Word X Can't suddenly can't spell

[buckinlex]

In searching for an answer to my problem, I stumbled across a great
description of it from 2004, but no answer, so I'm going to include it
here first, then elaborate from my experience:

"Selecting Grammar & Spelling in preferences does bring a window with
spelling options in the upper panel and grammar options in the lower
panel, but all options about spelling are grayed out and unavailable,
except for one box, "Use German post-reform rules", which I can click
on or off. All the rest, including selection and creation of personal
dictionaries, are unavailable."

To elaborate:

Word v.X
OSX 10.2.8

Steps taken to try to fix:
Check permissions
Reset prefs in ~/library
Remove/Replace Office via Remove Office tool
Confirmed all languages are English (US)

I was called to fix a Word problem on a client's Mac. I was trying to
figure out how to add a custom dictionary that you can 'add' to, which
I did. But I noticed when I first got there, each time I opened a
file, it would complain that it couldn't find a certain dictionary (or
several). I finally got the dictionary list down to just the custom
dictionary. Then after getting the dictionary list under control and
successfully spell-checking and adding words to the custom dictionary,
I then closed the app just for sport to make sure that all was well on
a fresh launch.

--then something snapped--

When it came back up, Spelling and Grammar was gone from the tools
menu, and the Spelling portion of S&G in the preferences was grayed
out as described above.

I finally figured out how to get S&G back under the tools menu (via
Customize), and it will check grammar, but spelling is still
'unplugged'.

Anybody know why the Spelling portion of Spelling and Grammar is
broken and how to get it back?

Big TIA!

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Spelling and Grammar works on a hierarchy of Input Language (Keyboard),
Default Language, and Text language.

Within this, the complexities are huge, but the one that usually goes wrong
is that in Tools>Language>Set Language the text under the cursor is either
market as "Do not check spelling" or as a language you do not have
installed. There are many flavours of English. For spelling to work, you
must have the text marked in a language that is installed.

The Custom Dictionary should have "No Language" (which means "All
Languages") unless the user wants to work in several languages at once and
is prepared to maintain a different custom dictionary for each.

Hope this helps

In searching for an answer to my problem, I stumbled across a great
description of it from 2004, but no answer, so I'm going to include it
here first, then elaborate from my experience:

"Selecting Grammar & Spelling in preferences does bring a window with
spelling options in the upper panel and grammar options in the lower
panel, but all options about spelling are grayed out and unavailable,
except for one box, "Use German post-reform rules", which I can click
on or off. All the rest, including selection and creation of personal
dictionaries, are unavailable."

To elaborate:

Word v.X
OSX 10.2.8

Steps taken to try to fix:
Check permissions
Reset prefs in ~/library
Remove/Replace Office via Remove Office tool
Confirmed all languages are English (US)

I was called to fix a Word problem on a client's Mac. I was trying to
figure out how to add a custom dictionary that you can 'add' to, which
I did. But I noticed when I first got there, each time I opened a
file, it would complain that it couldn't find a certain dictionary (or
several). I finally got the dictionary list down to just the custom
dictionary. Then after getting the dictionary list under control and
successfully spell-checking and adding words to the custom dictionary,
I then closed the app just for sport to make sure that all was well on
a fresh launch.

--then something snapped--

When it came back up, Spelling and Grammar was gone from the tools
menu, and the Spelling portion of S&G in the preferences was grayed
out as described above.

I finally figured out how to get S&G back under the tools menu (via
Customize), and it will check grammar, but spelling is still
'unplugged'.

Anybody know why the Spelling portion of Spelling and Grammar is
broken and how to get it back?

Big TIA!

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[buckinlex]

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Spelling and Grammar works on a hierarchy of Input Language (Keyboard),
Default Language, and Text language.

Within this, the complexities are huge, but the one that usually goes wrong
is that in Tools>Language>Set Language the text under the cursor is either
market as "Do not check spelling" or as a language you do not have
installed. There are many flavours of English. For spelling to work, you
must have the text marked in a language that is installed.

The Custom Dictionary should have "No Language" (which means "All
Languages") unless the user wants to work in several languages at once and
is prepared to maintain a different custom dictionary for each.

Hope this helps

On 8/2/07 2:59 PM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "(e-mail address removed)"

Much thanks for the reply.

It really smells like a 'language' problem to me too. However, since
I can't get into the S&G Dictionary prefs again, not sure how to do
anything about it.

I've reset the Normal template, and everything I can find to the
English(US) language that is installed to try to get everything on the
same page, but it still won't break loose the Spelling function.
Could I have a mismatch between two different installed English(US)
languages?? If so, what can I do about that?

Scrubbing this Mac and starting over is the next best thing I can
think of. Not even sure if that will work. Hopefully I can hang on
long enough for someone to help me unravel this puzzle.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Your Custom Dictionary should be set to "No Language", not "English US".

However, if Preferences>Spelling and Grammar is greyed out, do you have a
blank document displayed? All preferences are disabled unless you have a
document open.

Is this happening to just one document, or all documents? If it's one
document, "Maggie" it:

1) Create a new blank document

2) Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last
paragraph mark

3) Copy it.

4) Paste in the new document.

5) Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.

This technique for de-corrupting is known around the world as "Doing a
'Maggie'", after Margaret Secara from the Word PC-L mailing list who first
publicised the technique.

If it's all documents, work your way through the procedures here, in the
sequence they are mentioned:

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/TroubleshootingIndex.html

Hope this helps

Much thanks for the reply.

It really smells like a 'language' problem to me too. However, since
I can't get into the S&G Dictionary prefs again, not sure how to do
anything about it.

I've reset the Normal template, and everything I can find to the
English(US) language that is installed to try to get everything on the
same page, but it still won't break loose the Spelling function.
Could I have a mismatch between two different installed English(US)
languages?? If so, what can I do about that?

Scrubbing this Mac and starting over is the next best thing I can
think of. Not even sure if that will work. Hopefully I can hang on
long enough for someone to help me unravel this puzzle.

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410