Disabling OpenOffice 3.1 Word Completion

I type well enough that OpenOffice’s default word completion isn’t helpful, so the first thing I do in the first document I open after a new installation is turn word completion off. Having just installed Xubuntu 9.10 with OpenOffice 3.1, I rummaged through the menus and couldn’t find that option. OK, I’ll let my fingers do the walking through the online Help.

Huh. For some inexplicable reason, the OOo help files aren’t installed by default in Kubuntu 9.10 or Xubuntu 9.10. I install them, only to find:

Word Completion
Set the options for completing frequently occurring words while you type.
To access this command…
Choose Tools – AutoCorrect Options – Word Completion tab
Enable word completion
Stores frequently used words, and automatically completes a word after you type three letters that match the first three letters of a stored word.

Which is absolutely correct, should you happen to be editing a text document at the time. Oddly enough, the Word Completion tab doesn’t appear in that dialog box when you’re editing a spreadsheet… but the setting applies to spreadsheets.

So.

• Save and close the spreadsheet
• Open a new, blank text document
• Do the menu dance just like the Help text describes
• Un-check the mumble Enable word completion box.
• Discard the text document
• Re-open the spreadsheet

There, now, wasn’t that obvious?