https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=95274

--- Comment #32 from Michael Bauer <[email protected]> ---
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #31)
> If the request is to make auto detection work reliably we have to wait for
> experts/volunteers.

Perhaps we could invite some? 

> If you think that manually picking the language has room for improvements we
> can discuss this. I don't understand why you cannot change the
> paragraph/character style - okay, writing a dictionary where you have to
> switch from one language to the other every second word... And if you have a
> valid use case, is there a solution that wont bother average users?

I have no research data on this but my experience with being sent other peoples
documents is that 9 out of 10 people don't use styles because they are either
unfamiliar with the concept or find them too cumbersome for short documents
where you don't want to spend time defining a style but may wish to change the
font or indeed write in a different language. Styles are really useful for
something large, like writing a book or dictionary (and I do use them for
those) but if I'm writing a letter and just want to use a different para
spacing or font, there's no point in faffing about with styles, you just change
it ad-hoc as you'll most likely never use that configuration again.

So styles as a default path to setting the proofing locale are a) not realistic
when considering the default behaviour of everyday users and b) not quick
enough.

MS Office has a *really* simple and intuitive way which we could emulate:
1 open a doc and type somethimg, Word will try and guess the language, same as
LO
2 if it guesses wrong, in Word you just single left click at the bottom of the
window where the locale is indicated (with or without selecting text). That
brings up a list of locales (the top 4 are those with dictionaries installed,
the rest is an alphabetical list of ALL locales Word supports from Afrikaans to
Yoruba). Click on the one you want, click ok, done.

2 is where LO fails. I think it's trying to do the wrong thing, because if you
click on the locale, it does try to bring up a list of locales but the way in
which it chooses the 2-3 locales is broken. However it chooses those is at
least partly broken.

For an easy fix (to my mind), the locale suggestions should be limited to
installed proofing dictionaries and (if different) the LO UI locale (as some
locales have a localized UI but no proofing).

A slightly more complex fix would be to then fix the "More" option that appears
in that window to bring up NOT the font settings but a list of
locales/languages like Word does where you can simply do an ad-hoc selection of
the locale/language for a document or selection without having to resort to
styles or font associations.

Here's an easy challenge: open a blank document in Word and one in LO. Type a
random selection of characters. Now try to set the language of that selection
to Yoruba and time yourself. I bet it takes you a LOT longer to do that in LO
compared to word. (with a document open in word with a word pre-typed, it takes
me 7:86 seconds to set that word to Yoruba. In LO, after 15 seconds, I'm still
wondering if I should click More or Set Paragraph Language > More and even
longer wondering why both of those options bring up the Font menu)

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