How to install a LibreOffice Language Tools (Spelling Check, Thesaurus...)

Question

What are the steps to install the Spelling Check and other language supports for LibreOffice. For example spanish, french, italian, etc..

Solution 1

This is apparently managed at the system level. Go to the Language Support menu in the System Settings menu and add the languages you want to support. After that restart LibreOffice and you will see that the spellchecker for example will give you the option of using the newly installed languages.

Solution 2

The command: sudo apt-get install aspell-<language pack> will do the trick

For example, the spanish dictionary is:

sudo apt-get install aspell-es The command: sudo apt-get install aspell-<language pack> will do the trick

For example, the spanish dictionary is:

sudo apt-get install aspell-es

In Kubuntu the package is called myspell-es

Solution 3

If you can't install system packages, you can install a spell checking dictionary extension manually. You'll need to restart LibreOffice.

US English Dictionary available here: extensions.libreoffice.org.

Instructions for installing extensions:

1. Download an extension and save it anywhere on your computer.
2. In LibreOffice, select Tools → Extension Manager from the menu bar.
   
3. In the Extension Manager dialog (Figure 2), click Add.
4. A file browser window opens. In Add Extension(s) dialog, you can find the extension's files in your system folders. The extension's files have OXT file extension.
5. Find and select the extension you want to install and click Open.
6. If this extension it is already installed, you'll be prompted to press OK to confirm whether to overwrite the current version by the new one, or press Cancel to stop the installation.
7. After, you are asked whether to install the extension only for your user or for all users.
   • If you choose Only for me option, the extension is installed only for your user (the extension will be stored in your user profile and other users will not have access to it).
   • If you choose For all users, you must have system administrator rights. In this case, the extension is installed in LibreOffice system folder and will be available for all users.
   • In general, choose Only to me, that doesn't require administration rights on the operating system.
     
8. After, you may be asked to accept a license agreement.
9. Use Scroll Down button to read the license agreement. At the end of license text, the Accept button will be enabled.
10. Click Accept to proceed the installation.
11. When the installation is complete, the extension is listed in the Extension Manager dialog.

Instructions stolen from libreoffice.org

Solution 4

To install Spanish spellchecker on Libre-Office, You need the next package:

sudo apt-get install myspell-es

Solution 5

For Ubuntu 12.04 and German (Austria), installing the hunspell package solved my problem:

sudo apt-get install hunspell-de-at

Remember to restart LibreOffice Writer after installing the package!

View more solutions

Comments

[Luis Alvarado]

Ok I was into old school way of looking for the language support packages. This saves me a lot of hazzle. Thanks.

[Eliah Kagan]

That's specifically for the spell-checker though, right? That doesn't actually give you the thesaurus or other features in the language, does it?

[German Attanasio]

you are right Eliah its just the spell-checker

[NeoShow]

recently I had a similar problem with Evolution email, in that case the solution was to do a similar thing but with hunspell instead, sudo apt-get install hunspell-es

[Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com]

Worked for me, but is it possible from the command line? Other command line solutions proposed failed for me.

[NeoShow]

@cirosantilli, did you try the other "command-line" answers below?, for example: sudo apt-get install myspell-es or aspell-es or hunspell-es

[IQBAL AHMED]

+1. For me aspell-nl was not working, but myspell-nl was working

[Philippe Gachoud]

To list all available dictionaries sudo apt-cache search aspell

[3289105]

worked like a charm. the only thing that i had to do was to add the oxt extension to the file because the extension manager not seeing the extension file. sorry for the bad english.

[Admin]

does not work that way for most languages in Ubuntu 14.04 with LO 4.2

[Fabby]

Comment from Andre Blecha: a note of caution: the system will download language dependent files such a help and documentation for ALL your applications installed. This may be disc-space and time consuming.

[berbt]

No, you don't need to. See other answers.

[berbt]

Best answer in my opinion. LO specific, many languages included (as originally asked), updated extension, not system-wide, doesn't require root, not an "apt-get install" guessing game.

[orschiro]

For German, unlike expected from the above example, the package name is myspell-de-de.

[Grey Panther]

You need to install the "libreoffice-java-common" package for this to work (otherwise it fails with an UNO / java / NoClassDefFound error)

[datka]

Installing aspell dictionaries didn't work for me (Kubuntu 16.04, LibreOffice 5.1.4.2), but installing myspell did the job.

[João Pimentel Ferreira]

it still doesn't work on Tools -> Language -> For all Text. I just see there two languages and not the languages I installed. The majority of SW is designed for English or American people, and they speak only English, and rarely speak another language besides English. An american developer cannot imagine that a person (like me) may speak and write in six languages: Portuguese that writes mostly in English and lives in the Netherlands.

[NeoShow]

@JoãoPimentelFerreira that is not true, Linux distros are very considerate to support multiple languages simultaneously. My solution worked last time I checked.

[João Pimentel Ferreira]

@alfC try to install three languages in Ubuntu as stated here, and then go to LibreOffice on Tools -> Language -> For all Text

[NeoShow]

@JoãoPimentelFerreira I did install three dictionaries, English, Spanish and French and Tools -> Language -> For XX shows me three options. I am using LibreOffice 5.3.6.1. Perhaps your current version has a bug? I also installed the dictionary via hunspell-en, hunspell-es, hunspell-fr.

[João Pimentel Ferreira]

@alfC What do you mean by "I did install three dictionaries"? Did you install them on System Settings -> Language like you suggest in this post? Or did you use another method directly in Libreoffice? My version is 5.4.2.2

[João Pimentel Ferreira]

ok, now I get, one must go to Tools -> Language -> For all Text -> More to get the other languages. Thank you :)

[NeoShow]

@JoãoPimentelFerreira I see them without clicking More... It took restarting LO a few times to work.

[Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com]

Libreoffice should really make this process simpler.

[Philippe Gachoud]

It seems that to be able to select the document language (tools->language->for all text->givenLang) I had to reboot my computer (linux debian), maybe restarting only the display manager would have been enough

[HelloGoodbye]

Where is the "System Settings" menu? That doesn't seem to exist in Writer for LibreOffice 5.3.

[NeoShow]

@HelloGoodbye, yes, it is not in LO, it is in the global Ubuntu Settings.

[tanius]

Still working as of Ubuntu 18.04. To see available language packs, type sudo apt-get --install-suggests install libreoffice-l10n- and press the "Tab" key to see autocomplete suggestions.

[Serge Stroobandt]

sudo apt install myspell-nl yields Note, selecting 'hunspell-nl' instead of 'myspell-nl'

[tanius]

Still working as of Ubuntu 19.04. This is the best command-line answer as it works for whatever spellchecker system you are using under the hood (myspell, hunspell etc.).

[opensas]

This answer didn't work for me (using kubuntu 20.04 beta). I already had my system in spanish, I had to run sudo apt install myspell-es and it worked ok

[opensas]

Worked for me with myspell-es (using kubuntu 20.04 beta)

[Akash]

Got svenska (swedish) by "sudo apt install hunspell-sv-se" in ubuntu 20.04 with libreoffice 6.4.6.2 AND tools->options-Language settings->Writing aids marked with Hunspell SpellChecker. Restart libreoffice and svenska is available when Tools->Spelling is selected.