"...too many spelling errors to continue displaying them...."

[Pat]

I have a large document (219 pages) with numerous embedded cross-references.
Now, whenever I open the document, I receive this message: "There are too
many spelling or grammatical errors in <document name> to continue displaying
them. To check the spelling and grammar of this document, choose Spelling
and Grammar from the Tools menu." This is a pain since I would rather
correct them as I encounter them - any ideas on how to get rid of this
message? Or, is there an actual limit tied to the size of the document??
Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

What you need to do is eliminate the bits you don't want Word to spell
check. You can start by telling it to "Ignore Internet and file addresses"
(Tools | Options | Spelling and Grammar). If that doesn't help, create a
character style defined as Default Paragraph Font + Do not check spelling or
grammar and apply it to "words" tht don't need to be spell checked.

 

[Pat]

I already have eliminated many of the words, and have turned "grammar"
checking off. I have repeatedly done spell-check and told it to ignore
words. It simply is overwhelmed by something and I need to know what that
something is - is it the cross-references within the document? Is it too
many styles? Even when I add additional cross-references, it will often tell
me that Word is out of memory....I am trying to avoid having to create a
master document with sub-documents but I need to know if that is what it will
take.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

It's overwhelmed by too many "errors". E.g., I run into this with 500 pages
full of eighteenth century spellings.

Try Suzanne's suggested style to apply to the words that you want ignored.

It's possible that there's a limited amount of power available for "showing
stuff on screen", and that the cross-references are taking priority.

However, this comment

Even when I add additional cross-references, it will often tell
me that Word is out of memory....

Suggests that something else may be going on. How much memory does your
computer have? What versions are you using? Have you done basic maintenance
on the computer recently?

DO NOT use a master document with subdocuments.

Why Master Documents corrupt:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WhyMasterDocsCorrupt.htm

How to recover a Master Document:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RecoverMasterDocs.htm

Steve Hudson [Word Heretic] on how to make Master Documents work safely:
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/magazine/technical/wordhomepage.html

You might also check these links for potential workarounds:

Creating a Table of Contents Spanning Multiple Documents
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=148

See the ³Number Pages Across Files² section at this link:
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MiscFram.htm

IncludeText Fields can partially substitute for the Master Document
feature‹for an introduction to them, see here:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/includetextfields.htm

Word experts generally advise combining long documents into one file, if
possible, and you will find more information on controlling those big files
here:
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm