[Evolution] Troubleshooting Spell Checking in Evolution 1.4

[Mark Gordon <mtgordon ximian com>]

Spell checking is one of the more complicated features in Evolution from a standpoint of release engineering and package management.  Evolution uses a set of libraries for spell checking, some of which are used by other applications.  Evolution often requires newer versions of some of these libraries.  Making packages that work with both Evolution and older applications can be tricky (hence some of the *spell-compat packages we've been releasing lately for some platforms).  Additionally, there's the need to support a wide variety of languages.  All these make the problem unusually complicated.

The best diagnostic for broken spell checking is to run the following command:

rpm -qa | grep spell | sort

Then check against the list below.  If anything is missing, install it via Red Carpet.  If you have further unexplained problems, the output of the above command should be included in the bug report and/or list post.

Mandrake Linux 9.1:
aspell-0.50.3-1mdk
gnome-spell1.0-1.0.4-0.ximian.6.1

Red Hat Linux 7.3:
aspell-0.33.7.1-9
gnome-spell1.0-1.0.4-0.ximian.4.1
pspell-0.12.2-8

Red Hat Linux 8.0:
aspell-0.50.3-1.ximian.2
gnome-spell1.0-1.0.4-0.ximian.5.1

Red Hat Linux 9:
aspell-0.50.3-1.ximian.2
gnome-spell1.0-1.0.4-0.ximian.6.1

SuSE Linux 8.2:
aspell-0.50.2-74
gnome-spell1.0-1.0.4-0.ximian.7.1

This list is, of course, subject to change as new versions and revisions are released.

This list provides the basic functionality needed to have spell checking, but it doesn't necessarily provide the files necessary to spell check in a particular language.  These files are typically split out into separate packages, since most machines will only need to carry out spell checking in a small number of languages.  Support for spell checking in specific languages is typically added by packages with names such as aspell-en (for US English), aspell-en-uk (for British English), aspell-de (for German), etc.  Note that Red Hat includes US English support in its aspell package, and hence Red Hat users typically won't need a separate aspell-en package.  With the exception of English-speaking Red Hat users, you will need to install an aspell-$LANG package.

Important note for users of non-English languages: our gnome-spell1.0 packages for Red Hat Linux 8.0 and Red Hat Linux 9 don't work with the aspell-$LANG packages provided by Red Hat.  This is because the version of gnome-spell1.0 used by Evolution requires an updated aspell which is not compatible with the aspell-$LANG packages that come with those versions of Red Hat Linux  Consequently, updated packages from Ximian will be needed to get spell checking to work in Evolution 1.4 under Red Hat Linux 8.0 and Red Hat Linux 9 for languages other than English.  These packages are not yet available, but packages for several languages should be released quite soon, and others are in the works.

To configure the language(s) for which spell checking will be enabled by default in the composer, go to:

Tools -> Settings -> Composer Preferences -> Spell Checking

This should present a list of languages for which you can do spell checking.  If a language is enabled, words in the dictionary for that language will be assumed spelled correctly.  In most cases, users will want only a single language checked.  Polyglots may want several languages selected, or they may want to change the list dynamically in the composer window, which can be done from: 

Edit -> Current Languages

...which presents a similar list of languages.

-Mark Gordon