Openoffice spell checker and thesaurus?

hey guys, recently switched from my trial version of microsoft office into open office. However, I have some issues with it right now and dont know how to fix it. First of all, the spell checker does not work, meaning that there is no red squiggly line underneath an incorrect word. Secondly, in word, when you right click a word theres synonyms in the drop down box. Does anyone know how I can change it so that when i right click in open office, a synonym option is available on the drop down box?

thanks,

 

I found that it worked for me if you did a fresh new document with OpenOffice but not if you opened up an MS Word document. It would not spellcheck those, for some reason. Tried to do a copy/paste but same thing, it seemed to want for you to start a fresh document completely with Openoffice.

 

thanks for the reply, anyone know how to make it work if its saved as word?

 

still can't get spell checker to work, any other suggestions (i tried new document and typed gibberish, still did not work.