This last point “sensibly based on an existing one” is important to understand because this application is not going to create spellcheckers for any main language that is not already supported as there is nothing to base it on… well, you could do but it may not make sense.
That’s certainly a lot easier than the manual way (check this wiki for a more detailed step by step or watch the video at the end) and I think this will be a very valuable tool for anyone who works with languages not supported by Hunspell in Studio, but can sensibly be based on an existing one. Restart Studio so the new dictionary is available for use.Click “create” and the dictionary is ready.Select the language variant of your new one.Select the existing dictionary that will be the baseline spellchecker for your new one.The process is simple and based on this idea: You can run it from an icon on your desktop, or from the shortcut you’ll find in the Studio navigation menu after installing it. The application is a standalone application which you can find on the SDL AppStore. The timing was good because the SDL AppStore team has had this on their todo list for a very long time and finally managed to make time to fit this in, so now the process is really easy! Hunspell Dictionary Manager Interestingly enough there was even an idea on the SDL ideas site logged yesterday, or the day before, where the user wanted more dictionaries or an easier way to add them based on the process I just mentioned.
However, this is still a process which many users are unable to follow because of the things that can get in the way like not having admin rights, being unable to see the relevant files and folders because they are hidden in Windows, not having a good text editor, not knowing what language code to use, being unsure about making changes to an XML file etc. You can add new dictionaries based on the existing ones by following the process in the article or the video I created to explain it. The effect of this is that you end up with this rather annoying effect on the right when you want to check your spelling in an unsupported variant: I used English as the example as there are 94 variants in Studio and only 7 supported by Hunspell.
I’ve mentioned these before in this article (scroll to the end to find the relevant section) where I explained how to add new Hunspell dictionaries to Studio because the number of languages Studio supports is significantly more than the number of available dictionaries for spell checking. Now, onto the point of the article which is Hunspell Dictionaries.
It’s always nice to spend a little time doing something frivolous because it’s good thinking time without being distracted by the job! I don’t really know how to use this software at all, but it’s fun seeing what turns out… and I confess I often use a combination of powerpoint and Gimp simply because some things are just easier in powerpoint! Eventually I might actually learn how to use it properly… I’ll keep practicing anyway. I do this for two reasons, the first is because it usually helps me think of some bizarre introduction (like this!) that helps me start writing, and the second is because every now and again I like to play around with Gimp which is the free image software I occassionally use. When I write these articles I always start with thinking about the image at the top.