My Mac is set up in English and now I’d like to use Scrivener to write a book in a different language (without having to switch the Mac back and forth while writing) - is this possible? I couldn’t find anything about this in the menus or on this forum. I was hoping for a setting somewhere in the “Project” menu.
This doesn’t just affect the spell checker - also things like “chapter <$w>” title numbering, for example.
-jcw
Hi,
Unfortunately there’s no way of doing this at the moment, and it seems to be an OS X limitation (we use the OS X text system - programs that use custom text systems such as Mellel and Word have more flexibility with languages). There is - rather strangely - no way to tell the OS X text system’s spell-checker what language to use programmatically; it always reverts to the user’s system preferences settings. This means that there’s no way for me to offer the user a choice of languages and tell the text system to use the selected language (and this affects number formatting such as <$w> too). I will continue to look for a solution, though, as you’re by no means the only user to have requested this, and I agree that it is an annoying limitation.
All the best,
Keith
Thanks for the quick explanation, Keith.
I’m sorry to hear this - but I do understand that it’s a very complex issue. Imagine writing a single multi-lingual booklet for example - then languages would need to change for each section.
My workaround for now will probably be to avoid <$w> (and maybe even turn off the spelling checker). It’s not a show stopper - Scrivener’s features are too impressive to put it aside for something like this!
Cheers,
-jcw
Since I frequently write in two languages, I decided a few years ago to disable the System spell checker and invest in Spell Catcher (rainmakerinc.com)
It’s a full featured, professional spell checker that lets you instantly switch between an arbitrary number of languages using (definable) keyboard shortcuts. Spell Catcher did have a bit of learning curve initially but once I was past it, it works really well.
Also, you can use it for automatic completion and other chores and it’s very configurable. I wouldn’t want to be without it.
/Joachim
I don’t know about chapter numbering, but the spelling language should be automatically detected if you choose “Automatic by language” in the Spelling and grammar window. Isn’t it working?
Paolo