Spelling dictionaries grayed out

[Ken Spiker]

I want to proof my document in Spanish. I have installed
foreign language dictionaries from the Value Pack for WordX
(word version 10.1.4). I go to
Tools>Spelling&Grammer>Options>Dictionaries and navigate to
the custom dictionaries (shared applications>proofing
tools>) but all the custom dictionaries are grayed out. Can
anybody help? Thanx,

Ken

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

Hi Ken,

I want to proof my document in Spanish. I have installed
foreign language dictionaries from the Value Pack for WordX
(word version 10.1.4). I go to
Tools>Spelling&Grammer>Options>Dictionaries and navigate to
the custom dictionaries (shared applications>proofing
tools>) but all the custom dictionaries are grayed out. Can
anybody help? Thanx,

Did you install Office, update it and then install the proofing tools ??? You
need to make sure the proofing tools were installed before you run the
updaters otherwise they remain at the original (buggy) version.

You might be better of uninstalling Office witht the uninstaller (save a copy
of the templates, startup items, custom dictionaries.... frist) then install
Offiec over again, then the proofing tools and update the whole thing all the
way to 10.1.5.
I hope it'll fix the problem,


Corentin

 

[Ken Spiker]

Thanx for the advice. Bother! Why can't they make spelling
dictionaries that work with the updated Word? In any case,
there is no Uninstaller on my disk. I will try to trash the
original folder and install again.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

Thanx for the advice. Bother! Why can't they make spelling
dictionaries that work with the updated Word? In any case,
there is no Uninstaller on my disk. I will try to trash the
original folder and install again.

The uninstaller is in the OFfcie X CD.
I just heard good news though (I saved a bunch of ...^D^D^D^D^D^D^D^D^). You
can install the proffing tools on your current install and re-apply the
updaters. They should simply update what they nee to update and skip the
files that are already up to date. Apply them all the way to 10.1.5 and it
shoudl be fine )


Corentin

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

The uninstaller is in the OFfcie X CD.

Specifically, inside the Value Pack as Remove Office, just in case. But you
may not need it anyhow, as Corentin said.

I just heard good news though (I saved a bunch of ...^D^D^D^D^D^D^D^D^).

Hee hee

Dayo

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

Hee hee

Yeah, I'm affraid this one doesn't quite work as well in all counries ;-)


Corentin

 

[Ken Spiker]

I reinstalled WordX and then installed the Value Pack
proofing tools. Then I ran the updaters.

Now I am able to choose Spanish Dictionary in Spelling and
Grammer window under Custom Dictionary. In the Custom
Dictionary window there are now 2 checked boxes, Custom
Dictionary and Spanish Dictionary. However, the
spellchecker is not checking in Spanish. It just doesn't work.

In order to select the spanish dictionary I had to navigate
through many menus to the custom dictionaries.

I am frustrated by the typical Microsoft unnecessary
complexity. The Spanish Dictionary is selected. Spanish is
selected as the Language in the Custom Dictionaries window.
It continues to check okay for English. Why doesn't this
work? What can I do to find out what's wrong?

thanx,

Ken

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

I reinstalled WordX and then installed the Value Pack
proofing tools. Then I ran the updaters.

Now I am able to choose Spanish Dictionary in Spelling and
Grammer window under Custom Dictionary. In the Custom
Dictionary window there are now 2 checked boxes, Custom
Dictionary and Spanish Dictionary. However, the
spellchecker is not checking in Spanish. It just doesn't work.

???? It works fine on my Mac. Are you sure you properly setup the language of
the paragraph you wanted to check ??

In order to select the spanish dictionary I had to navigate
through many menus to the custom dictionaries.

I'm not sure that's how you are supposed to do...
You have to create a custom dictionary for SPanish, you you do this only once
and never go back to the prefs for that afterwareds.
Then you create a document , selects a paragraph (or the entire document) and
set the language to Spanish:
Tools:Language...:Spanish

and that's it... the paragraph is considered to be in Spanish and will be
treated accoprdingly for the proofing tools (including the custom
dictionary).

You can even modify the Normal template to make sure ever new document that
will be created will automatically be in Spanish.

I am frustrated by the typical Microsoft unnecessary
complexity. The Spanish Dictionary is selected. Spanish is
selected as the Language in the Custom Dictionaries window.

That's not where it has to be selected unfortunately. As I was saying, try to
go through Tools:Langage

Corentin

 

[Ken Spiker]

Thanx. It's working now. Using your method, I selected the
text I wanted to check and selected Language from Tools
menu. This works just fine for my purposes. I was kinda
assuming that there would be a selection under
Tools>Spelling&Grammer (or somewhere) that would change to
another dictionary for the whole document and then it would
work the same as it does in English.

I don't do a lot of spanish documents so the highlighting
method is perfect. I later discovered the Help page which
outlines this way of doing it. Oh, well.

Thank you Corentin, for your help in this matter.

Ken

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

Hi Ken,

Thanx. It's working now. Using your method, I selected the
text I wanted to check and selected Language from Tools
menu. This works just fine for my purposes. I was kinda
assuming that there would be a selection under
Tools>Spelling&Grammer (or somewhere) that would change to
another dictionary for the whole document and then it would
work the same as it does in English.

