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Adding Hunspell Dictionaries to InDesign indesignsecrets.com

Once a year I go to Oahu to teach at the University of Hawaii. (It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do
it.) Each year, when I teach changing the language settings for InDesign spelling checks, the students
ask if there is a dictionary for Hawaiian. Each time I have sadly replied no. Even though InDesign CS6+
supports adding custom Hunspell dictionaries, I’ve never been able to find those dictionaries for
Hawaiian.

However, this year I asked in the User to User forum if anyone knew of a Hunspell dictionary for
Hawaiian. I was pointed to an extension for Firefox that allows spell checking for Hawaiian. I contacted
the author of the extension, Kevin Scallen from the Indigenous Tweets project and got a link to the
custom Hawaiian Hunspell dictionary he created. Kevin also has an extension for Firefox which can be
used for gmail and other web-based services. (Kevin is also interested in any Hawaiian-speakers to
email him with suggestions for new words to add to his dictionary.

So it turns out that finding the dictionary was the easy part. The hard part was deciphering the cryptic
instructions in the Adobe Help files for Adding Hunspell dictionaries. I had hoped for a simple “Import
Hunspell” command. Sadly that was not the case.

Instead, I had to follow Adobe’s rather baffling instructions meticulously in order to get the dictionary
installed correctly. And if I found the tricky bits difficult, I figured many others would too. So I decided to
write up this explanation.

Getting to the Help file

Perhaps the first clue that this will be difficult is that, unlike virtually every other feature in InDesign,
Adobe actually put a link directly to the Help file for this topic in the program! Go to Preferences >
Dictionary and then click the Hunspell button. This opens the Help file document. (There’s nothing
special about going through the Preferences dialog box. You can just click that links to get there.)

Once I opened the Help file, I had

to break the instructions down
into smaller segments in order to
understand what I needed to do. I
ended up with ten segments:

1. Finding the Hunspell

dictionaries
2. Extracting the package
Click the Hunspell Info button to open the Help file for Adding or Removing Hunspell contents
dictionaries
3. Renaming the language files
4. Finding the language and country codes
5. Finding the Dictionaries location on your computer
6. Opening the Hunspell package (Mac users only)
7. Creating the Dictionaries folder and its contents
8. Finding the string element “info.plist” file
9. Adding the proper string element
10. Finally! Testing the new language dictionary
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1. Finding Hunspell dictionaries

I got my Hawaiian dictionaries through Kevin. But that’s not the only place to find Hunspell dictionaries.
Adobe gives you the links to the dictionaries at the Apache OpenOffice website. You can also
find Hunspell dictionaries that are extensions for Firefox.

Once you get to these pages, you need to scroll through to find the language you need.

Instead of installing the Hawaiian dictionaries, which has its own special download link, I have decided
to use a language that can be downloaded from OpenOffice or Firefox. I chose New Zealand English in
honour of my several friends based down there. (I never thought the Kiwis spoke anything other that
United Kingdom English, but there you are!) However, there are plenty of other languages to choose
such as Tagalog (Philippines), Afrikaans (South Africa), or Yiddish (almost everywhere).

In OpenOffice or Firefox, click the link for New Zealand to open its download page and click the
Download button. The package downloads.

2. Extracting the package

contents

When you download a

dictionary from the OpenOffice
site, it comes with the “oxt”
extension for OpenOffice
software. If you download a
dictionary extension from
Mozilla Firefox, it comes with an
.xpi extension. You need to
The Download link from OpenOffice.org.
extract
the
contents
of this
package.
If you
double-click
the
file
The Download link from Mozilla Firefox.
and it
opens, then you’re set. But if you can’t open the package, then just change the extension to .zip. Once
it is a Zip file there should be no problem using a default application to extract the package.

3. Renaming the language files

Once you have the package contents, you

want to look for two types of files: a spelling
or hyphenation dictionary (.dic) file, and an
affix (.aff) file. You want to make sure these
files are named correctly. The format for

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naming them is created by the International

Standards Organization (ISO). The dictionary
and affix file code use the ISO 639-1 code
for the language in lowercase, an
underscore, and then the ISO code for the
country in uppercase. For example, the
dictionary code for english would be

en_US.dict

The affix file name would be

Change the file extension for a dictionary package to extract the contents. en_US.aff

If you have a hyphenation file, the naming format is hyph, an underscore, the ISO 639-1 code for the
language in lowercase, an underscore, and then the ISO code for the country. The hyphenation file for
English would be

hyph_en_US.hyph

So the New Zealand English files are named “en” for the language and NZ for the country.

en_NZ.dict
en_NZ.aff
hyph_en_GB.hyph

Notice the hyphenation file for New Zealand English doesn’t use the country code NZ, but using the
country code GB for Great Britain. So the files for one language can use the hyphenations from
another.

