Spelling & Grammar will not work- I've tried everything!!

[Emily]

Hi,

I installed Office 2004 for Mac about a week ago, and the spell-check
refuses to work.

Basically, I could type anything in and it will not conduct the
spell/grammar check. As soon as I type, the red toolbox flashes, and the
Compatability report reads that 'Word cannot identify the text language'. The
explanation given is that the 'text in this document is set to a language
Word cannot identify. To change the language setting for this text, open the
Language dialogue box.'

I've set English (UK) as the default language, in both the Tools- Language
drop down menu and in the Word preferences menu. When I do this to an already
open Word document, it does recognise the mispelled words, but if I close
that particular document and open a new one, it stops working again-even
though when I check, the language settings have remained as I changed them!
It's quite frustrating!

I also followed the instructions that were given in a previous post
(5/10/2006) by someone named Netia. The following link was recommended there
http://word.mvps.org/mac/SpellCheck.html#Misspelled. The following were the
instructions given:

''Click in a word that is not being spell-checked, and go to Format>Style.
The style of that word will already be selected in the left column of the
dialog.
Click Modify. Check the “add to template†box to save your changes to all
new documents based on that template, but do NOT check the “automatically
update†box.
Use the Format drop-down menu at the bottom of the Modify dialog to select
Language—select the Language you want, and make sure the "do not check
spelling or grammar" box is NOT checked.
Click OK to exit the Language dialog, then OK to exit the Modify Style
dialog, and either Close or Apply to exit the Format>Style dialog.''

Once I did this, Word did start recognising the mispelled words, but as
before, once I open another document, it stops working.

I'm not very technically minded, but I've been using Word for years and have
never had such a frustrating problem. And I have made sure that the 'Do not
check spelling or grammar' box is not checked! Please, can someone help me!
I'm trying to write my Masters thesis, and while I know I shouldn't depend on
spell-check, it helps if I have word to point out the ridiculous words!

Thanks in advance,

Emily

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Emily,

Good luck with the MA thesis!

Please return to that same page, but start at the top and read "Set the
Default Language", as it explains how spelling works in Word, and I see some
misconceptions in your post. Language settings apply to text--you cannot
really set them across the whole application. Better explanation here:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/SpellCheck.html#DefaultLang

If you've followed the instructions on the page, *new* documents should now
be spellchecking properly. Are they?

However, that fix has no retroactive effect on already created documents.
You need to repeat it for *each* OLD document that you open. Sorry. What
you describe seeing is basically how it works.

A question about these old documents. Were they created in WinWord? Did
they spellcheck properly there? What language did you have assigned to them
in WinWord? I'm thinking that having English (Australian) or English
(Canadian) assigned in WinWord would explain what you describe, but if you
had English (UK) assigned in WinWord, and MacWord is not recognizing that,
more investigation may be needed. (I think WinWord has Australian or
Canadian settings, anyhow).

Hope that helps,

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Emily,

Where are these documents coming from? It sounds to me as if these
documents were written on a machine whose default language was a different
flavor of English (English US, perhaps?). If that's the case, then you will
need to set the language of each of these documents to English UK.

To do that, select all the text in the document (Cmd>a), go to
Tools>Language and set the language to English UK. Spell check should now
work.

Unfortunately, you'll need to do this for every document that wasn't written
in English UK if you want your spell checker to work.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
My Site: <http://www.bethrosengard.com>

 

[Emily]

Hi,

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately I have
tried your advice, and it still isn't working. Also, I haven't actually been
trying this on old Word documents- I haven't even uploaded any of my old
documents to this new laptop. My query only applies to new Word documents.
I really have no idea how to fix this problem!

Thanks again,

Emily

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hmm. Okay, let's start from the beginning.

Go to Tools | Language, select preferred Language, click Default.

Quit Word. If you get a message about "save changes to Normal", say yes.

Restart Word. Do new documents now spellcheck properly?


If they don't‹

Put the cursor in a misbehaving word--go to Tools | Language. What comes up
selected?

Put the cursor in a misbehaving word--go to Format | Style. What comes up
selected?