Choose Language for spell check in Zotero Notes?

frankweber
A user reports that Zotero uses english for checking the spelling of the text she writes in her zotero notes, resulting in wavy lines under nearly every word of her german notes. Her system locale is set to german and the Zotero-surface is set to german, too.
Is there a way to adjust the language for spell checking and if yes, how?
Find a screenshot of the problem here:
http://www.screencast.com/t/0vtsaZbs7Yd
  • adamsmith
    no, you can't change the language. You can disable spellcheck for notes, though. See:
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/19771/workaround-to-disable-spell-checker/
    which also has a bit of an explanation by Dan on what's going on.
  • plankandreas
    Yes you can ;-)

    At least I can using FireFox version 43.0.3, Zotero 4.0.28.3, just follow

    https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-use-firefox-spell-checker#w_switching-dictionaries

    Once you have activated spell checking in a web site’s text field, you can change the language to check for in the context menu too, then Zotero’s note editor follows along with that chosen setting. But you cannot chose the language within the Zotero note editor itself, there seems only the context menu of TinyMCE as I understand it.
  • adamsmith
    (you should update Zotero) -- right, you can do this in Firefox. You can't in Zotero Standalone, though.
  • hannahbruck
    I am using Zotero Standalone and I am pretty extensively working with notes. I have the same problem as described above, a lot of red wavy lines.
    That's why I wanted to ask if there are any news regarding the spell-check in Zotero Standalone (besides deactivating, thanks already for this hint). Is there any new option to set the spell-check to German?
  • Gracile
    @hannahbruck : no, sorry.
  • smatthie
    I have the same question. Two issues really:

    1. The red lines are not just a cosmetic issue but make it really hard to read anything, so (even though I found the workaround) it should really be much easier or the default setting to disable them.

    2. It would be nice and useful to have a spellchecker for other languages, although I appreciate this is not a priority as the notes are not meant as full text editor.
  • bwiernik
    Both of these are planned in the short and longer term, respectively.
  • jorjaleksi
    I write the note page in French and since the new Zotero 5.x, I find the same red lines . In the former version only wrong spelling was underlined. Then going to Html the system was able to propose options for correct spelling. I deeply miss these features.
  • f1ix
    edited July 4, 2022
    You can at least disable the red lines by setting the value of extensions.spellcheck.inline.max-misspellings to 0 in about:config (Edit- Preferences - Advanced - Advanced Configuration - Config Editor) [Admin Note: See below.]
  • archivellen
    @flix: this works, super tip, thanks!
  • Joyo
    I have the same issue.
    Thanks for the explanation, that does help a lot :)

    If possible, it would really be gorgeous to move that configuration (turning of spellchecking) to an easier accessible part of the settings menu.

    I agree with @smatthie. A spellchecker in other languages might be nice but not utterly important or urgent. An easy way to avoid making it difficult for all non-english-writers to decipher their own notes (be they misspelled or not) seems like something that should help a lot of people.

    Thanks a lot for your great work!
  • valentina.degidio
    With the latest update of March 17, 2022 (version 6.0) it is now possible to disable the check spelling feature or add a new dictionary by simply right-clicking on a note.
  • tiziamoon
    LOVE your tip
  • Joyo
    Great, @valentina.degidio
    Thanks for the update to everyone involved!
This discussion has been closed.