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MacSpelling

Installing aspell on Mac OS X

Here are instructions for installing aspell on Mac OS X. They apply, mutatis mutandis, to ispell, and hspell as well.

Because you're getting the source files, you'll need to compile and install them. But it's really not hard.

Note: You must follow these instructions from an administrative account on your Mac, and you must have the developer tools installed. (Apple's most recent developer tools can be downloaded here; it's a large download, and you may want to use your OS X install CDs to install them instead.)

Download both aspell itself and the dictionaries you want from http://aspell.sourceforge.net/. (For a list of supported languages, go here. Make sure these files are decompressed. (If you don't see folders with the appopriate names, doubleclick on the .gz files (and, if that only leaves you with .tar files, on these as well) until you have the folders.) To avoid errors, make sure that the total path to these folders do not include any spaces (e.g. do not put them into "~/Library/Application Support/LyX/"; the directory "~/Library/Spelling/" works well, though, as should the Desktop). Then open Terminal.app, and do the following:

1. Type cd , followed by a space, but don't hit <Return> yet.
2. Drag the folder icon for the aspell program into the Terminal window (text will appear showing the directory the folder is in), and hit <Return>.
3. Type ./configure, followed by <Return>. That will spew out some messages about what it's doing.
4. When that's done, type make, followed by <Return>. Again, you'll get more output.
5. When that's done, type sudo make install, followed by <Return>. You'll be asked for your password, and you should type it (though nothing will appear on the screen), and then hit <Return>.

You'll need to repeat steps 1-5 for each of the dictionaries you want to install. (You'll get separate folders for each.)

That's it. Now from within LyX, select Tools > Reconfigure, restart LyX when it tells you to, double check that aspell is selected from LyX > Preferences > Spellchecker, and you should be good to go.

Installing cocoAspell

If instead you download and install cocoAspell from http://cocoaspell.leuski.net/ you need to specify the exact path to the dictionary in LyX spellchecking preferences. For example paste the following line into the "Alternative language" field:

/Library/Application Support/cocoAspell/aspell6-en-6.0-0/english

This appears not to use the multiple dictionaries, as selected in the Spelling Preference Pane.

To use multiple dictionaries, navigate to /Library/Application Support/cocoAspell/aspell6-en-6.0-0/ , then inspect the .multi files (e.g. using TextEdit). Find one which is most similar to the selection you are after. Make a copy, then edit it. Add line(s), using syntax similar to the existing lines, with the file name of the relevant dictionary (e.g. "add en-variant_1.rws"). Select this modified .multi file in the LyX preference, e.g.:

/Library/Application Support/cocoAspell/aspell6-en-6.0-0/mynewselection.multi

Some users have run into problems with not being able to save to the personal dictionary. A work-around is to edit the file at /usr/local/etc/aspell.conf and remove the line "home-dir $HOME/Library/Preferences/aspell".

Spellchecking Mac