714439 - Spell check: Unable to change dictionary language setting on first reply after starting TB (spell check command button etc. temporarily disabled)

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[José Carlos Santos]

Attachment: Image showing the problem

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1
Build ID: 20111220165912

Steps to reproduce:

I opened Thunderbird 9.0.1, then I opened a message and I clicked the "reply" button.


Actual results:

I was unable to change the dictionary that I am using. The "spelling" button was gray. This happens only if replying is the first thing that I do. If I write a message first, then the problem disappears, even if I don't send the message.

The problem arises both under Windows XP and Windows 7.


Expected results:

I should be able to choose another dictionary.

Comment 1

[Hashem Masoud]

(In reply to José Carlos Santos from comment #0)
See bug 368915.

Comment 2

[José Carlos Santos]

This is *not* bug 368915, since the problem that I described arises when the cursor is at the body of the message. Bug 368915 is about when the cursor is at the subject line.

Comment 3

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to José Carlos Santos from comment #2)
> This is *not* bug 368915, since the problem that I described arises when the
> cursor is at the body of the message. Bug 368915 is about when the cursor is
> at the subject line.

Anything in Tools -> Error console when this happens ?

Comment 4

[José Carlos Santos]

Yes. It has this:

Could not read chrome manifest file 'C:\Users\jcsantos\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\5bu2qy4b.default\extensions\[e-mail]\chrome.manifest'.

and this:

Could not read chrome manifest file 'C:\Users\jcsantos\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\5bu2qy4b.default\extensions\[e-mail]\chrome.manifest'.

Comment 5

[Mark Rotteveel]

I have the same problem. The spelling button in the toolbar is disabled when replying to a message. It does get enabled if you click in one of the header fields (To, Subject) and then again in the message body.

This seems to follow the behavior of creating a new message: Spelling is initially disabled but when the focus switches from the headers to the message body, it is enabled.

My error console shows:
Could not read chrome manifest file 'D:\data\Mozilla\Thunderbird\extensions\[e-mail]\chrome.manifest'.

There is another problem, but I don't know if it is related: 
I have two dictionaries: English (US) included with my Thunderbird 9.0.1 installation and Dutch (Woordenboek Nederlands 3.0.1)
When I switch to a different window (eg by clicking in the Windows taskbar or using Alt+Tab or Windows+Tab and back to the message it always switches the active spell checking to the Dutch dictionary. In the Spelling toolbar button it is always set to English (US) and clicking on the other dictionary will activate that dictionary, but the blue circle will stay in front of the English (US) dictionary.

Comment 6

[Hashem Masoud]

(In reply to José Carlos Santos from comment #0)
I checked further and you are right; when you start Thunderbird then you reply to a message, the window has Spelling button disabled. In the same composition window just click in the subject line then back to the message body section, the Spelling button then will get enabled.

This happens only just after you start Thunderbird. Also, it disappears once you first enable Spelling by clicking elsewhere and back.

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:9.0) Gecko/20111222 Thunderbird/9.0.1
Application Build ID: 20111222141531

Comment 7

[José Carlos Santos]

(In reply to Hashem Masoud from comment #6)

> I checked further and you are right; when you start Thunderbird then you
> reply to a message, the window has Spelling button disabled. In the same
> composition window just click in the subject line then back to the message
> body section, the Spelling button then will get enabled.

Thanks. I had not noticed that.

Comment 8

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Mark Rotteveel from comment #5)
> When I switch to a different window (eg by clicking in the Windows taskbar
> or using Alt+Tab or Windows+Tab and back to the message it always switches
> the active spell checking to the Dutch dictionary. In the Spelling toolbar
> button it is always set to English (US) and clicking on the other dictionary
> will activate that dictionary, but the blue circle will stay in front of the
> English (US) dictionary.

Wild guess: Somehow this reminds me of pref mail.compose.max_recycled_windows;1

We have several problems in this corner of not synchronizing language settings correctly.
Bug 717292 comment 6 and 717292 comment 9 have some insights on the technical internals.

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Does this reproduce with version 45? 
Or a *version 48* nightly build downloaded from https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/nightly/latest-comm-central/  (where recycled compose window is gone)

Comment 10

[Marco A.G.Pinto [:marcoagpinto]]

Wayne,

I was reading the comments.

For what I understand, the bug happened because after starting TB and clicking on "Reply" in a message, the text cursor had no focus in the message.

I have opened TB 45, pressed "Reply" in a random message and it opens a compose window with the focus on the message body.

Therefore, the speller combobox is working.

Does this help?

PS->The bug is from 2011.

Comment 11

[Matt]

There has been no reply to the two need info requests from 4 years ago. As the composer no longer is recycled and there is no indication the bug continues to manifest closing as incomplete