreOffice creates the file compared to how MS Word.

Could you upload a small test file? Just type a few words Canadian French and save it in whatever format you're using to import into Publisher. I'd like to see how it opens on macOS.

Good luck

Hello! Thank you for the warm welcome.

I am on Windows, you are correct. That's interesting, I never knew that macOS was so smart with dialects! I can indeed upload a small file, please give me a moment.

[Oufti]

In Preflight check, for each new file set with French as default language, I have similar complaints about French Belgian dictionary missing (on a Mac).

Since it is a "language" that doesn't exist in Affinity (there is only French), I suspect it's a result of my system settings (French language and Belgium as location).
Anyway, reapplying French as language in the Character panel, for all the paragraphs detected by the Preflight check, resolves it.

1. Double-click on the line in the Preflight panel to select the offending text — or select all, if it's correct for you (I mean you don't have any other language used in your document) 
2. Choose French again in the Character panel. (I understand that as a confirmation that I'm OK with ordinary French dictionary, even if my setting is not in France.)

Obviously, if the point is to check if some specific French Canadian words like ouaouaron, guedille, enfirouaper or décalisser are correct, you will find that only the first one is recognized — but at least you don't see anymore these silly warnings… 

 

[Ooops… sorry. I am out of subject. I read too quickly the initial demand.]

Edited September 23, 2023 by Oufti
Out of subject

[Old Bruce]

No fr_CA dictionary? Tabernak!