Hi Roy:
Let's assume that your Spelling is actually "working". I think it is, you
would get an error message if it wasn't.
This problem is usually due to the language of the text not matching the
language of the dictionary you have active.
Go to Preferences>Spelling and Grammar>Dictionaries
Ensure that the first dictionary in the list is checked (which means it is
"active" or "in use" and that it is set to "No Language" (which means that
it can be used with any language installed).
Now click in the document and go to Tools>Language... Note which language
is highlighted. Check the name carefully, it must match
character-for-character with a language you have installed.
For example, if you have English (AUS) installed and English (US) selected,
your spelling is disabled.
Also check in here that the checkbox "Do not check spelling or grammar" is
NOT checked. If it is, spelling is disabled.
If you need to make a change, click the DEFAULT button to set your Normal
Template so that all new documents you create will adopt the new language.
You need to check the language for each paragraph. In Word, Language is a
property of the Document, each style, each paragraph, and each word within
the paragraph.
Word's spelling checker dynamically switches language to use the language
set in the closest context, so the word overrides the paragraph which
overrides the document. This makes spelling very flexible but very complex
and difficult to debug.
Most people give up and select all the text in the document then set it all
to the same language. Word is a very high-end word-processor; some of its
features are extremely complex and designed for professional use. They
create more trouble than they are worth in some instances. For most
circumstances, a language setting that applies to the entire document and is
the same for everything in the document is more than sufficient. Very few
people produce documents that have more than one language within them, let
alone paragraphs in which various words are in a different language. But
some do, and that's what the mechanism is designed for.
Hope this helps
I have recently installed Word 2004 on my Mac and everything is fine
except that I cannot automatically check the spelling.
I write a document, which contains obvious errors, but, when I go to
Tools and select spell check, a window appears saying that spell
checking is complete, when clearly this is not the case.
I didn't have this problem with excel:mac, which makes the Word
problem even more frustrating. Maybe I've missed something very
simple, although I seemed to have followed the initiation of the spell
checker precisely.
Any ideas please - even a step by step kiddies guide would be useful
such is my frustration.
Thanks
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John McGhie <
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Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410
