Language UK gone AWOL or at least highly unstable

[ailavoher]

Shortly after installation of Office 2004 (Mac) the Language button of
Word disappeared. New preferences rectified that. A few days later
Language did its nut again when no matter how often I clicked English
UK it won't hold on to it (or any other Englishdictionary either).
There is some kind of corruption in the preferences, but nothing I do
seems to make any difference.

Questions I wish to ask are:
1. Should I renistall entire Office 2004? and 2. If I do that, should I
uninstall Office software first? What procedure should I follow? 3. Has
anyone ever experienced the problem I have with language dictionary?

Thank you. I hope someone can help. I should add that the iBook G4 is
brand new.

Pat Hunt

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Shortly after installation of Office 2004 (Mac) the Language button of
Word disappeared. New preferences rectified that.

That's a known issue--you accidentally hit the keyboard command to turn on
Word 5.1 menus--once they are on, they can be turned off under View. Minor,
and unrelated to your current difficulty.

A few days later
Language did its nut again when no matter how often I clicked English
UK it won't hold on to it (or any other Englishdictionary either).

Okay, this doesn't make any sense to me. What is the problem? What exactly
did you try that doesn't work, and what is the desired result? The most
common difficulty with languages comes from not realizing that the text in
the document needs to be tagged as a certain language. As long as that tag
is applied, Word will generally take care of what you want, without you
worrying about dictionaries.

There is some kind of corruption in the preferences, but nothing I do
seems to make any difference.

Then moving the prefs file to the desktop and letting Word generate a new
one should fix it, so I doubt that's it.

Questions I wish to ask are:
1. Should I renistall entire Office 2004? and 2. If I do that, should I
uninstall Office software first? What procedure should I follow?

Remove and Reinstall is a last resort after trying other troubleshooting
measures--all the standard techniques and the best procedure for Remove and
Reinstall are listed here, though you may not need them at this point.
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

3. Has
anyone ever experienced the problem I have with language dictionary?

Don't know, can't tell what your problem is, though there are certainly a
number of posts here about dictionaries and language, which using Google
Groups to search the newsgroup would lead you to.

Thank you. I hope someone can help. I should add that the iBook G4 is
brand new.

What fun, new computer!

 

[ailavoher]

Thank you for your interest. I have dumped language preferences so many
times and new ones formed. I have had the help of a Microsoft helpline
agent. He seems stumped too. I can't add to the previous description.
Everytime I open a new Word Doc no language is selected. I select
English UK but nine times out of 10 it won't hold that selection. So
no spelling/grammar errors are noted, and checker will report no
problems. AND YET UK LANGUAGE SPELL/GRAMMAR CHECKER WORKS FINE IN
ENTOURAGE. I am at my wits end with this. And that's why I wonder if I
dumped everything to do with Word, and start again, might I get rid of
this problem.

I don't understand what the three Product Keys mean? Is that I can only
install Office three times?

Thank you, Pat

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I don't understand what the three Product Keys mean? Is that I can only

install Office three times?

Means you can install on three machines belonging to three people
separately--you can re-install with the same Product Key for forever.

Thank you for your interest. I have dumped language preferences so many
times and new ones formed.

Um, what does that mean? What file are you referring to?

I have had the help of a Microsoft helpline
agent. He seems stumped too. I can't add to the previous description.
Everytime I open a new Word Doc no language is selected. I select
English UK but nine times out of 10 it won't hold that selection.

When does it not hold? When you hit enter, when you start a new doc, when
you quit and restart Word? Be specific please.

So
no spelling/grammar errors are noted, and checker will report no
problems. AND YET UK LANGUAGE SPELL/GRAMMAR CHECKER WORKS FINE IN
ENTOURAGE. I am at my wits end with this. And that's why I wonder if I
dumped everything to do with Word, and start again, might I get rid of
this problem.

Probably but more time consuming than necessary, I suspect. And you can't
just dump everything to do with Word, you have to remove all of Office and
then set it all back up. Try this:

Format | Style, select Normal in left column, click on Modify, check the
"add to template" box but NOT the "automatically update" box, use the Format
drop-down menu at the bottom of the Modify dialog to select Language, and
set it to UK English.

(default text is usually in Normal style, and this will add the UK English
language tag to all text in Normal style. It is possible that your text is
not in Normal style--if you put the cursor in a word that is not being
checked, when you go to Format |Style the style that you need to modify will
already be selected).

If that doesn't work, more things to check, from John McGhie:
We need to check is that your system has the languages you want to use
installed. Go to System Preferences>International>Input Menu and ensure the
languages and keyboard you want to use are installed and enabled. (UK is
under British)

Look on your Menu Bar for the flag for the language you want to use (e.g. If
you are using "English Australian", there should be an Australian flag
there.) If either of these are wrong, Word will be asking for dictionaries
that may not exists.

Now bring up Word, and click in a sentence you want to spell-check. Go to
Tools>Language and make sure that the "Mark Selected Text As" blue selection
bar is highlighting the language you want to use. And make sure the "Do not
check spelling or grammar" box is not checked.

DM

 

[ailavoher]

DM, my friend and saviour,

I followed your Format, Style, Modify, etc. instructions but that made
no difference. And then I then went to the International Input
section where I found Ireland and US ticked (these settings were ticked
by Apple). I then ticked UK as well to see what would happen. The UK
flag (not Irish) appeared on menu bar. I have since opened and closed
three Word documents, and each time the spell-checker/grammar facility
worked perfectly. And I have just closed Word, opened it again, typed
in misspelled words, –– and the red lines are beneath the words, and UK
English is selected in Language panel.

Have we struck gold? Shall I stop taking Prozac? I owe you a deep debt
of gratitude. Thank you so much.

Pat Hunt

 

[ailavoher]

DM, my friend and saviour,

I followed your Format, Style, Modify, etc. instructions but that made
no difference. And then I then went to the International Input
section where I found Ireland and US ticked (these settings were ticked
by Apple). I then ticked UK as well to see what would happen. The UK
flag (not Irish) appeared on menu bar. I have since opened and closed
three Word documents, and each time the spell-checker/grammar facility
worked perfectly. And I have just closed Word, opened it again, typed
in misspelled words, –– and the red lines are beneath the words, and UK
English is selected in Language panel.

Have we struck gold? Shall I stop taking Prozac? I owe you a deep debt
of gratitude. Thank you so much.

Pat Hunt

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Glad to have helped--though in fact that information came from John McGhie,
I just passed it on. Never would have known it myself otherwise.

DM

 

[ailavoher]

Just returned to iBook and all is well with Word. Thank you again, and
please thank John McGhie for me. This problem created considerable
grief in my working life over the past few weeks. Thank you both, and
may I wish you a happy Easter holiday.

Pat Hunt (Ireland)