If the Hunspell files you download are named correctly, you don’t have to rename them. And you can
skip the next step.

4. Finding the language and country codes

By the way, if you’re looking for the language codes, the Adobe Help file sends you to Wiktionary for
the language codes. But I couldn’t find the Hawaiian codes there. Instead, I asked Kevin how he got
the “haw” for Hawaiian. Kevin explained that the ISO ran out of two-letter codes, so they expanded the
language codes into three letters. Adobe’s file only sends you to the original two-letter codes. ISO
639-3 contains the additional three-letter codes.

Similarly, you can look to the ISO for the country codes. The country code for the Hawaiian files Kevin
sent me is US since Hawaiian is a language in the United States. The New Zealand country code is
NZ. English is an an example of a language that has more than one country. You can have Canadian
English, US English, UK English, and New Zealand English. Each has the same language code, but a
different country code.

If you’re looking for country codes, Adobe’s Help file points you in a direction; but don’t bother, as the
page no longer exists and the lists of country codes that they do have cost money. Fortunately (since I
am the stingiest person I know), I found a free list of country codes at Wikipedia.

5. Finding the Dictionaries location on your computer

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So now that you’ve got the files named correctly, you need to install them so InDesign can use them.
This was the part that totally stumped me. The dictionary, aff, and hyph files all need to live in the
proper place on your computer. But the instructions in the Adobe Help file had a major flaw! This is
what the Help file says to do to find the location of the Dictionaries directory:

Create a folder named <language ISO Code> in the Dictionaries folder, and copy these
renamed files in it. Depending on the operating system, you can find the directory
“Dictionaries” at the locations listed below.

Then the file has a table with the location paths. This is how the table looks in my browser.

Notice that the path is cut off by the edge of the

frame on the page. I spent hours trying to find the
right location for the Dictionaries files. But I couldn’t
find it because I wasn’t looking at the complete
path. I finally got it when I inserted my cursor inside
the path text and triple clicked to select all the text
in that table cell.

There are several different path locations for the

files depending on what version of InDesign you’re
using and the platform. Look carefully at these
choices. I’ll providing the complete paths here so
Click the Hunspell Info button to open the Help file for Adding or
Removing Hunspell dictionaries The Download link from you don’t have to go back to the Adobe Help file for
OpenOffice.org. The Download link from Mozilla Firefox. Change the path. Make sure the path doesn’t get cut off.
the file extension for a dictionary package to extract the contents.

Windows Users:

You need to look carefully as to which version of the Windows operating system you’re using (64 or 32
bit) as well as which version of InDesign you’re using.

If you are working with the 32 bit version of InDesign CC on the Windows 32 bit operating system, your
path is:

%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Adobe InDesign
CC\Plug-Ins\Dictionaries\LILO\Linguistics\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlugin

If you are working with the 64 bit version of InDesign CC on the Windows 32 bit operating system, your
path is:

%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CC (64

bit)\Plug-Ins\Dictionaries\LILO\Linguistics\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlug

If you are working with the 64 bit version of InDesign CC on the Windows 64 bit operating system, your
path is:

%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CC (64

bit)\Plug-Ins\Dictionaries\LILO\Linguistics\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlug

If you are working with InDesign CS6 on the Windows 32 bit operating system, your path is:

%ProgramFiles%\Common
Files\Adobe\Linguistics\6.0\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlugin\Dictionaries
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If you are working with InDesign CS6 on the Windows 64 bit operating system, your path is:

Program Files(x86)\Common
Files\Adobe\Linguistics\6.0\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlugin\Dictionaries

Mac Users:

Mac users don’t have as many choices for which version of InDesign they are using.

If you are working with InDesign CC on the Mac OS, your path is:

/Applications/Adobe InDesign
CC/Plug-Ins/Dictionaries/LILO/Linguistics/Providers/Plugins2/AdobeHunspellPlugin

If you are working with InDesign CS6 on the Mac OS, your path is:

/Library/Application
Support/Adobe/Linguistics/6.0/Providers/Plugins2/AdobeHunspellPlugin.bundle/Cont

6. Opening the Hunspell package (Mac users only)

Mac users will encounter one more speed bump. Notice that part of the path is
AdobeHunspellPlugin.bundle. Bundles in Mac OS X are like folders, but they don’t open if you
double-click them. When you get to that point in the path, right-mouse click and choose Show Package
Contents. That’s where you’ll find the Contents folder to continue the path to the Dictionaries folder.

Windows users don’t have this problem. The

AdobeHunspellPlugin directory opens with a double
click, just as any other Windows folder opens.

