To spell-check more than one language in Collabora Online, both sides of the setup must agree: the server must provide and allow the needed dictionaries, and the document text must be tagged with the language it actually uses. Turning on red underlines alone will not make Collabora reliably identify every language in a mixed-language document.
Illustrative example: Imagine Northside Literacy Network preparing a volunteer guide with English instructions and Spanish family resources in the same Writer file. This is a fictional example used to explain the steps; it does not describe a real organization or a tested Collabora deployment. The goal is for English text to be checked with an English dictionary and Spanish text with a Spanish dictionary, while leaving names and specialized terms easy to review.
Collabora Online runs its editing engine on a server. As a result, installing a dictionary on a writer’s laptop does not necessarily add it to the online editor. The Collabora server needs the relevant writing-aid dictionary, and its configuration must permit that language. An administrator may need to make this change; a document editor usually cannot install server-wide language resources from the browser.
The user interface language is separate from the document’s proofing language. Changing menus to Spanish, for example, does not automatically tag Spanish paragraphs in a file or guarantee that the server has a Spanish spell-check dictionary.
Before changing the server, ask the administrator which Collabora deployment you use: a CODE container, Collabora Online installed from packages, a managed hosted service, or an office integration supplied by another platform. The location and persistence of configuration differ. For a hosted service, users may need the provider to enable dictionaries rather than editing configuration themselves.
Make a short list of actual writing languages and regional variants. For Northside’s fictional guide, this might be U.S. English and Spanish. If a document needs Canadian French or Brazilian Portuguese, use the matching variant when available instead of assuming that every regional dictionary is interchangeable. Collabora’s language code list is a server configuration detail; the code shown by the running deployment may use a form such as en_US, while the document interface may display a human-readable language name.
Keep the list limited to the languages people use. Collabora’s configuration describes allowed_languages as the list of languages supported by writing aids and warns that allowing too many can affect startup performance.
On a self-managed installation, confirm that the Collabora/LibreOffice language dictionary packages for each language are installed. Package names vary among distributions and Collabora editions, so check the package instructions for your operating system rather than copying an Ubuntu, Debian, or RPM package name blindly. A locale may appear in a menu without a usable spell checker if its corresponding dictionary module is missing.
If you run the official CODE Docker image, follow its current container configuration instructions for selecting dictionaries. Do not assume that adding a locale to an application’s own environment or installing a dictionary on the host automatically updates a running container. Persist the relevant setting in the container deployment definition so a recreation or image update does not silently remove it.
For a package-based deployment, an administrator may need to update the allowed_languages setting in coolwsd.xml, using the language codes supported by the installation. A simplified illustration of the value might look like this:
<allowed_languages>en_US es_ES</allowed_languages>This snippet illustrates a list only; it is not a complete configuration file and should not replace the file’s existing attributes or deployment-specific settings. For CODE containers, apply language selection through the supported Docker configuration method for the exact image version. Do not edit a temporary container file if the deployment manager will discard it on restart.
After the dictionary and allow-list are updated, restart or redeploy Collabora using the service procedure for that installation. Check server logs or the provider’s health view for startup errors. A successful restart is only an infrastructure check; next verify that the target languages appear in the editor’s language list and that a sample word in each language is checked appropriately.
Open the document in Collabora Online Writer. Select the English or Spanish text that needs a different proofing language, then use the language command in the Tools menu. Collabora’s Writer interface provides language choices for selected text, a paragraph, or the document; the exact menu wording and placement can vary with the Collabora version and whether the tabbed or classic interface is enabled. For Northside’s example, select the English instructions and assign English, then select the Spanish family-resource paragraphs and assign Spanish.
For text that will be reused, paragraph styles are usually more maintainable than repeatedly formatting each paragraph directly. A heading or body-text style can carry the intended language, so later paragraphs using that style receive the same proofing language. Review the existing document first: text can inherit a language from a paragraph style or have a more specific language assigned to selected words.
Do not select “entire document” if the file is genuinely multilingual. That changes the language of the existing content as a whole, which could cause the Spanish section to be checked as English or vice versa. Similarly, a default document language is not a substitute for assigning a second language to its text.
Turn on Tools > Automatic Spell Checking if it is off. Misspelled words should then be marked as you type, when the current document language has an available dictionary. To run a manual check, choose Tools > Spelling, use the Review tab if that is the interface your deployment shows, or press F7 where the browser and platform pass that shortcut through.
When the spelling dialog finds a word, verify the language assigned to that passage before accepting a suggestion. A person’s name, organization name, place name, acronym, or borrowed term may be correct even when the dictionary flags it. Add trusted recurring terms to an appropriate user dictionary if the deployment allows it; do not accept a change just to clear an underline.
Use a short test copy rather than editing a production document for the first check. In Northside’s fictional guide, include one intentionally misspelled common word in the English section and another in the Spanish section, plus a correctly spelled word in each. Assign each paragraph its language, turn on automatic checking, and run the manual spelling check. The expected result is that the misspellings are identified using the matching dictionaries while the correct words are not flagged. Remove the test errors afterward.
If one language is missing from the language menu or has no useful suggestions, the issue is probably server-side: the dictionary is not installed, the locale is not allowed, the new configuration has not been applied, or the editor is connected to a different Collabora instance than the administrator changed. If a language is available but every word in a section is flagged, inspect that passage’s assigned language and paragraph style before changing server packages.
Also check the saved document after closing and reopening it. Language formatting is document content, while spell-check underlines can be a local view preference. Confirm that the language assignment remains attached to the correct paragraphs and that another authorized editor sees the same proofing behavior.
In a managed Nextcloud, ownCloud, or other hosted integration, the platform team or service provider may control the Collabora server configuration. Give the administrator the language codes required, the Collabora version or deployment type if known, and a description of which language is absent. Ask them to confirm both that the dictionary is installed and that the language is allowed. A request to change only the default document language may not solve the problem.
If an external grammar service such as LanguageTool is enabled, treat it as a separate feature from the built-in spell-check dictionary. Collabora documents remote grammar checking as a configurable service; depending on configuration, document text may be sent to that service. Review the organization’s privacy and data-handling requirements before enabling a remote checker. A remote checker is not required just to assign multiple local dictionary languages.
Menu labels and deployment mechanisms can change across releases and integrations. Check the documentation for the exact Collabora Online version and container or package you operate. Useful primary references include Collabora’s guide to selecting document languages, its language options reference, and its spelling dialog reference. For server configuration, consult the Collabora Online SDK manual and the official CODE Docker configuration guide. The guide and menus cited here were checked on October 6, 2026; verify them against your installed release before changing a production service.
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