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Having upgraded to Thunderbird 38.5.0 on a Windows XP computer, why is Spellchecker inoperative when it is flagged as being active?

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  • Last reply by Matt

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When clicking on Spellchecker, the Check Spelling dialogue box opens, but is totally blank, despite there being obvious typos in the message. Similarly when sending the message the Check Spelling box is empty. In Tools/Options/Composition, Enable Spell Checker and Check spelling before sending are both flagged.

Can anybody advise please?

When clicking on Spellchecker, the Check Spelling dialogue box opens, but is totally blank, despite there being obvious typos in the message. Similarly when sending the message the Check Spelling box is empty. In Tools/Options/Composition, Enable Spell Checker and Check spelling before sending are both flagged. Can anybody advise please?

Chosen solution

in the compose window while you have the cursor in the body of an email, right click and select languages.

Is there a dictionary?

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Chosen Solution

in the compose window while you have the cursor in the body of an email, right click and select languages.

Is there a dictionary?

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Thank you very much for you help. It just goes to show that one should never make assumptions - I had assumed that a dictionary would be downloaded with Thunderbird.

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On very rare occasions the dictionary goes missing in the upgrade. I have never worked it out, but I think it is probably a non standard distionary installed as an add-on that misses to upgrade update so is marked as incompatible. But I have seen it probably a dozen timed in five years here.

Modified by Matt