Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 12: Using SpellCheck and the Thesaurus

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Searching the Thesaurus


One final language feature of StarOffice is the Thesaurus. The word thesaurus comes from the Latin word for treasure, and you can think of a thesaurus as a treasure chest of words that you haven't yet seen.

Whenever you need just the right word in a document, you can type a word that's close in meaning, but not just right. Then look it up in the Thesaurus to search for related or similar words.

The StarOffice Thesaurus even includes a dictionary definition for thousands of words.

To use the Thesaurus, select a word by placing the cursor in it. Then select Thesaurus from the Tools menu. The Thesaurus dialog box appears (see Figure 12.10).

Figure 12.10
Use the Thesaurus dialog box to search for words related to your selected word.

The word that you selected in the body of the text is displayed in the Word field. The various meanings for that word are listed under the Meaning field.

The Replace field contains the word that you selected (the same word as the Word field), but the Synonym list contains a list of possible replacements for your selected word.

Tip - Words meaning the opposite of the word you selected are also listed in the Synonyms list, but with the word antonym listed after them.


To change your selected word into one of the synonyms, select that synonym from the list and choose OK. The dialog box closes, and your word is updated.

Searching for More Meaning

After you've selected a word in the Synonyms list, you can look up that word in the Thesaurus by clicking the Search button.

The new word appears in the Word field, with its definitions in the Meaning list.

Tip - Choosing an interesting word and exploring its meanings and synonyms in an online thesaurus is a great way to improve your writing.


If you want to see how well the dictionary and thesaurus work, try one of these words: set, tone, malignant, fix, or joy. They have strong lists of synonyms or long lists of meanings to explore.

A thesaurus with definitions can also help you choose between words such as effect and affect, or complement and compliment.

Using the Thesaurus from the Spelling Dialog Box

When you're spellchecking your document, you might want to use the Thesaurus dialog box to review possible word replacements.

From the Spelling dialog box, select the More button, and then choose Thesaurus. The same Thesaurus dialog box appears, with the current word from the Spelling dialog box as its entry. You can use this dialog box to choose a replacement word, and then return automatically to the Spelling dialog box.

Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 12: Using SpellCheck and the Thesaurus

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