Change document language on Scivener 3 for Windows

Hi, I didn’t find how to change the current language of a document or a paragraph in Scrivener 3.1.5.1 for Windows. I can access the spell checker params but didn’t find a way to change the language.

Here is the old thread on this, from back in beta testing. The short answer is that there is no infrastructure for what you’re trying to do, and it is technically difficult to achieve one with the tools we have available for making all of this happen.

1 Like

Thanks for the quick reply! Well that’s kind of a severe limitation for a document writing app not to be able to spellcheck in the language that you need. I hope a solution will be found at some point.

If the need is for multi-lingual work, yes you would need to employ some kind of workaround such as one of the ones suggested in the thread.

For a more typical case of there only being one dominant language used in the entire work though, it does what you need there. There is no language setting beyond the spell check setting (and I guess the typography settings for quotes would also fall under that), because there are no tools beyond that, that would care about it, if that makes sense.

1 Like

Ok so my problem is not only to be able to use multiple languages, but just one language beyond english (actually french). I cannot find how to change the document language to french so spellcheck is made in french.

Okay, I misread your first comment, and thought you had already changed the spell check language and were merely looking for a way to tag specific paragraphs or text sections so they could use a different spelling dictionary.

  1. You will need to go into File ▸ Options..., and then into Corrections: Spelling.
  2. As the installer does not have all of the dictionaries included in it, you will need to download the French dictionary, so click the Download... button, select it from the list, and download.
  3. Once that is complete, click the Select... button, and you should see it in the list. Select it and click OK.

Once you save your settings, you should see it working as expected in the main editor.

2 Likes

Ok great, got it thanks! I was looking into Project Settings and Edit Spelling and couldn’t find it, but it was somewhere else :grinning_face:

1 Like

Amber is there a way to make a dictionary project specific so could split a multilanguage project into different projects spell and grammar check and then merge back into one project?

No, if there were that ability we would have a setting in Project Settings. As I understand it the whole engine boots up as part of the software launch, and is shared between all open windows. You can switch the engine after launch, but everything you would need to say this window needs a different dictionary is hard to implement.

1 Like