[Affinity Publisher] Missing dictionary for language

[cookkoo]

I'm using Affinity Publisher2 on my macOS laptop

I have been receiving notifications for all of my text to be 'Missing dictionary for language (en-TH)' even though my text are in English

I'm not quite sure what's going on? The spelling check still work just fine, but I'm just wondering why I keep getting these pop-ups

[NathanC]

Welcome to the forums @cookkoo,

The pre-flight warning indicates that the spelling language used for your text frames is set to one that is missing on your system, for example if the document was created on a different system with access to that dictionary this warning would prompt.

This can normally be resolved by importing the missing dictionary onto your device via the Hunspell dictionary library, however I can't find one for en-TH available in their library (English-Thai maybe? Not sure).

In this scenario it would likely be easier to just change the spelling language of all text and art text frames in your document. One way to do this is to use the Select (Along the top menu bar) > Select Object > Frame Text to highlight all the text frames in your document, and in the 'Character' panel (Window > Text > Character) under the 'Language' dropdown set the spelling language over to an English dialect that is available. You can then repeat this for Art Text layers if applicable.

After correcting your existing document I would also suggest defaulting your text frame tool to use an available spelling language, with the tool selected and the language updated in the Character panel go to Edit > Defaults > Save. You can then repeat this for Art text.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, NathanC said:

The pre-flight warning indicates that the spelling language used for your text frames is set to one that is missing on your system, for example if the document was created on a different system with access to that dictionary this warning would prompt.

It also seems to happen in Publisher (and other Affinity apps) because the application is somehow expecting to find a dictionary based on the Region setting of the computer that created the text, and is failing to revert to using a more generic dictionary when such a dictionary does not exist. For example, it is very unlikely there even is a dictionary for English as spoken in Thailand (if that's what TH represents), and it is more likely that the text was simply created on a system which is set to English, but with the region set to Thailand.

In such case, it would be most reasonable for the application (Publisher) to use the English (UK) or English (US) language dictionary that it does have installed, and would greatly simplify the user's workflow.

[cookkoo]

21 hours ago, NathanC said:

In this scenario it would likely be easier to just change the spelling language of all text and art text frames in your document. One way to do this is to use the Select (Along the top menu bar) > Select Object > Frame Text to highlight all the text frames in your document, and in the 'Character' panel (Window > Text > Character) under the 'Language' dropdown set the spelling language over to an English dialect that is available. You can then repeat this for Art Text layers if applicable.

All of the text were already applied under the English spelling before I posted on the forum. So I guess we cannot really do anything with the pop-ups

But based on @walt.farrell said, I'm assuming there's not much I can do on my own since this is my laptop's Region

It's not that big of a deal since the spelling correcting is still working just fine. Thanks both for taking your time for answering my question!

 

[MikeTO]

6 hours ago, cookkoo said:

All of the text were already applied under the English spelling before I posted on the forum. So I guess we cannot really do anything with the pop-ups

But based on @walt.farrell said, I'm assuming there's not much I can do on my own since this is my laptop's Region

It's not that big of a deal since the spelling correcting is still working just fine. Thanks both for taking your time for answering my question!

If you create a new document, draw a text frame, and start typing, what language does Publisher default to?

If it's en_TH (English Thai) you can change that.

1. Create a new document and choose the Frame Text tool.
2. Choose English US or UK from the Character > Language > Spelling list.
3. Choose the Art Text tool.
4. Choose English US or UK from the list again - even though the language is already selected, you must click on it and select it again, this is a small bug.
5. Now choose Edit > Defaults > Save.
6. Close the document and now new text frames and objects will default to the correct language.

If on the other hand Publisher's language is already English US or UK but you're importing text from another application such as Microsoft Word and that text is arriving in en_TH, you should adjust the language settings in the other application.

Good luck.

[DNMPI]

Hi, I have a same problem. My "Preflight" box is filled with "Missing dictionary for language (pl-PL), Everything was good until some update that made this warnings. It can't read Polish language and sets it as "Unknown". I tried everything to fix it and nothing helps, please let me know if there is some other way to repair it or if it will be fixed in future updates. Thanks in advance for reply.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @DNMPI.

What OS do you use, and what release of Publisher?

[DNMPI]

I'm using Windows 11 right now and the latest version of software which is now 2.4.1

[walt.farrell]

23 minutes ago, DNMPI said:

I'm using Windows 11 right now and the latest version of software which is now 2.4.1

Thanks. As you're on Windows, you would only have a Polish dictionary if you had installed it yourself. And if you installed it correctly, any update to the program would not affect the dictionary you installed.

This leads me to wonder whether you ever had Polish spell checking working on this machine, and in this application? For example, perhaps you had installed the dictionary into Publisher V1 but not into V2? 

Or perhaps you had installed it into the MSIX version of Publisher 2 but then removed that version and installed the EXE/MSI version and didn't reinstall the dictionary?

It perhaps you have installed it recently but incorrectly?

If you open the application Settings, Tools, you'll find the setting for the additional spelling dictionaries. Please provide a screenshot of that Settings dialog.

Then, I think there's a button to open that directory in File Explorer. Please click that button, and give us a screenshot of the File Explorer window that opens.

