[libreoffice-users] how many languages can LO support at the same time. . .

The problem I have with "selling" LO to computer centers, both regular 
and ones that teach English as a second language, is how many languages 
can LO support at the same time.

I am talking about two ways.  1 - usable dictionaries in the list.  2 - 
different languages you can change your menus to.

The first one is the key for me.

You have English, French, Spanish [3 regional versions], Italian, and 4 
or 5 other different language dictionaries, installed and enabled, in 
the Extension Manager.  How many of those languages are usable to the 
user writing documents in English and one or two other languages at a 
time, then someone else sits down and tried to use his or hers 
language[s] with English.  So how many installed and enabled languages 
can be used at the same time?   I was told there was a very small 
limited number.

Then the second is not much of a problem for me.  Yet, since you can 
switch between language packs and their help packs, how many can you 
install and be able to switch back and forth between English and the 
other non-English languages?

Of course, if a center worker needs to switch the menus back to English, 
or to their default settings, how easy is it if the person/worker does 
not read/speak the language the menu is currently in?  Is it possible to 
make a script to reset the "preferences" back to a default instead of 
some manual copy/paste-over some file?

I do not use any language, other than American English, but others do 
need to deal with more than one language.  I met a lady a number of 
years ago.  She was from my area of the USA, but she worked in Israel as 
a travel "advisor".  She had to use several different packages of MS 
Office, since she needed to write in English, French, Hebrew, and one 
other language that I cannot remember the name of.  I told her that with 
the language support of LO she could use it to write in which ever 
language she needed to do.  I do not know if LO can write both English 
and Hebrew, since one is left to right and the other is right to left 
[if I remember correctly], but if the document was only in Hebrew, or 
English, or French, no problems.  One package can do what she needs to 
do.  We have the language support and the spell checking dictionaries to 
be added on with the language packs or via the Extension Manager and a 
lot of various language spell checking and other language aid 
extensions, sometimes several different ones for the same language.

So multi-lingual users, multi-lingual computer center users, etc., etc., 
need to know what the limits to the number of languages supported at the 
same time for LO.

If there is a small number for the limit, can you switch the supported 
languages around by enabling/disabling them in the Extension Manager?  
Have 10 languages listed in the E.M. and you disable all but the 2,3, or 
4, language used within the current document.  Then disable some of the 
current ones and enable others.  Would that allow the supporting of 10 
or 20 different languages and/or regional variations?

Español (España)     es_es--España
vs.
Español (México)     es_mx--México
vs.
Español (Cuba)     es_cu--Cuba
vs.
Español (Venezuela)     es_ve--Venezuela
vs.
Español (Argentina)     es_ve--Argentina

Or
American English
vs.
British English
vs.
British Oxford English
vs.
New Zealand English
vs.
South African English

plus the different version of French, German, and other languages that 
have different variations, regional or otherwise.

As some people have pointed out to me, if I write an document for the 
U.K., I need to spell color "colour" to get it correctly spelled for 
their region, since my American spelling of "color" would be shown up 
misspelled in their systems as "colour" is misspelled in mine.

So switching between regional language variants is as important as 
switching to totally different languages.

So how many of these languages, and their variants, can LO support and 
use at one time?

We could use that in our marketing for LO to schools, computer centers, 
and multi-lingual users, organizations, and businesses.


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