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Installed Language Pack Does not Work

  • 3 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 54 views
  • Last reply by dagere

dagere
dagere
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I am using Ubuntu 18.04 with latest Thunderbird (52.8.0). Normaly (in older verions of Thunderbird, like the one in Ubuntu 17.10), it was possible to just install a language like described here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-use-firefox-spell-checker in order to use the spell checker in a different language.

I clicked on "Sprachen -> Wörterbuch hinzufügen" and downloaded the german language packet. Now in "Add-ons-Verwaltung", there is "Deutsch (DE) Lanuage Pack", and it is activated. Unfortunately, if I right-click on any text, I still can not change to german. This did not change when restarting thunderbird. For "Wörterbuch" (Dictionary), the link for download is not present (while it is present for other languages, e.g. Afrikaans), but the link for "Sprachpacket herunterladen" keeps beeing there, even if I installed the language packet.

There are other users complaining in the comments section of the language pack: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/thunderbird/addon/deutsch-de-language-pack-thund/ (e.g. "Sprachpakete lassen sich nicht installieren. Anwendung ist völlig unbrauchbar!" means "Language packets can not be installed. Application is not usable at all." which may be an exaggeration.).

Is this still the right way to install a dictionary, or is the link to the dictionary maybe wrong? Can I install it somehow manually or by apt?

I am using Ubuntu 18.04 with latest Thunderbird (52.8.0). Normaly (in older verions of Thunderbird, like the one in Ubuntu 17.10), it was possible to just install a language like described here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-use-firefox-spell-checker in order to use the spell checker in a different language. I clicked on "Sprachen -> Wörterbuch hinzufügen" and downloaded the german language packet. Now in "Add-ons-Verwaltung", there is "Deutsch (DE) Lanuage Pack", and it is activated. Unfortunately, if I right-click on any text, I still can not change to german. This did not change when restarting thunderbird. For "Wörterbuch" (Dictionary), the link for download is not present (while it is present for other languages, e.g. Afrikaans), but the link for "Sprachpacket herunterladen" keeps beeing there, even if I installed the language packet. There are other users complaining in the comments section of the language pack: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/thunderbird/addon/deutsch-de-language-pack-thund/ (e.g. "Sprachpakete lassen sich nicht installieren. Anwendung ist völlig unbrauchbar!" means "Language packets can not be installed. Application is not usable at all." which may be an exaggeration.). Is this still the right way to install a dictionary, or is the link to the dictionary maybe wrong? Can I install it somehow manually or by apt?

Chosen solution

Language packs change the menu and toolbar language, whereas dictionaries are for spellchecking composed messages. This page shows several dictionary links for German (Germany, Austria or Switzerland).

Open the page for a dictionary and drag the Download Now button and drop it onto Tools/Add-ons/Dictionaries in TB.

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sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Language packs change the menu and toolbar language, whereas dictionaries are for spellchecking composed messages. This page shows several dictionary links for German (Germany, Austria or Switzerland).

Open the page for a dictionary and drag the Download Now button and drop it onto Tools/Add-ons/Dictionaries in TB.

James
James
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Language packs and dictionaries are two different things.

On top of https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/language-tools/

Installing a dictionary add-on will add a new language option to your Thunderbird spell-checker, which checks your spelling when you fill out Web forms. Language pack add-ons change the language of the entire application.

So you need to install dictionaries.

dagere
dagere Question owner
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The problem was, that for german, the page https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/language-tools/ does not contain any entry, but for German (Austria), German (Germany) and German (Switzerland) so it seemed like a german dictionary is not installable. One needs to know that one has to scroll down in order to find the country-specific entries.