Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 5:55 am Post subject: Installing new user dictionaries NeoOfficeJ
I am a new user of NeoOfficeJ, and I need to install a MS Word doument used for spell checking technical botanical names (Botanical Latin.dic). I tried to do it on my own, got the name of the dictionary into the list of dictionaries, but the program does not use it. I have read some postings on installing new dictionaries (such a Spanish). Trying the advice lead me to something that I felt was inappropriate. I know this must be a simple install, but it escapes me.
Just a thought: how about creating a new custom dictionary in Neo Office, then locating it in finder and then replacing it with your dictionary right in finder? This is of course if the dictionary files are all the same. I have not tried this idea, but just thought that it might be a way around the problem...
I'm not sure how spelling works in Word, but Neo/J and OpenOffice.org (as well as Mozilla products) use a spelling system called MySpell. The spelling dictionaries that you add to the list of dictionaries have to be MySpell-type dictionaries.
Short of converting the dictionary to the MySpell format (which, I imagine, is decidedly non-trivial), if you can get the contents of your botanical dictionary in some sort of raw (wordlist) form, your best bet is to then open the document in Neo/J, run spell-check, and add all of the words in the list to a new custom dictionary.
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:50 am Post subject: Installing new user dictionaries NeoOfficeJ
Smokey:
I am not sure that I know how to do what you suggest, but I will try what I think is right. I am puzzled that it adding words to the spellckeck dictionary is so abstruse and indirect. Certainly anyone who intends to do any serious work on NeoOfficeJ, especially technical work, will use a specialized vocabulary. The presence of words unique to a field of study makes spellcheck unusable.
I am new to open source software - I like the idea of having basic software available for everyone to use - but without certain capabilities (like adding new words to the spellcheck directly and easily) I can't see what value the software has other than it runs. It certainly isn't practical for many users.
Whatever! Thanks for taking the time to make a suggestion.
Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:25 am Post subject: Re: Installing new user dictionaries NeoOfficeJ
jimhenry wrote:
I am not sure that I know how to do what you suggest, but I will try what I think is right.
Part of the problem is on my end : I don't know how spelling in Word works and whether "Botanical Latin.dic" is just a normal Word document (or some similarly end-user readable format, like a plain-text list of words) or some complex file type that only Word can read.
If it's the former, then you can open the file in Neo/J and tell Neo/J to "learn" all those words, which was my "hopeful" suggestion in my last post.
jimhenry wrote:
I am puzzled that it adding words to the spellckeck dictionary is so abstruse and indirect. Certainly anyone who intends to do any serious work on NeoOfficeJ, especially technical work, will use a specialized vocabulary. The presence of words unique to a field of study makes spellcheck unusable.
One of the unfortunate hallmarks of much open-source software is that many things end up being overly complex. The elegance of Apple's software and UI design doesn't go very far beyond Cupertino (or Mac-only software) The OpenOffice.org code that is the basis for Neo/J is particularly bad offender, IMO It's getting better over time, but there's still a ways to go.... And while reading Microsoft document formats is high on the list of important tasks, reading Microsoft dictionary formats is not (partially because of the workload/users ratio and partially because the effort would not produce something that could be reused and redistributed because of copyright)....
At one time there were a few pre-compiled technical dictionaries available for download at lingucomponent.openoffice.org, but I can't find them now (other things have also vanished from that site...).
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
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: I don't know how spelling in Word works and whether "Botanical Latin.dic" is just a normal Word document (or some similarly end-user readable format, like a plain-text list of words) or some complex file type that only Word can read.
The OpenOffice.org code that is the basis for Neo/J is particularly bad offender, IMO 
It's getting better over time, but there's still a ways to go.... And while reading Microsoft document formats is high on the list of important tasks, reading Microsoft dictionary formats is not (partially because of the workload/users ratio and partially because the effort would not produce something that could be reused and redistributed because of copyright)....