Steam
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Steam: Spell check for multiple languages
By Erik Taurus
This guide explains how to make Steam spell check in multiple languages.

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Text with bold text are important
Italics are comments
(Text within parenthesis are hints)
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Acquire language files(.bdic)
Windows
Previously these files were created by Edge, a Chrome based browser but adding a language now doesn't create these files.
So unfortunately I don't know a good way of finding these files.

Code
Name
af-ZA
Afrikaans (South Africa)
cs-CZ
Czech (Czech Republic)
da-DK
Danish (Denmark)
de-DE
German (Germany)
en-AU
English (Australia)
en-GB
English (United Kingdom)
en-US
English (United States)
es-ES
Spanish (Spain)
et-EE
Estonian (Estonia)
fr-FR
French (France)
hr-HR
Croatian (Croatia)
hu-HU
Hungarian (Hungary)
id-ID
Indonesian (Indonesia)
it-IT
Italian (Italy)
lv-LV
Latvian (Latvia)
nl-NL
Dutch (Netherlands)
pl-PL
Polish (Poland)
pt-BR
Portuguese (Brazil)
ro-RO
Romanian (Romania)
sk-SK
Slovak (Slovakia)
sv-SE
Swedish (Sweden)
tr-TR
Turkish (Turkey)
vi-VN
Vietnamese (Viet Nam)

Chose the file(s) you need from:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ag30khKnxvoqiKc0Ad9swnBBfidkNA

I'm currently trying to find a repository on the Internet, but without luck so far so please leave a comment below if you have dictionary files for other languages.

Version 1.0
This section won't include any images because it doesn't make sense as there are so many ways of acquiring these files.

To get the .bdic file you need to have an application which uses these files in their spell check, such as Chrome based web browsers, there might be other applications which uses these files too so feel free to chose any of your liking.

When you have installed or already have such an application, go in to settings and add another language for spell check.
This will in turn create the .bdic-file if it wasn't there to begin with.

Other operating systems
I wouldn't know, perhaps the same applies for those?
Copy the .bdic-file(s) to the correct location
Open an explorer window(Windows+E) and search your computer by expanding "This computer" which is the top node of the explorer tree and select C: then type "*.bdic" without the quotation marks in the search box.
If nothing is found you can search your remaining hard drives provided you have more than one using the same method.
This may take a while depending on the size of your hard drive and other things as well.
When completed you should have a list of locations where Windows found the files.
NOTE: One of these files will be the Steam spell check file for your current language, the path contains "...CEF". Ignore it for now.

Select the files for your languages you want Steam to spell check and copy them(Ctrl+C)
Now browse to "%localappdata%CEFUser DataDictionaries" (If you select and copy* the text between the quotation marks and paste them into the Windows explorer path-box you automatically end up in the correct folder)
Here you see the file mentioned in the NOTE above

Paste(CTRL+V) the files in this location.

* Which will be counter productive seeing it'll clear the clip-board. But I'm sure you manage to resolve this on your own.
Modify UserPrefs.json
Now it's time to modify the .json file which controls the spell check.
Still in "%localappdata%CEFUser DataDictionaries"

Write the letters between the first "-" in the file names for the languages you want Steam to spell check. Preferably in a Notepad window which you open separately.
Example:
en-GB-8-0.bdic, write "en-GB"
sv-SV-3-0.bdic, write "sv-SV"

Now open the UserPrefs.json-file located in "%localappdata%Steamhtmlcache" with Notepad or any other non-rich text editor.
Find the section where it say "dictionaries"
NOTE: There might already be text within [".."], just ignore that for now

Erase everything withing the square brackets and type the language codes you wrote down earlier
"dictionaries":["l1-L1","l2-L2","l3-L3","..."]
For Swedish and English like I have
"dictionaries":["en-GB","sv-SE"]


The complete .json.part
"spellcheck":{"dictionaries":["en-GB","sv-SE"],"dictionary":""}


Save the UserPrefs.json-file

Re-start Steam if you had it running, or start Steam if you hadn't.

Now when you type in chat-boxes or community text-boxes wrongly spelt words will have the red waves under them.
Troubleshooting
If this for some reason wouldn't work I suspect the text in the UserPrefs.json is wrong.
Please make sure the language codes are correct and that the format is exactly as the example.
Otherwise, please ask in the comment section below.
Closing comments
Spell checking alá Steam
This still won't make you able to replace text by right clicking on the marked word as we're used to in regular cases. Perhaps Valve fixes this some time in a near or distant future.
Valve has fixed this now both for forum comments and chat.
If you right click a misspelt word Steam chat/comment will now suggest a word for you. Some words such as "misspelt", ironically enough doesn't exist in the library.
The suggested word appears in two different places under the menu so it's not consistent yet.
But it's something!

Feedback is appreciated
Either if you thought this guide was helpful or not or has to improve in some areas, please let me know in the comment section below.
43 Comments
ShadowTani 22 Nov @ 11:35pm 
My thanks to those pointing out we now have to edit the Preference file instead of the UserPrefs one.
Mr [Gh0st] 22 Nov @ 11:28am 
Thanks to your easier method @nian, cause this allowed me to manage how to install an adblocker for the Steam web browser :GhostG:
Here's how to do !
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3610423469
nian 22 Nov @ 6:51am 
If you prefer an easier method (without having to edit files), you can now also simply toggle the spellcheck languages inside chrome://settings/languages

The bdic files will be downloaded automatically, so no need to search for them anymore.

See my guide if you need instructions:
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3600107201
nian 22 Nov @ 6:28am 
The file did indeed change (because of a Steam update), so make sure to edit the
Preferences file inside this folder: %localappdata%\Steam\htmlcache\Default

If spellcheck still doesn't work as expected:

- Exit Steam
- Delete everything inside the htmlcache folder
- Restart Steam

The folder contents will be recreated and you can then edit the newly created Preferences file.
Taake 21 Nov @ 8:16pm 
The method still works but instead of UserPrefs.json you now have to edit "Preferences" in %localappdata%/Steam/htmlcache/Default/
Mr [Gh0st] 21 Nov @ 9:22am 
It is indeed not working anymore :csd2meh:
Something must have changed somewhere, but no clue what tho...
debott 21 Nov @ 12:34am 
It seems this no longer works, perhaps since a recent Steam update.

Steam still correctly spell checks my German, yet most English words get underlined.

Settings are like this for me:
https://imgur.com/a/c4ThLBw
PeltzoDelzo 16 Oct @ 3:59am 
So sad, it does not work for me in the client. Strangely, I have no red underlines when I write every word in caps. I also tried everything the comment said.

Other things I tried which didn't work for me:
1: added a "false" behind spellcheck so it would (in theory) stop spellchecks.
2: added the whole spellcheck dictionaries command line (with and without the false) into LocalPrefs because you never know.
Kerman 28 Sep @ 6:51am 
Still works! Thank you very much
Erik Taurus  [author] 12 Jun @ 12:09am 
I guess that the client might overwrite the file when the settings change instead of just appending to it. I'm also curious to know if the client actually create the dictionary file.

The guide is over 5 years old so it is time to update it. It lacks in some parts I admit and the ratings were just average. Perhaps people want images, but since I don't have an English version of Windows myself it wouldn't make sense. :/
Do you have any suggestions for improvements?