Finally, the amazing team from KhmerOS has realeased the Khmer Spell Checker (KSC) for OpenOffice. Here is the instruction for installing KSC on Debian (Lenny) system.

  1. Download the package from: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133361&package_id=244774

  2. Unzip it:

    $ unzip Khmer_Spellchecker_v1.0.zip

  3. Change to that directory:

    $ cd Khmer Spellchecker v1.0/

  4. Become the super user:

    $ su
Password: (enter your root password)

  5. Copy two files: km_KH.aff km_KH.dic to OOo’s dict directory:

    # cp km_* /usr/lib/openoffice/share/dict/ooo

    The above directory could be slighty different from one system to another.

  6. As a root, use your favorite text editor to edit `dictionary.lst’ file, I’m using vim:

    # vim /etc/openoffice/dictionary.lst

  7. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and add: DICT km KH km_KH

    DICT km KH km_KH

  8. Save the file (dictionary.lst)

You’re almost done, so hang on there. We need to change some settings in OpenOffice program itself too.

  1. Open OpenOffice.org Writer from the menu
  2. From the Tools men, select Options
  3. Click on the + sign in front of Language Settings to expand it, then click on “Languages”
  4. Under the “Enhanced language support” section, check the box “Enable for complex text layout (CTL)”
  5. Then from the CTL dropdown box, select “Khmer”
  6. Click, OK and you’re done (Figure 1). Thanks to Soben for the tip.

Khmer spell checker setting

Figure 1 – Enable Khmer spell checker in OpenOffice.org Writer

Example of Khmer spell checker

Figure 2 – Example of Khmer spell checker in action

Once again, a big applause and thank to the hard work of KhmerOS team, and Soben for the setting tip in OpenOffice.org Writer.