Peter: please keep in mind that Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice are 2 different softwares. Could you give a try to LibreOffice 4.2.3?

That button is functional, but gives no feedback. It could be improved if it was working as Change All after adding the Autocorrect entry.

Actually, what the "Always Correct" button does is to add the selected correction pair to the AutoCorrect table. If AutoCorrect is turned off, or if you're not actively typing the misspelling, it doesn't get corrected. The "Always Correct" button should probably be relabeled to something like "Add to AutoCorrect" or if space is short, "+→AutoCorrect" or just "AutoCorrect". (Someone told me the button is more accurately labeled "AutoCorrect" in the German-language interface.)

Adding needsUXEval.
Is changing the button name something that Heiko or Andreas csn change? Only a fixed bug is a good bug.

I couldn't find any info about that on https://help.libreoffice.org/6.3/en-US/text/shared/01/06010000.html

Ping ux-advice

That button had name "AutoCorrect" in the OOo and in our Help we have (now!):

> AutoCorrect
Adds the current combination of the incorrect word and the replacement word to the AutoCorrect replacements table.

https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/01/06010000.html

I think we should rename that button to "Add to AutoCorrect"

(In reply to Roman Kuznetsov from comment #7)
> 
> I think we should rename that button to "Add to AutoCorrect"

That sounds like an *excellent* idea! In fact, I think a commenter higher up on this thread already proposed it! ;-)

Heiko/Xisco: thought you might be interested in this one since it concerns UX.

Let's go with this solution. This is definitely an easyhack.

FTR: the change from AutoCorrect to Always Correct was in https://git.libreoffice.org/core/+/2c78a8cd8a299fc7ec44947f0f7cb0de7d28f391 "Better wording for Spellcheck buttons/context menu" in master toward 4.1.

Missed the point of Samuel's patch, it was just "Change" to "Correct" and "AutoCorrect" to "Always correct".

"Add to AutoCorrect" is clearer and more accurate than "Always Correct." (Pressing that button doesn't "always correct" the misspelling when AutoCorrect is turned off or when you're spellchecking a document that's already been typed. It just adds the correction pair to the AutoCorrect table.) I've been using word processors since WordStar for DOS and it took me an *unreasonably* long time  to figure out what the "Always Correct" button was actually doing. If display space is a serious issue, "AutoCorrect" would be okay in a pinch, but "Add to AutoCorrect" is more explicit and won't leave anyone scratching their head.

I appreciate your work on this, Heiko, and I'm sure other users who haven't yet figured out what "Always Correct" actually does will appreciate it even more!

PS: I was actually the Peter CM who filed this bug, and I misspoke in my initial post when I said I was using OpenOffice. It was definitely LibreOffice, since I haven't used OpenOffice since 2008. I tried to correct my mistake, but I seem to recall LibreOffice's bug reporting moved from FreeDesktop.org to DocumentFoundation.org at around that time. I got locked out of my old account and couldn't create a new one using the same email address. By the time I figured out a workaround for creating a new account, I had forgotten the need to follow up on my OpenOffice misstatement. I apologize for any confusion and wasted time that might have caused.

I'm now running LibreOffice 7.0.4.2 (x64) for Windows, and I see that the spellchecker's "[Add to] AutoCorrect [table]" button is still labeled "Always Correct" in the English-language interface.

"Always Correct" is not entirely accurate and can be confusing to users who don't proactively research how it works. (It only "always corrects" manually typed text, and only when AutoCorrect is turned on. It doesn't correct pasted text that is subsequently spellchecked.)

I think something like "→AutoCorrect" would be better. It's compact, and it makes it clearer that the button sends/adds the selected correction to the AutoCorrect table.

(In reply to MartinPC from comment #15)
> I think something like "→AutoCorrect" would be better. It's compact, and it
> makes it clearer that the button sends/adds the selected correction to the
> AutoCorrect table.
"Add to AutoCorrect" would give a good parallel to "Add to Dictionary" 

Question:  Does "Add to AutoCorrect" only Add to the replacement table, or does it also (concurrently) make the correction in the text?  (as you can see, I have not tried it). But seems worth clarifying that point in help and in extended tooltip.