Yeah I really think that Word (and Office in general) need some work to be
more user friendly for people using multiple languages. These are far from
being obvious for everyone :-\ At least the proofing tools for other
languages come shipping on the CD now, I remember a few versions ago, you had
to buy the "foreign language" proofing tool as an add-on for Word (and it was
expensive).

I don't do a lot of spanish documents so the highlighting
method is perfect. I later discovered the Help page which
outlines this way of doing it. Oh, well.

Great )

Thank you Corentin, for your help in this matter.

It's a pleasure Ken

Corentin

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Hi Ken:

With Corentin, I believe you have a good and valid point. I have been
working for some years now to try to get Microsoft to simplify language
handling in Word.

Yes I agree with them that the tools are absolutely powerful and flexible.
However, with that flexibility comes the most horrendous complexity. If you
think it's bad working between two different languages, wait until you see
what results when you are trying to work amongst three similar languages
such as English US, English UK and English AUS.

However, the solution is not easy. The real problem comes because while
Word will use Multiple Custom Dictionaries, the other members of the Office
family can use only the first custom dictionary in the sequence for each
language.

We continue to campaign, but it's not going to be an easy problem to solve.

Cheers


This responds to article <#[email protected]>, from

Hi Ken,




Yeah I really think that Word (and Office in general) need some work to be
more user friendly for people using multiple languages. These are far from
being obvious for everyone :-\ At least the proofing tools for other
languages come shipping on the CD now, I remember a few versions ago, you had
to buy the "foreign language" proofing tool as an add-on for Word (and it was
expensive).




Great )



It's a pleasure Ken

Corentin

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

However, the solution is not easy. The real problem comes because while
Word will use Multiple Custom Dictionaries, the other members of the Office
family can use only the first custom dictionary in the sequence for each
language.

) Adding a button to the toolbar for Tools:Language is easy but I would
really like to be able to add a button to select a specific language. Without
VBA (which is a completely unknown language to me), such customization is out
of reach...

Corentin

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Hi Corentin:

Well, VBA is supposed to be one of the reasons they invited me to this
party. I can assure you, it was not my table manners!

So you tell me exactly what you want it to do and I will code it up and post
it here.

I assume you want to switch the language on Normal Style? (That switches
the language for the whole document under most circumstances...)

I assume you want to scan the text and find any instances of a non-complying
language? I have code to do that around here somewhere...

I assume you would like to check for a selection, and if there is one, mark
the selected text with a particular language?

Would you want to check for the availability of a specific custom
dictionary? And enable it if found? And create it if not?

Since I know you are a damned fine coder in plenty of other languages, how
about you code up what you want as a Use Case in P-Code, and I will turn it
into VBA for you...

Cheers


This responds to article <[email protected]>, from

) Adding a button to the toolbar for Tools:Language is easy but I would
really like to be able to add a button to select a specific language. Without
VBA (which is a completely unknown language to me), such customization is out
of reach...

Corentin

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

Hi Corentin:

Hi John,

Well, VBA is supposed to be one of the reasons they invited me to this
party. I can assure you, it was not my table manners!
)))))

So you tell me exactly what you want it to do and I will code it up and post
it here.

That's very kind of you John,
Actually in the meanwhile I decided to dig a little bit in the options I had
and created the macro myself ))
Here is what I wanted:

Sub Fr()
'
' Fr Macro
' Macro recorded 14/05/04 by Corentin Cras-Méneur
'
Selection.LanguageID = wdFrench
Selection.NoProofing = False
End Sub

I assigned the Macro to a button in my Toolbar. It took me a little while to
figure out what I needed but I'm really glad I found it (especially since I
realized afterwards I could have simply recorded the Macro....... :->>> )
The Macro is amazingly simple, but there was still a few things I had a hard
time finding when I first looked for them. I found the second argument after
playing with the record function (I would have never thought of it by
myself...).

I assume you want to switch the language on Normal Style? (That switches
the language for the whole document under most circumstances...)

Nope, just on a selection. For Normal, I can simply create a template for
French and duplicate for English. That's a lot easier for me.

I assume you want to scan the text and find any instances of a non-complying
language? I have code to do that around here somewhere...

Nope, I can spot these outs easily because almost every word gets underlined
by the proofing tools )

I assume you would like to check for a selection, and if there is one, mark
the selected text with a particular language?

That's exactly it )

Would you want to check for the availability of a specific custom
dictionary? And enable it if found? And create it if not?

Nope, I'll make other buttons for other languages if I need them but I'm
pretty much all set. What I needed was pretty simple, I spent way too much
time trying to find out how to add the button from the customization options
and never really thought about the possibility to do it through VBA.

Since I know you are a damned fine coder in plenty of other languages, how
about you code up what you want as a Use Case in P-Code, and I will turn it
into VBA for you...

That could have been an interesting option ) Anyway I got it now. I should
really get to know more about VBA... (I really need more free time for this
kind of things...).


Thanks a lot for your help John,


Corentin