Yeah. Spelling functionality is an absolute train-wreck in Word 2008...
Three issues:
1) Word does not actually HAVE a "Default" language. Each sentence has its
own language. Each style has a language property.
When you set the "Default" language, that sets the Language property of the
Normal style in the Normal template.
That will have no effect on existing documents, and has no effect on text
you paste in. Sadly, you have to correct the language of anything you
paste, unless you specify "Keep text only" as your default pasting method.
2) Setting the default language in Normal Template needs to be done with no
other documents open.
Word holds a copy of Normal template open in memory for each document that
is open. If you make a change to Normal template with more than one
document open, last one closed re-saves the old Normal over the top of the
changed version.
It is best to use File>Open to open the Normal template like a document,
make your change, then save and quit Word to ensure the memory is cleared.
Unless you format only with styles, you need to also ensure that you clear
the direct formatting from the Normal template when you do this. To do so,
select the default blank paragraph in the Normal template (make sure the
paragraph mark is selected...) then Edit>Clear>Clear Formatting.
3) Your Custom Dictionary should be set to "No Language", which enables it
to accept words from all 29 flavours of English on offer.
If you set any other language, the custom dictionary will be disabled if the
text language is not the language set for the custom dictionary. Set your
Custom Dictionary to "No Language".
4) Multiple objects in Word can have a Language property. This is the main
thing that makes spelling such a train wreck. If you paste text in from
other documents, you need to ensure you remove the source languages.
Select all the text in the document and set it to English (AUS) when you
have finished pasting, to ensure you get the lot.
5) Word adopts the language of the operating system each time Word starts.
If your "Language and Text" system preferences are wrong, Word will revert
to English US each time it starts.
Because most people do not know this, let alone set their systems correctly,
English US is far more common amongst the world's documents than it should
be. Americans are notoriously challenged with geography: trying to teach
Microsoft that the USA is only ONE of the 191 countries in the world has so
far been a fruitless effort...
Hope this helps
Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel I
don't know if it's a co-incidence but after downloading a lot of stuff from
the internet I'm now having problems with spelling. First of all, my default
setting of English (AUS) keeps dropping off and reverting to English (US). So
I reset my default in Word back to English (AUS). BUT when I set my default
language as English (AUS), my custom dictionary seems to be decommissioned.
If I allow English (US) then the Custom Dictionary is referenced, but I cannot
add new words to it!
--
The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:
[email protected]