More generally -- because it seems that you are familiar with this dialog -- the descriptions in the help page for each button is used as an "extended tooltip".

https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/01/06010000.html

If you have the possibility to "review" these entries, and identify any corrections/improvements, then I can include those changes in both the dialog box and the help page.

And I will probably add a regular tooltip to "Add to AutoCorrect"

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #12)
> Missed the point of Samuel's patch, it was just "Change" to "Correct" and
> "AutoCorrect" to "Always correct".
Place cursor on a incorrectly spelled word and open context menu.

Toward bottom of context menu is the command option:  "Always correct to > "
Before Samuel's patch, it just said "AutoCorrect"  (not so helpful).

@Peter -- no problems with that label, right?

My hypothesis:  when Samuel came to change the dialog box, the "Always correct" (which makes sense in that context menu) got carried over to the dialog box -- where it does not make sense.  That is,

Before patch       After patch

Change             Correct
Change All         Correct All
AutoCorrect        Always correct

(as you can see, the dialog box parallels the change from the context menu)

(In reply to sdc.blanco from comment #16)
> Question:  Does "Add to AutoCorrect" only Add to the replacement table, 
Yes.

> or does it also (concurrently) make the correction in the text?  
No. I guess this is ok. 

Tooltip might be:  Add selected suggestion as replacement for incorrect word in AutoCorrect replacement table.

NB.  Button can be used multiple times, but only saves the "last" selected suggestion.

Meanwhile, "Always correct to" in context menu does change word in text, while simultaneously adding to replacement table.  (also ok)

Seth: sorry for kidnapping you into this patch, just wanted to not forget this issue but have no time to read in detail. Please ask if there is need for my input. 

In general: Keep in mind that some short words may become much longer when translated. The simple "Add to AutoCorrect" could be translated into "Hinzufügen zu AutoCorrect" (camel-case, tech-talk, plus anglizism!) for German. Shorter is better, at least in case of the main menu.

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #19)
> The simple "Add to AutoCorrect" could be translated into
> "Hinzufügen zu AutoCorrect"
   Zum Wörterbuch hinzufügen
 
Your guess for German translation of "Add to AutoCorrect" is exactly the same length as "Add to Dictionary" in German. So I assume no problem there. 

Here is "Add to Dictionary" for other some languages and my guess 
for a translation of "Add to AutoCorrect"

    Ajouter au dictionnaire 
    Ajouter au AutoCorrection 
   
    Tilføj til Ordbog
    Tilføj til Autokorrektur
   
    Añadir al diccionario   
    Añadir al corrección automática
   
    Adicionar ao dicionário
    Adicionar ao Autocorreção

    Lisää sanastoon
    Lisää Automattinen korjuas


For Danish, Finnish and Spanish, the internal length difference between
"Add to Dictionary" and "Add to AutoCorrect" is noticeable (7-11 characters)

For overall length, except for Spanish (and Finnish by one character), the length of "Add to AutoCorrect" is not longer than the German version.

@Heiko What do you think? Problem here or not?

Based on my testing:

Clicking on "Always Correct" in the spellchecker interface does not apply the selected correction to the text currently being spellchecked. It only adds the currently selected text/suggestion pairing to AutoCorrect's Replace/With table.

If AutoCorrect is turned on and the user right-clicks on a flagged word, the "Always correct to" context-menu command adds the selected replacement pairing to AutoCorrect *and* corrects the current word in the document. When a subsequent instance of the same misspelled word is flagged, and there are multiple possible replacements for that misspelling, all of those possible replacements appear in the top-level context menu and the "Always correct to" submenu, and the correction previously added to the AutoCorrect table is not pre-selected/pre-highlighted. However, the AutoCorrect replacement *does* seem to appear at the top of the list. (I haven't tested this observation extensively.)

In the spellchecker, if button compactness is not an issue, "Add to AutoCorrect" would be more accurate and clearer than "Always Correct" and (as someone else pointed out) it would parallel the language in the "Add to Dictionary" Button. If more compact buttons are desired (which they generally are), I think changing the labels to "→Dictionary" and "→AutoCorrect" would still be accurate and reasonably clear. (I don't know offhand whether using symbols in button labels violates any LibreOffice interface or font-support guidelines.)