7. Creating the Dictionaries folder and its

contents

Once you’ve gotten to the Dictionaries folder, create

a new directory named with the proper language and
country code. For New Zealand English the folder is
named “en_NZ”. The dict, aff, and hyph files go in
that folder. The directory will look like this:
Click the Hunspell Info button to open the Help file for Adding or
Removing Hunspell dictionaries The Download link from
OpenOffice.org. The Download link from Mozilla Firefox. With the new directory in place, close up the
Change the file extension for a dictionary package to extract the directories including the Macintosh bundle file.
contents.

8. Finding the
string element
“info.plist” file

Like the
Click the Hunspell Info button to open the Help file for Adding or Removing Hunspell dictionaries The Download
Dictionaries
link from OpenOffice.org. The Download link from Mozilla Firefox. Change the file extension for a dictionary
package to extract the contents.
directory, you
need to wade through to find the info.plist file. Fortunately that isn’t so hard now that you found the
Dictionaries directory.

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There are several different path locations for the files depending on what version of InDesign you’re
using and the platform. Look carefully at these choices. I’ll providing the complete paths here so you
don’t have to go back to the Adobe Help file for the path. Make sure the path doesn’t get cut off.

Windows Users:

You need to look carefully as to which version of the Windows operating system you’re using (64 or 32
bit) as well as which version of InDesign you’re using.

If you are working with the 32 bit version of InDesign CC on the Windows 32 bit operating system, your
path is:

%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Adobe InDesign
CC\Plug-Ins\Dictionaries\LILO\Linguistics\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlugin

If you are working with the 64 bit version of InDesign CC on the Windows 32 bit operating system, your
path is:

%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CC (64

bit)\Plug-Ins\Dictionaries\LILO\Linguistics\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlug

If you are working with the 64 bit version of InDesign CC on the Windows 64 bit operating system, your
path is:

%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CC (64

bit)\Plug-Ins\Dictionaries\LILO\Linguistics\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlug

If you are working with InDesign CS6 on the Windows 32 bit operating system, your path is:

%ProgramFiles%\Common
Files\Adobe\Linguistics\6.0\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlugin

If you are working with InDesign CS6 on the Windows 64 bit operating system, your path is:

Program Files(x86)\Common
Files\Adobe\Linguistics\6.0\Providers\Plugins2\AdobeHunspellPlugin

Mac Users:

Mac users don’t have as many decisions for which version of InDesign they are using.

If you are working with InDesign CC on the Mac OS, your path is:

/Applications/Adobe InDesign
CC/Plug-Ins/Dictionaries/LILO/Linguistics/Providers/Plugins2/AdobeHunspellPlugin

If you are working with InDesign CS6 on the Mac OS, your path is:

/Library/Application
Support/Adobe/Linguistics/6.0/Providers/Plugins2/AdobeHunspellPlugin.bundle

9. Adding the proper string elements to the info.plist file

The following information seems to be missing from the Adobe Help file steps. But it was the only way I
was able to get the Hunspell dictionaries to appear inside InDesign. However, I admit that I may have
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done something wrong; maybe the text strings would be added automatically on other people’s
system?

Open the info.plist file using a text editor. I use Text Wrangler on the Mac because it’s free and it won’t
add any formatting accidentally. You need to add string elements to three different places in this text
file.

Find the text strings under Spelling Service, UserDictionaryService Element, and HyphenationService
and add the following string element in each position:

<string> language code underscore country code </string>

So the string element for the New Zealand file would look like:

I inserted three tab characters so each string element lines

up with the rest of the text. Remember, you need to add
these strings in three places.

Click the Hunspell Info button to open the Help file for
Also, if you didn’t add an element such as the
Adding or Removing Hunspell dictionaries The
Download link from OpenOffice.org. The Download hyph_en_GB.hyph file, you don’t have to add that string to
link from Mozilla Firefox. Change the file extension for the info.plist file.
a dictionary package to extract the contents.

10. Testing the new language dictionary

Finally, you’re done! Save and close up all the text files, the directories, and restart InDesign. You need
to look for the language listed in in the various places where the language would be listed. For
instance, I look at the language menu in the Control panel:

I never expected installing Hunspell dictionaries to be such an ordeal.

And I can understand if these instructions have scared you off. But if
you’ve made it all the way down here, you’re obviously need to add
new languages to InDesign. Good luck!
Click the Hunspell Info button to open
the Help file for Adding or Removing
Hunspell dictionaries The Download link
Why Did My Curly Typography Quotes
from OpenOffice.org. The Download link
from Mozilla Firefox. Change the file Turn Off?
extension for a dictionary package to
extract the contents.
by David Blatner

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