[DNMPI]

I set a Polish language as basic when I first started the PC. I have owned the Affinity Publisher for about half a year, so I never had version 1.0 installed, moreover, for several months such an error did not show up and everything was fine. This error appeared all of a sudden without much cause, as I never uninstalled the program or changed my computer. I attach a screenshot. There is no any dictionary installed

[walt.farrell]

Thanks. You will need to install a Polish dictionary following the instructions in the FAQ as you do not have one installed currently, but only if you want to use spell-checking or hyphenation. 

If you just want to get rid of the preflight messages you can edit your preflight profile and turn that check off. 

FAQ: 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/190021-how-do-i-add-additional-dictionaries-to-affinity-publisher-2/

 

[David in Яuislip]

I downloaded the files from
https://github.com/LibreOffice/dictionaries/tree/master/pl_PL
as it was the only place I could find the hyphenation file

The hyph_pl_PL.dic & pl_PL.aff show ISO8859-2 at the top, I changed these to UTF-8
The word count in pl_PL.dic is wrong, I corrected it to 308305
I use Notepad++, it showed the Encoding as ANSI, I changed that to UTF-8
Rather strange, Październik was missing from the dictionary so I added it. So is Sierpień but I left that so it shows a spelling error. If you right click on Sierpień it causes a crash
So a partial success, screenshot shows the hyphenation working, whether it is valid I don't know
Hours of fun

ps translation for non-Poles like me:
The boy stood on the burning deck with a glass of bison grass vodka
Chłopiec stał na płonącym pokładzie ze szklanką wódki z trawy żubrowej

Where is Red October?
Gdzie jest Czerwony Październik?

[MikeTO]

David, the page Walt recommended provided instructions that would have avoided the need to change the encoding. You might want to check this page now to ensure that everything is set up correctly. I've also provided detailed instructions in my free Publisher manual - you can download it from the link in my signature.

Good luck

 

[David in Яuislip]

Thanks Mike,
but they're the same files I used earlier. They show in Notepad++ as ANSI which doesn't work.
if you paste in Październik it appears as Pazdziernik, and the word count is still wrong. I'm pretty confident in what I've done, I just can't tell if the hyphenation is valid and my tame Polish speaker is on his hols

atb

[MikeTO]

They download as iso-8859-1 for me on macOS which is very similar to ANSI and they work without changes. Perhaps it's a Windows thing but Walt would know better than me.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, David in Яuislip said:

I downloaded the files from
https://github.com/LibreOffice/dictionaries/tree/master/pl_PL
as it was the only place I could find the hyphenation file

They're provided by Serif directly in the FAQ.

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

They download as iso-8859-1 for me on macOS which is very similar to ANSI and they work without changes. Perhaps it's a Windows thing but Walt would know better than me.

I can check, but not for a day or two.

[DNMPI]

15 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Thanks. You will need to install a Polish dictionary following the instructions in the FAQ as you do not have one installed currently, but only if you want to use spell-checking or hyphenation. 

If you just want to get rid of the preflight messages you can edit your preflight profile and turn that check off. 

FAQ: 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/190021-how-do-i-add-additional-dictionaries-to-affinity-publisher-2/

 

Thanks! It fixed the problem! Thank you very much for your help in solving the problem! All the best for you! 

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome; happy it's working.

[Ove Steen]

Walt. It seems to me that you answer people as if they were using Publisher for the first time. I have been working with Publisher more than a year. After getting help to install dictionnaries spelling control and hyphenation has worked fine for me with any language: Danish, English, Spanish, German, Italian. I can choose any needed language in the panel. But now "Check spelling" from the Text menu  suddenly says with any language.:

”Document contains languages (da-DK) for which no dictionnary is installed“.

But don't tell me to install dictionnaries once again. Something must have gone wrong with last update of MacOS 14.4.1 or Publisher 2.4.1

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, Ove Steen said:

But now "Check spelling" from the Text menu  suddenly says with any language.:

”Document contains languages (da-DK) for which no dictionnary is installed“.

Do you get this error message with any APub file that includes text items or just particular ones? If the latter, can you post an example of the ones that do, if possible one with just a few pages to keep the file size down? 

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, Ove Steen said:

Document contains languages (da-DK) for which no dictionnary is installed“.

If you look in your Dictionaries folder (which you can find via the Tools section of the application Settings), what dictionary folders do you have installed? 

Do you have one for da-DK or da_DK?

Also, can you show us a screenshot of the Tools Settings?

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, Ove Steen said:

It seems to me that you answer people as if they were using Publisher for the first time

I answer, I think, based on 40+ years of helping users resolve problems, and seeing the kind of mistakes that even experienced users can make

And recognizing how complex the application is, and how many different ways things can become messed up. Again, even by experienced users; we all make mistakes.

[R C-R]

34 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Again, even by experienced users; we all make mistakes.

Not me! I never make missnakes!

[Ove Steen]

13 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

If you look in your Dictionaries folder (which you can find via the Tools section of the application Settings), what dictionary folders do you have installed? 

Do you have one for da-DK or da_DK?

Also, can you show us a screenshot of the Tools Settings?

There is nothing about dictionary folders in Application Settings > Tools. Am I looking the wrong place?