I was editing a document with Libre Previous Writer and tried to turn on spell checking that underlines mis-spelled words in red.
I was unable to activate the feature and in the course of troubleshooting discovered that both Libre Fresh and Previous can not underline mis-spelled words in red if the install path is 58 characters long or greater.
OpenOffice underlined mis-spelled words fine with the default install path of 64 characters on my system.
I have the PortableAppsPlatform folder installed in C:\Portable which only adds 8 characters to the total length.
Windows 10, Libre Previous, LibreOfficeWriterPortable 7.4.5.1
Spellcheck does **not** work, mis-spelled words are not underlined in red:
C:\Portable\PortableAppsPlatform\PortableApps\LibreOfficePortablePrevious\
>> path length = 73 not including last backslash
C:\Portable\PortableAppsPlatform\PortableApps\Lib012345678\
>> path length = 58 not including last backslash
Spellcheck work fine, mis-spelled words are correctly underlined in red:
C:\Portable\PortableAppsPlatform\PortableApps\Lib01234567\ = 57 not including last backslash
>> path length = 57 not including last backslash
Windows 10, Libre Fresh, LibreOfficeWriterPortable 7.5.2.2
Spellcheck does **not** work, mis-spelled words are not underlined in red:
C:\Portable\PortableAppsPlatform\PortableApps\LibreOfficePortable\
>> path length = 65 not including last backslash
C:\Portable\PortableAppsPlatform\PortableApps\Lib012345678\
>> path length = 58 not including last backslash
Spellcheck work fine, mis-spelled words are correctly underlined in red:
C:\Portable\PortableAppsPlatform\PortableApps\Lib01234567\ = 57 not including last backslash
>> path length = 57 not including last backslash
Windows 10, OpenOffice, OpenOfficeWriterPortablee 4.1.14
Spellcheck work fine, mis-spelled words are correctly underlined in red:
C:\Portable\PortableAppsPlatform\PortableApps\OpenOfficePortable\
>> path length = 64 not including last backslash
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This is a limitation of the apps themselves. LibreOffice is based on OpenOffice so they share the issue. This has been an issue for over a decade and is unlikely to be fixed. The workaround is not to use such deep paths.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Since shortening the path to just C:\Portable\LibreOfficePortablePrevious\ Libre apps open much faster than before.
So, the path length shortening not only enables spell checking / red underlining but it also speeds things up very noticeably!
I'm posting these details since there are many issues with Libre spell checking and all of the Libre help comments I found cover other program issues but not the path length.
The PortableApps Libre is still a great program despite not being auto updated anymore with the other PAs, thanks!
Have you thought about moving all your PA.c Format apps and the platform to the C:\PortableApps path? Then it would all auto-update. And, any test apps not in the app store you install will automatically find that path when you run the installer.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That's a good idea but I also have ~340 non-PortableApps portable program folders in my c:\Portable folder. This way allows me to copy the Portable folder for new installs - very convenient!
The only PortableApps program with this path length issue is Libre and I've moved it to c:\Portable and will update it manually.
Since I've moved Libre to the shorter path, Libre apps start fast! I recall troubleshooting slow start Libre apps years ago and seeing "that's just the way it is" since it's portable and the Libre TSR that speeds start ups doesn't run with Portable mode.
But now with the shorter path lengths, Libre apps start like a normal, full install. If anyone runs portable Libre and has slow app starts, try minimizing the path length - it worked for me!