How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

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Gwaihir
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How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by Gwaihir »

We have two computers, both running Windown 7 Professional 64-bit and both have Thunderbird 52.9.1 installed. One of these is missing the dictionary and I cannot find any way to install it.

I've looked in the Add-ons manager and the dictionary is not listed in Extensions. I've downloaded the British English Dictionary R1.19 for Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey by David Bartlett from https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-GB/th ... y/?src=api but it just wants to install in Firefox. I can't see how to add it as an extension in Thunderbird.

I'm sure I must be missing something obvious. Any help would be gratefully received.
Best regards,

Gwaihir.
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tanstaafl
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by tanstaafl »

Try right clicking on the download button and selecting "save link as", and then go to Tools -> Addons -> Extensions. Select the icon that looks like a gear (its actually a list box) near the top right corner of the window and then select "Install add-on from file"

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders has instructions for installing a different add-on that you could mimic.
Gwaihir
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by Gwaihir »

Many thanks. That worked. It's interesting, though, that following installation it appears in a separate list titled 'Directories' whereas in the other computer (mine) it's listed in 'Extensions'.

That's in spite of both Thunderbird installations being the same version.
Best regards,

Gwaihir.
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Frank Lion
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by Frank Lion »

Gwaihir wrote:Many thanks. That worked. It's interesting, though, that following installation it appears in a separate list titled 'Directories'...
Dictionaries?
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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Gwaihir
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by Gwaihir »

Yes, sorry , that's what I meant.
Best regards,

Gwaihir.
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BuddhaNature
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by BuddhaNature »

Gwaihir,

You should know that the 'dictionary' (really it's a spellchecker, not a dictionary) that you have installed hasn't been updated in years. The better English GB speller for Thunderbird is the one forked by Marco Pinto. Can be got here: British English Dictionary (Marco Pinto). Marco updates the speller more or less on a monthly basis. The same speller is also available for Firefox, Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice. He only updates the OpenOffice and LibreOffice port of the speller around once every two months.

My understanding is that OpenOffice and LibreOffice have adopted that speller as their approved English GB speller. I think this is also the case for Mozilla Firefox. Not sure what it's status is with respect to Thunderbird now that Thunderbird has split from Mozilla.

Hope this helps.
OS: Windows 10 Pro. x64
Gwaihir
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by Gwaihir »

BuddhaNature,

Thanks for that information. I'll take a look.
Best regards,

Gwaihir.
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James
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by James »

BuddhaNature wrote:Gwaihir,

You should know that the 'dictionary' (really it's a spellchecker, not a dictionary) that you have installed hasn't been updated in years. The better English GB speller for Thunderbird is the one forked by Marco Pinto. Can be got here: British English Dictionary (Marco Pinto). Marco updates the speller more or less on a monthly basis. The same speller is also available for Firefox, Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice.
Actually Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey comes with a spell checker built in. The reason you may need to install a dictionary is because only a few locales at most like en-US and maybe fr comes with a dictionary (due to license reasons) for the spell checker to use.

Thunderbird has had Spell check as you type since 1.5 and Firefox has had the inline spellchecker since 2.0
Gwaihir
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by Gwaihir »

Hi James,

This is what prompted my initial post. As I stated we have two virtually identical systems, both built by me but about 3 years apart. Both are running the same version of Windows 7 and both have Thunderbird installed and updated to the latest version. I was always of the impression that Thunderbird included the spellchecker by default but on the later system, for some unaccountable reason, it was missing. I only discovered this when my wife, who uses the later system, had some spelling errors and I noticed these were not being flagged up. By comparing the two systems I then discovered that the English GB dictionary was not listed in the Extensions on her machine.

Would it be worth me completely uninstalling Thunderbird then downloading and installing a new version? If so, how can I back up and restore all her folder and message structure? I currently back up periodically all the folders from the path C:/Users/<user>/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.<username>/Mail/Local Folders/........ to another drive. If I simply write all that back to the original path will that restore the original folder structure?
Best regards,

Gwaihir.
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James
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by James »

The en-GB Thunderbird and Firefox does not come with a dictionary which is why you need to install it.
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BuddhaNature
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Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by BuddhaNature »

Gwaihir wrote:Would it be worth me completely uninstalling Thunderbird then downloading and installing a new version?
Given that Thunderbird has now jumped to a new version, 60.0, and that it is a major revision from previous releases you might be as well just installing it from scratch and building up from the beginning. That said, lots of gripes that lots of add-ons don't work with the new version. You can give it a try and see if it suits your needs by just 'installing' it as a PortableApp. You can get it here (including the English GB version, just scroll down the page and you will see it): Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition You can still keep your fully installed version of Thunderbird while you test the new (portable) version -- neither will interfere with the other, though you can't run both at the same time.

The portable doesn't install to the system as such - just launch the 'installer' and get it to unpack the files into a folder of your choice -- let's say ThunderbirdPortable folder. To launch it just open the ThunderbirdPortable folder and double click on the ThunderbirdPortable.exe file. On first launch it will automatically create a new profile in a sub-folder of the ThunderbirdPortable folder. That profile will be totally separate from, and isolated from, the profile of your fully installed Thunderbird. There are more detailed 'install' instructions accessible from the download page linked to above. Important information about the profile can be seen here: Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition Support

You can copy things like your address book and email files from the profile of your fully installed Thunderbird into the profile of your portable Thunderbird. But I don't have expertise on what to copy (and what not) so you could maybe start a new thread asking for that information.

I would guess, because the latest Thunderbird is a major revision, it probably isn't a good idea to just copy your old profile wholesale into the new version profile folder. But maybe someone with more expertise could comment on that.

Marco Pinto's speller does install okay to Thunderbird 60.0.

P.S. James, thanks for the clarification on what installations come with 'built-in' spellers and what don't.
OS: Windows 10 Pro. x64
Gwaihir
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Location: Cambridge UK

Re: How can I add British English dictionary to Thunderbird?

Post by Gwaihir »

Hi James & BuddhaNature,

Thanks very much to both of you for your input. I think, to be honest, in view of what you've each said I'm going to stick with the installation I've got as I don't want the hassle of configuring a new version. I might take a look at the Marco Pinto checker although the Bartlett one looks to be perfectly adequate for our needs.

Thanks again.
Best regards,

Gwaihir.
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