Ok, I’m constantly forgetting how to do the document, paragraph and word language settings in open office (for the spellchecker). So here it is (courtesy of Russell Butler).
To obtain the relevant dictionaries, go to
File > Wizards > Install new dictionaries
and download the ones you want.
To set the default language for your installation, go to
Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages
and set the default for all your documents. If there is a dictionary for your selection, there will be a tick mark against it.
It is important to remember that language is an attribute of the text of a document, and can be set differently in different parts of the same document. This allows foreign language quotes to be separately checked against the appropriate dictionary.
To set the default for a document that is different from the default setting for all other documents, when you have opened the document (or started a new one) go to the Default style (or the root style for your document) and change it there.
F11 > Right click on Default > Modify > Font
You can now set the language for this style which will be carried down to other styles derived from it unless otherwise
To change the language for a piece of text, highlight the text and
Right click > Character > Font
where you can set the language for just that portion of text.
If you set up your styles for a language in an empty document and then save it as a template (
File > Templates > Save), then you can select the appropriate one to start a new document with
File -> New -> Templates and Documents.