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Windows build-in spellchecker


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For some reason Affinity Publisher only supports English and few other European languages instead of using Windows 10 build-in spellchecker (like most modern software do).

It's really annoying to use external editor for spellchecking (Russian) and then copy-paste text to Publisher.

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Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @Phen.

Publisher runs on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. As far as I know Windows 7 does not have a spellchecker, so Publisher would not be able to spellcheck on Windows 7 at all if it depended on the Windows 10 functionality. By using Hunspell instead, Publisher is able to do spellchecking on all the Windows releases that Publisher supports. I don't know for sure if that's the reason that Serif chose not to use the Windows 10 function, but I think it probably is.

If you want Publisher to spellcheck in a language it doesn't currently support, and that language has a Hunspell dictionary available, you can download it and install it yourself. If you search the forum for the word Hunspell you will find several discussions of installing Hunspell dictionaries.

But specifically for your need for Russian, you should be able to download the Hunspell Russian dictionary files for LibreOffice and install them. You need these 3 files: hyph_ru_RU.dic, ru_RU.aff, and ru_RU.dic.

If you open Publisher's Preferences, the Tools tab has an entry at the bottom showing you the directory where you can put additional dictionaries. Click the Open... button. In that directory, create a new directory named ru_RU (or, if that doesn't work, try ru-RU) and place the 3 dictionary files in it. Restart Publisher, and you should then be able to specify Russian as a spellchecking or hyphenation language.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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On 8/27/2019 at 6:34 PM, walt.farrell said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @Phen.

Publisher runs on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. As far as I know Windows 7 does not have a spellchecker, so Publisher would not be able to spellcheck on Windows 7 at all if it depended on the Windows 10 functionality. By using Hunspell instead, Publisher is able to do spellchecking on all the Windows releases that Publisher supports. I don't know for sure if that's the reason that Serif chose not to use the Windows 10 function, but I think it probably is.

The other reason may also be that the engine underpinning the Affinity range shares the same codebase for both the Windows and Mac versions. It would mean creating two separate sets of functions to call spell checking for Mac and Windows whereas using Hunspell probably simplifies things by enabling the same calling for both.

Much other software does the same thing using Hunspell but doesn't necessarily make it obvious.

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On 8/27/2019 at 10:34 AM, walt.farrell said:

Publisher runs on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. As far as I know Windows 7 does not have a spellchecker, so Publisher would not be able to spellcheck on Windows 7 at all if it depended on the Windows 10 functionality. ...

I bought a 3-XTension bundle from one developer for QXP. I wanted the capability for two of the XTensions in particular, but one was a spell-checker that extended Q's great spell checker / hyphenation engine in order to access Hunspell dictionaries. Without the bundle price, I belive it is $30-$35 dollars. Point being, it also hooks into language support when one installs other languages as well as languages installed/supported via MS Word. Installed on a Mac, the XTension hooks into whatever language support there, too.

I don't suspect that at that price it was an arduous task.

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I don't know if third party sofwares/plugins for spellchecking will be available, but this one, for example is widely used in French and work with different apps. Plugins that help check punctuation, spelling, with specific additionnal dictionaries, etc. are important.

Depending of time allowed, and clients' lateness, texts are read before or after the layout process. And I suppose it's the same in other countries with different languages, and such tools are needed.

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15 hours ago, CarlM said:

The other reason may also be that the engine underpinning the Affinity range shares the same codebase for both the Windows and Mac versions.

That's an interesting theory, but it appears to me that Publisher on Mac is connected at least somewhat to the default spelling on Mac. For example, when I set my OS preferences to check spelling in English and French only, those are the only two options that are presented for spell checking in Publisher.

1163803559_ScreenShot2019-08-29at8_53_01AM.thumb.png.136f4c3fa7bf64d16fbca8f7e4ee588a.png

 

On the other hand, it does use separate Hunspell dictionaries for hyphenation. So, without further testing, it does seem that at least some elements are independent of the OS spelling, but not entirely so.

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

Hi 

Thanks everyone but I did read spellchecking in the forum and tried some of the suggestions but I didn't succeed to make it work after downloading and installing the dictionary from openoffice. 

That's why I wrote hoping someone had been succesfull with the Danish dictionary :-)

I was hoping there was a link to a dictionary that works :-) Hopefully in future afpub will have Danish and all European dictionaries included. 

 

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3 hours ago, MEMO said:

Thanks everyone but I did read spellchecking in the forum and tried some of the suggestions but I didn't succeed to make it work after downloading and installing the dictionary from openoffice. 

The instructions in the FAQ should work, if followed completely.

If you have done that, and they did not work, please prepare a sample .afpub document with Danish text that does not work for you, and upload it for us to look at. Also please let us know whether you're on Mac or Windows, and provide a pointer to the dictionary that you downloaded.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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From your screenshot, @MEMO, it looks like you have installed the basic spelling dictionary but you have not installed the hypheation dictionary. Both are at the GitHub site that the FAQ points to. Just download it, install as the FAQ recommends, restart Publisher, and you should be able to set Danish as a hyphenation language, too.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Can you open the folder where you installed the hyphenation dictionary in Finder, and provide a screenshot?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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On Mac, the spelling dictionary and the hyphenation dictionary would be in different directories if you followed the instructions in the FAQ correctly. Please check them again.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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