Spelling Language Dictionaries in Lotus Notes 8.5.1 

The IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.1 standard client has a new spell check engine and new spelling language dictionaries that are in a different format from the ones that were used in version 8.5 and earlier. However, the old spelling dictionaries are not automatically replaced by new spelling dictionaries, and may still exist in the Notes\Data directory. If both sets of dictionaries are present, users may be able to choose which set of dictionaries to use for spell check by setting the default spelling dictionary to either the old or the new set in Spell Check preferences (File > Preferences > Spell Check; Macintosh OS X users: Lotus Notes > Preferences > Spell Check). The language dictionaries that are listed in the Spell Check preference language list are based on the following criteria:

• If only the new spelling dictionary is installed for a language, then the new spelling dictionary displays in the language list.
• If only the old spelling dictionary is installed for a language, then the old spelling dictionary displays in the language list.
• If both the new and old spelling dictionaries are installed for a language, the new spelling dictionary displays in language list; the old spelling dictionary does not display.

Why does the spell check dictionary format matter?

For the typical user who performs spell check in the default language only, there is no issue. However, for users who have installed additional language dictionaries and who perform multi-language spell checks using more than one language dictionaries, there may be an issue if the additional language dictionaries for the new spell check engine were not installed by the administrator. In previous versions of Notes, users could add language dictionaries from the Spell Check preferences dialog by clicking the “Install Dictionary” button. However, that functionality is no longer available in the 8.5.1 Notes client. So an 8.5.1 user may have new default language dictionaries, but no additional language dictionaries in the 8.5.1 format. To perform a multi-language spell check, all dictionaries loaded at spell check runtime must be in the same format (either 8.5 or 8.5.1).

Example
If a user manually installed a German dictionary in 8.5 English Notes, and then upgraded Lotus Notes from version 8.5 to version 8.5.1 without also installing a German dictionary in the new 8.5.1 format, the user would have these dictionaries:

• The existing English, French (Canada) dictionaries, which are installed by default in Notes English, and the German spelling dictionary from the 8.5 installation
• The new 8.5.1 English and French (Canada) spelling dictionaries, which are installed by default in Notes English.

In this case, based on the criteria listed above, only the 8.5.1 English and French (Canada) spelling dictionaries and the 8.5 German spelling dictionary would be listed in the language list of Spell Check preferences. The problem then occurs if a user needs to run a multi-language spell check of both the English and the German-tagged words because all language dictionaries loaded at runtime must be in the same format.

The dictionaries that are used for spell check at runtime depend on whether the user selects a new or an old dictionary as the default spelling dictionary in Spell Check preferences. For spell checking documents that include language-tagged words and use multiple language dictionaries, if a new spelling dictionary is specified as the default spelling dictionary, none of the old language dictionaries are loaded when running spell check. Similarly, if an old spell dictionary is specified as default spelling dictionary the old spell dictionaries are loaded for spell checking instead of loading new spell dictionaries.

So in our example scenario, although both the new and old format dictionaries are listed together in the Spell Check preferences, if the default spelling dictionary is the 8.5.1 format, the existing 8.5 German language dictionary will not be loaded, and the German tagged words will be ignored during spell check.

How do I know whether my default dictionary is an 8.5 or 8.5.1 dictionary?
You can check which spelling dictionaries are installed by opening Spell Check preferences (File > Preferences > Spell Check; Macintosh OS X users: Lotus Notes > Preferences > Spell Check). Supplemental dictionaries are not supported in 8.5.1, so if there are no dictionaries listed in this field, then your default dictionary is an 8.5.1 dictionary.

Multi-language install

If language packs are installed, users can perform spell check on multi-language documents in the language group installed. Table 1 lists the language dictionaries that are supported by the new dictionary engine in Standard Notes 8.5.1.

Table 1. New language dictionary support list
Language	Support (Yes/No)
Group 1 Languages
Chinese Chinese - Traditional Chinese - Simplified	No
English English (Australia) English (Canada) English (Caribbean) English (Ireland) English (Jamaica) English (New Zealand) English (South Africa) English (United Kingdom) English (United States)	Yes
Japanese	No
Korean	No
French French (Belgium) French (Canada) French (Luxembourg) French (Standard) French (Switzerland)	Yes
German German (Austria) German (Liechtenstein) German (Luxembourg) German (Reform) German (Switzerland)	Yes
Italian Italian (Standard) Italian (Switzerland)	Yes
Spanish Spanish (Argentina) Spanish (Bolivia) Spanish (Chile) Spanish (Colombia) Spanish (Costa Rica) Spanish (Dominican Republic) Spanish (Ecuador) Spanish (Guatemala) Spanish (Mexico) Spanish (Modern Sort) Spanish (Panama) Spanish (Paraguay) Spanish (Peru) Spanish (Uruguay) Spanish (Venezuela)	Yes
Portuguese (Brazil)(1)	Yes
Group 2 Languages
Thai	No
Arabic	Yes
Turkish	Yes (No Mac support)
Danish	Yes
Finnish	Yes
Norwegian Norwegian (Bokmal) Norwegian (Nynorsk)	Yes
Swedish	Yes
Catalan	Yes
Dutch Dutch Dutch Belgian	Yes
Greek	Yes
Hebrew	Yes (No Mac support)
Portuguese Portuguese (Standard)	Yes
Group 3 Languages
Bulgarian	No
Croatian	No
Czech	Yes
Hungarian	Yes (No Mac support)
Polish	Yes
Romanian	No
Russian Russian Russian (lo)	Yes
Slovak	No
Slovenian	No
Ukrainian	No
Icelandic	No
Group 4 Languages
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi Indonesian, Kannda, Konkani, Malay, Malayalam, Marati, Nepali, Oriya, Pungjabi, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Vietnamese, Urdu	No
Afrikaans	Yes
Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani (Latin), Belarusian, Estonian, Georgian, Kazakh, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin), Swahili,	No
Welsh, Maltese	No
Medical (English)	No

¹ The new Portuguese (Brazil) dictionary has been updated in the Notes 8.5.1 client; the dictionary complies with spelling reforms for Portuguese, which go into effect in Brazil officially after January 1, 2009.

Table 2 lists the language dictionaries are supported by the old spell check engine in the Notes 8.5.1 standard client.

Table 2. Old (pre 8.5.1) language dictionary support list
Language	Spell check supports by platform (Yes/No)
	Windows	Linux	Mac
Group 1 Languages
Chinese Chinese - Traditional Chinese - Simplified	Lexical analysis and synonyms ONLY.	Lexical analysis and synonyms ONLY.	Lexical analysis and synonyms ONLY.
English English (Canada) English (Caribbean) English (Ireland) English (Jamaica) English (New Zealand) English (South Africa) English (United Kingdom) English (United States)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Japanese	No	No	No
Korean	No	No	No
French French (Belgium) French (Canada) French (Luxembourg) French (Standard) French (Switzerland)	Yes	Yes	Yes
German German (Austria) German (Liechtenstein) German (Luxembourg) German (Reform) German (Switzerland)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Italian Italian (Standard) Italian (Switzerland)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spanish Spanish (Argentina) Spanish (Bolivia) Spanish (Chile) Spanish (Colombia) Spanish (Costa Rica) Spanish (Dominican Republic) Spanish (Ecuador) Spanish (Guatemala) Spanish (Mexico) Spanish (Modern Sort) Spanish (Panama) Spanish (Paraguay) Spanish (Peru) Spanish (Uruguay) Spanish (Venezuela)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Portuguese (Brazil)(1)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Group 2 Languages
Thai	Yes	No	No
Arabic	Yes	Yes	Yes
Turkish	Yes	Yes	No
Danish	Yes	Yes	Yes
Finnish	Yes	Yes	Yes
Norwegian Norwegian (Bokmal) Norwegian (Nynorsk)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Swedish	Yes	Yes	Yes
Catalan	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dutch Dutch Dutch Belgian	Yes	Yes	Yes
Greek	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hebrew	Yes	Yes	No
Portuguese Portuguese (Standard)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Group 3 Languages
Bulgarian	No	No	No
Croatian	No	No	No
Czech	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hungarian	Yes	Yes	No
Polish	Yes	Yes	Yes
Romanian	No	No	No
Russian Russian Russian (lo)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Slovak	No	No	No
Slovenian	No	No	No
Ukrainian	No	No	No
Icelandic	Yes	Yes	Yes
Group 4 Languages
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi Indonesian, Kannda, Konkani, Malay, Malayalam, Marati, Nepali, Oriya, Pungjabi, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Vietnamese, Urdu	No	No	No
Afrikaans	Yes	Yes	Yes
Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani (Latin), Belarusian, Estonian, Georgian, Kazakh, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin), Swahili,	No	No	No
Welsh, Maltese	No	No	No
Medical (English)	Yes	Yes	Yes

¹ The old Portuguese (Brazil) dictionary has been updated in the Notes 8.5.1 client; the dictionary complies with spelling reforms for Portuguese, which go into effect in Brazil officially after January 1, 2009.