I think changing the context menu from "Always correct to" to "AutoCorrect to..." would an improvement, especially if the spellchecker label is changed to "Add to AutoCorrect" or "→AutoCorrect" (which it really should).

I have basic and extended tips turned on, and I'm not getting tooltips for *any* of my spellchecker buttons (with or without Shift+F1).

I see that the LibreOffice 7.0 Help page for Spelling uses "AutoCorrect" instead of "Always Correct," and that the order the buttons are listed in doesn't match the buttons' arrangement in the spellchecker interface. Here's my vote for labels and order in both the spellchecker interface and the Help page:

Ignore Once
Ignore All
→Dictionary [or Add to Dictionary]

Correct Once [instead of just "Correct"]
Correct All
→AutoCorrect  [or Add to AutoCorrect]

Help
Options
Undo
Close

My vote for the context-menu item (with AutoCorrect turned on) would be:

AutoCorrect to...

I'm not the best person to ask about tooltips, as I tend to be too verbose, but my first-draft proposal is:

Ignore Once: "Ignore (skip) the currently highlighted text this one time."

Ignore All: "Ignore (skip) all instances of the currently highlighted text."

→Dictionary / Add to Dictionary: "Add the currently highlighted text to a dictionary as a correctly spelled word."

Correct Once: "Replace the currently highlighted text with the selected suggestion this one time."

Correct All: "Replace all instances of the currently highlighted text with the selected suggestion."

→AutoCorrect / Add to AutoCorrect: "Add the currently proposed correction to AutoCorrect for future autocorrection as you type. Then choose Correct Once or Correct All to correct the current document."

I'm glad there's interest in improving spellchecker labeling, help, and tooltips. I don't want other users to be left scratching their heads when they first come across the mysterious "Always Correct" button, like I was when I was a relative noob! ;-) I really appreciate all of the follow-up here. All the best to all who have chimed in.

@sdc.blanco re button labels for non-English interfaces:

You posted your last comment while I was still composing mine.

Unless the symbol "→" is interpreted quite differently in some languages/cultures, it seems like using it to replace "Add to" might save a decent amount of space in at least some of them. (I'm *guessing* "←" would probably be used instead of "→" in languages that are written right to left, but I don't speak/read/write any of those languages.)

Again, I don't know whether using symbols in button labels violates any LibreOffice guidelines, but it would make for more compact buttons in this particular case.

(In reply to sdc.blanco from comment #20)
> For overall length, except for Spanish (and Finnish by one character), the
> length of "Add to AutoCorrect" is not longer than the German version.
> 
> @Heiko What do you think? Problem here or not?

Not necessarily, but I'm not a translator and would shorten text rather than trying to do it 1:1. Adding Sophie.

(In reply to MartinPC from comment #22)
> .. symbol "→" ...seems like using it to replace "Add to"

Symbols leave room for interpretation. The arrow right could be "Next" (wrote this some time ago https://user-prompt.com/can-a-direction-in-time-be-displayed-by-spatial-signs/) Plus, this character might be not included in the font a user has chosen.

(In reply to MartinPC from comment #21)

Thanks for your detailed testing and review.

A. About Context Menu
 
> I think changing the context menu from "Always correct to" to "AutoCorrect
> to..." would an improvement, especially if the spellchecker label is 
> changed to "Add to AutoCorrect"
Worth considering.  But without "..." because there is ► at end.

Won't "Autocorrect to" be misunderstood to mean "apply existing autocorrect"?
(and not indicated that it will be saved?)  
(try looking at it in an actual context)

"Always" seems to indicate some permanence -- but maybe this is too long?

"Always Autocorrect to ►"

(in any case, will try to add a tooltip for this menu item, whether changed or not)


B. Help Page.

Help Page will be updated in 7.2  - both order of presentation of the controls and the button labels -  so you will not see anything changes before then.

C.  Tooltips and Extended Tooltips.

There are no tooltips at present, so understandable that you did not see any.
Extended tooltips will first appear only in 7.1  

But you can see the texts for those extended tooltips already by looking at:

https://help.libreoffice.org/7.2/en-US/text/shared/01/06010000.html

The texts after each control label (e.g., Ignore Once, Ignore All) is what will appear in the extended tips.

