Cannot get spell check to work

Question

I am running the latest version of Ubuntu. Going back at least 3 versions and across updates and re-installations I have never and can still not get open office's spell check to work. This renders the package almost unusable.

So my question is 2 fold:

1) How can I get the spell check working or is it even possible

2) What is a good alternative that:

• Has a working spell check
• Converts in a one click process accurately and reliable to pdf

Answer 1

Go to Options->Language Settings->Languages and choose UK or U.S. English. The spell checker is available for only few varieties of English. For e.g. I had selected Indian English once and spell-check was not functioning. If you want to use a third party spell checker, then you can go for this: After the Dead Line. It is very powerful.

Answer 2

I have never had any troubles with OO. Make sure you have the package language-support-en installed (if you need support for other languages, you can find them as language-support-xx where xx is the countrycode).

I know these packages install some extra stuff that you might not need (such as interface translations), but they make sure you have all that you need.