Hi Mark:
OK, this can turn into a bit of a hunt. You need to know that the operation
of Spelling in Word is controlled by the "Language" of the text in the
document, which can vary sentence by sentence. Note: "English" is not a
language -- there are 29 different flavours of English, the name of the one
you are using must match exactly in all places.
1) check that the language you want to use is enabled in your System
Preferences.
2) Check that the keyboard for the language you want to use is currently in
use. Word sets its default language on startup from the keyboard in use.
3) Check Word>Preferences to ensure that Check Spelling while you Type" is
enabled, and "Hide spelling errors in this document" is disabled.
4) Now check that the Custom Dictionary is present and enabled. Read the
Help in Microsoft Word to see how to enable a custom dictionary.
5) check that the Custom Dictionary is set to "No Language" (or "None").
That makes the custom dictionary available to all languages. Alternatively,
you can have a Custom Dictionary for each of the languages you want to use.
I wouldn't... it's a lot of work maintaining them. The only time you need
it is if you wish to specify words that are correctly spelled in one
language but wrong in another.
6) Now check the language of the Normal Template. To do this, make sure
you have no documents open, then use File>Open to open the Normal Template,
then use Tools>Language to check which language is highlighted. If it's not
the one you want, change it, and click the DEFAULT button. Say Yes to the
prompt, then save the template and quit Word. Say YES if prompted to save
the template.
7) Now you need to check the language of the document. You need to use
Format>Style to go through every style you use and check that their Language
is either not specified (which means they use the document default language)
or specified as the one you want to use. You would, of course, find it
easier to select all of the text in the document and set the language you
want to use using Tools>Language. If you do, you will solve the problem for
now, but it will come back in the next document you open, so it's better to
do the whole job the first time. Having got all of the styles right, use
Format>Style>Add to Template to ensure that your changed styles are saved
back to your Normal template when you quit.
If, after having done all of the above, your problem is not fixed, then you
need to work your way through the instructions on replacing your preferences
here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
Hope this helps
--
Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie <
[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410