If you have some critique/feedback about those texts, then it might be improved for 7.2

D.  About  "Correct Once"

   - would suggest leaving unchanged.
   - scope of "Correct" is clear, because "Not in dictionary" window shows what will be corrected.
   - scope of "Ignore" is more ambiguous, hence "...Once"
   - can follow the "logic" of making parallel with "Ignore Once", but when sitting in front of the Spelling dialog box, then contextually it is clear that "Correct" is being applied only once.  (i.e., "Once" is redundant).

E.  About "→"

    - I would not have known how to interpret that symbol.
    - Do know that action verbs (like "Add to") are preferred.

F. Have prepared a draft patch. Just need final decisions about:

a.  "Add to AutoCorrect"     (as button label) 
     @Sophie, see comment 20

b.  "Always AutoCorrect to"  (in context menu)

c.   possible changes in extended tooltips

@sdc.blanco:

Thank you for continuing to follow up.

What I think is most important by far is mentioning "AutoCorrect" in both the spellchecker button label and the context-menu entry. Its absence is what confuses new users the most.

I like both "Add to AutoCorrect" and "Always AutoCorrect to ►". (Speaking of which, sorry about the inappropriate ellipsis (…) in my earlier proposal. I somehow overlooked the ►. My bad.)

On the other hand, I prefer the current "Add to Dictionary" to the proposed "Not in dictionary". Any word that gets flagged is by definition "not in a dictionary"; "Add to Dictionary" makes it clearer that the user will be adding the flagged word to one. (Plus, it's an action verb! Just teasing! ;-)

This is getting nitpicky, but there's a case to be made that "dictionary" should be lowercase in English, since there can be multiple user dictionaries. In other words, we're not referring to "*THE* Dictionary" but to "*A* dictionary." It would be even clearer to new users if the label read "Add to a dictionary". If the label remains "Add to Dictionary" (or "Add to dictionary") it should technically end with an ellipsis (…) to make it clear to new users that they will be choosing which dictionary the word will be added to. The problem is, both solutions ("a dictionary" and "dictionary…") make the button even wider. "dictionary" with a lowercase "d" doesn't take up any additional horizontal space, so maybe that's a good compromise.

SIDEBAR: I was set to grumble about the French label, "Ajouter au dictionnaire" = "Add to the dictionary" until I realized that "Ajouter au dictionnaire … Sample" is proper French for "Add to … Sample dictionary". An ellipsis would be useful at the end of the French label, too, but the button is already plenty wide. The button-width problem made me wonder how French UI localizers will handle the "Always Correct" button. It's currently "Toujours corriger" = "Always correct". If AutoCorrect is to be referenced in the French UI, it might be something like "AutoCorrection", "Ajouter à AutoCorrection", "Ajouter à l'autocorrection", or "Autocorriger à l'avenir". Native speakers will have to make the call.

I'm fine with "Ignore Once" and "Correct" without the "Once". (A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, right? ;-)

I think most of the proposed tooltips are probably fine, with the exception of:

=========================================================
[Add to] AutoCorrect

Adds the current combination of the incorrect word and the replacement word to the AutoCorrect ***replacements*** table.
=========================================================

"replacements" should be the singular "replacement" in English. "replacement table" is in fact used elsewhere in LO documentation.

Also, remembering my own newbie confusion, I think it would be helpful to new users to append something like "(Then choose Correct or Correct All to apply the correction to the current document.)"

That's all I can think of for now. Again, the only thing I think is really important is that AutoCorrect be *explicitly mentioned* whenever AutoCorrect is involved.

(In reply to MartinPC from comment #25)
> Thank you for continuing to follow up.
And you too. It seems we have reached some agreements/resolutions now. 
 
1. "Add to Dictionary"
> On the other hand, I prefer the current "Add to Dictionary" 
I think you have misread.  No changes proposed to "Add to Dictionary"

2. About … (ellipsis)

When I use "Add to Dictionary", I do not get a pop-up window for choosing a dictionary, do you?

But look at "Options…" at bottom of Spelling dialog, this button opens a dialog box, therefore ...

3. "Not in dictionary" 

It was mentioned only as the label in the Spelling dialog box.  (and now I will change "dictionary" to uppercase in the patch - to follow UI guidelines).

4. case of "dictionary"
> This is getting nitpicky, but there's a case to be made that "dictionary"
Now is the right time to "pick" - but in this case -- I think UI guidelines will win -- Title case for buttons and window labels

5. Correction in "extended tooltip" (and help page)

> "replacements" should be the singular "replacement" in English.
> "replacement table" is in fact used elsewhere in LO documentation.
Good catch!  Will change extended tooltip and help page.  
(AutoCorrect Options also refers to "replacement table")

6. Conclusion:

> The only thing I think is really important is that AutoCorrect 
> be *explicitly mentioned* whenever AutoCorrect is involved.
This sounds right to me also.  

This is also the proposal at the end of comment 24  (F.a. and F.b.)

Will wait to hear from Sophie about whether this will work with the button and context menu.

@sdc.blanco:

1. "Not in dictionary" versus "Add to Dictionary"

My apologies. I was jumping back and forth between the proposed help page and my compose tab. I spotted a "Not in dictionary" in the help page and carelessly assumed it was a proposed replacement for "Add to Dictionary". Obviously, it's for the "Not in dictionary" section in the spellchecker interface. Facepalm.

2. "When I use "Add to Dictionary", I do not get a pop-up window for choosing a
dictionary, do you?"

Yes, I do. I almost always work with more than one user dictionary at a time. For example, in addition to standard.dic, I might also have a project-specific dictionary as well as a dictionary for technical terms that span more than one project and that I don't want to put in the general-purpose standard.dic. When I click on "Add to Dictionary", I get a dropdown box immediately below the button with a list of my dictionaries, and then I click (or double-click?) on the one I want to add the unrecognized word to.

I actually don't remember the last time I used only one dictionary. Based on what you wrote, if you are using only one, clicking on "Add to Dictionary" bypasses the dropdown box and just adds the word directly to the sole dictionary on hand -- which makes sense. Sorry for having forgotten this.

Anyway, scratch the ellipsis after "Add to Dictionary". If users are sophisticated enough to have added extra user dictionaries, they won't need it, and *not* having an ellipsis is less confusing to newcomers running only one. Again, sorry for having forgotten the button's single-dictionary behavior.

4. Case of "dictionary"

I'm fine with consistent use of title case.

I think that about wraps it up! Hooray!

Thanks *very* much for carrying the ball forward on this. I appreciate it. All the best.

Comment 18 through comment 27 discusses choices for button/command labels (and tooltips) in "Spelling" dialog box and the context menu for misspelled words (and possible consequences for translation).  Conclusions are expressed in the patch
at:  https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/109809

1.  Change "Always Correct" to "Add to AutoCorrect"
2.  Add a tooltip to this button
3.  Small correction to button's extended tooltip
4.  Add missing extended tooltip for "Add to Dictionary"
5.  Change accelerator keys: _D for Dictionary, _A for AutoCorrect
6.  Change window label "Not in dictionary" to "Not in Dictionary"
7.  Change "Always correct to"  to "Always AutoCorrect to"  in context menu
    for misspelled words
8.  Adds tooltip to "Always AutoCorrect to" in context menu

If there are no objections to these labels or problems with translation, then the patch is ready to go.

If there are problems, then of course I will make changes.

Seth Chaiklin committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/f51119a37864bca35737898a8cbba9345e09b124

tdf#75923 "Always Correct" to "Add to AutoCorrect" in Spelling dialog

It will be available in 7.2.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.

Seth Chaiklin committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/help/commit/f05a74cdb79ebe1da4e58a1df147488d536c8d1e

Related to tdf#75923: update command "Add to AutoCorrect" in Spelling

Description in comment 28 is accurate.

(In reply to MartinPC from comment #21)
> I see that the LibreOffice 7.0 Help page for Spelling uses "AutoCorrect"
> instead of "Always Correct," and that the order the buttons are listed in
> doesn't match the buttons' arrangement in the spellchecker interface.

Updated help page for Spelling is now available at:
https://help.libreoffice.org/7.2/en-US/text/shared/01/06010000.html

Will close as FIXED.

verified as fixed in:

Version: 7.2.0.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 614be4f5c67816389257027dc5e56c801a547089
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-AU (en_AU.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded