Word 2004 has lost my Autocorrect preferences

[Gary Goldberg]

I have been creating a large (500K+) document in Word 2004 (using OS
10.4.11 with the latest Word updates, if that matters) and all of a
sudden I find that 1) the ordinal par of numbers is no longer converted
to superscript (e.g. 1st, 2nd, ...), 2) autocorrection of my spelling no
longer takes place, and 3) Thesaurus no longer works properly - nothing
happens when I enter a word and there is no box below to display results.

Thinking I could get back my prefs by quitting I did so but Word
crashed. I apparently didn't lose anything after reopening the document

I haven't (knowingly) changed anything, so...what happened and how do I
restore my preferences?

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Gary:

What happened is that Word corrupted one or more of its preference files.

You should delete them and allow Word to make a new set.

See here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DamagedPrefs.html

Cheers

I have been creating a large (500K+) document in Word 2004 (using OS
10.4.11 with the latest Word updates, if that matters) and all of a
sudden I find that 1) the ordinal par of numbers is no longer converted
to superscript (e.g. 1st, 2nd, ...), 2) autocorrection of my spelling no
longer takes place, and 3) Thesaurus no longer works properly - nothing
happens when I enter a word and there is no box below to display results.

Thinking I could get back my prefs by quitting I did so but Word
crashed. I apparently didn't lose anything after reopening the document

I haven't (knowingly) changed anything, so...what happened and how do I
restore my preferences?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Gary Goldberg]

Hi Gary:

What happened is that Word corrupted one or more of its preference files.

You should delete them and allow Word to make a new set.

See here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DamagedPrefs.html

Cheers

Thanks, John! However, I went to that page, navigated to
my Library/Preferences folder and, without remembering to look
for the Microsoft subfolder, found a Com.Microsoft.Word.plist
file (suspiciously created late yesterday afternoon, probably
about the time the problem surfaced) among the other files
(such as the com.Apple....ones) and moved it to the Desktop and
restarted. Nothing had changed.

Then I re-read the instructions and found two Com.Microsoft.Word.plist
files in my Microsoft folder. Fearing they'd overwrite my file of
the same name on the Desktop I moved them to my Movies folder and
restarted (Word was not open during all this).

I can't find an Office-related file at the /Preferences level except
OfficeConverter and OfficeNotifications (but I only have Word 2004
anyway). Did I do something wrong, or is it perhaps a font problem?

 

[Gary Goldberg]

Hi Gary:

What happened is that Word corrupted one or more of its preference files.

You should delete them and allow Word to make a new set.

See here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DamagedPrefs.html

I just realized something else, John: about the time the problem
occurred I had inserted a letter from the Polish alphabet (for a Polish
placename) and then changed its size and type (from New Roman to Geneva).

Just in case that helps pinpoint the problem.

 

[Gary Goldberg]

Hi Gary:

What happened is that Word corrupted one or more of its preference files.

You should delete them and allow Word to make a new set.

See here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DamagedPrefs.html

Late (and last) word (I hope!) - the situation "auto-corrected" itself
after I copied-and-pasted an entire Polish placename from Wikipedia into
the document and adjusted the style, font, and font size! Now my
ordinals are OK, the Thesaurus words, autocorrect works, the sun is
shining

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Late (and last) word (I hope!) - the situation "auto-corrected" itself
after I copied-and-pasted an entire Polish placename from Wikipedia into
the document and adjusted the style, font, and font size! Now my
ordinals are OK, the Thesaurus words, autocorrect works, the sun is
shining

So, caused and fixed by adding Polish? After the fact diagnosis--both
autocorrecting and Thesaurus are language dependent. Language in Word is
a sort of invisible formatting--if the text is not tagged as English,
then the autocorrects you set up for the English language will not work.
When you copied a Polish character, it brought Polish language with it.
The text you type directly after pasting something carries the
formatting of the pasting with it, just as if you had pasted something
bold, when you hit enter after the paste, the next line will still be
bold. So it sounds like Word thought you were still typing Polish, and
that's why all those things stopped working (well, I'm a bit surprised
about the ordinals).

When you adjusted the style/font/size, then you also likely restored the
invisible English formatting.

Slightly more info here, if you wish:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/SpellCheck.html#HowItWorks

Daiya

 

[Gary Goldberg]

So, caused and fixed by adding Polish? After the fact diagnosis--both
autocorrecting and Thesaurus are language dependent. Language in Word is
a sort of invisible formatting--if the text is not tagged as English,
then the autocorrects you set up for the English language will not work.
When you copied a Polish character, it brought Polish language with it.
The text you type directly after pasting something carries the
formatting of the pasting with it, just as if you had pasted something
bold, when you hit enter after the paste, the next line will still be
bold. So it sounds like Word thought you were still typing Polish, and
that's why all those things stopped working (well, I'm a bit surprised
about the ordinals).

When you adjusted the style/font/size, then you also likely restored the
invisible English formatting.

Slightly more info here, if you wish:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/SpellCheck.html#HowItWorks

Thanks for the insight Daiya. When I first inserted Polish (a single
letter) it was by activating the Input Menu of the Systems Preference
pane. When I "fixed" the problem it was by copying and pasting from a
Wikipedia page, which apparently does not use the same "foreign" fonts
despite having the correct diacriticals.

 

[John McGhie]

Thank god Daiya worked out what it was, because I was struggling

No: It's not the "Font" that does it, it's the "Keyboard".

For some incredibly stupid reason, Word switches languages whenever you
switch keyboards. And you have to switch keyboards to access special
characters easily on the Mac.

I have been campaigning to get this bug fixed for a couple of years. So
far, no luck. So if you want to access a Polish character, you switch to
the Polish keyboard. Word inserts a "Begin Polish" language mark into your
text. Then you type your character and switch back to the English keyboard.

Word forgets to close the Polish language marking. None of your
autocorrects, spelling, grammar, etc will work from that point forward until
you fix the language!!

However, Word 2008 has a new Preference: Edit>Match Font with Keyboard,
which might prevent it happening.

Cheers

Thanks for the insight Daiya. When I first inserted Polish (a single
letter) it was by activating the Input Menu of the Systems Preference
pane. When I "fixed" the problem it was by copying and pasting from a
Wikipedia page, which apparently does not use the same "foreign" fonts
despite having the correct diacriticals.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Gary Goldberg]

Definitely worth knowing, John! Thanks for this!

So....if I can't find a word in a non-English alphabet - technically,
the Polish alphabet isn't an English alphabet, although it's a Latin
alphabet and Word seems to see it that way, too :-( - what's a safe
way to enter non-English alphabetical characters (without buying
Word 2008)? The "special characters" menu has only so many alphabetical
characters to choose from.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Gary -

A little out of my realm here as I really don't work with varying language
very much, but what if you use the OS X Character Palette rather than Word's
limited Insert> Symbol dialog? Just a thought

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Gary Goldberg]

Bob, the problem is that the OS X Character Palette is limited
and often takes a LOT of searching to find the desired letter with the
right diacriticals.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Gary -

Limited? It gives you access to every Glyph in every Font you have
installed Once you've had an opportunity to explore it further you'll
find a number of handy "shortcuts" including the search tool (magnifying
glass" at the bottom edge. Those you use with any regularity can also be
added to a Favorites collection so you need go no further than that.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac