word X spelling and grammar prolems

[Sean]

I was trying to spell check a document, and realized that the grammar
had somehow been set to "German." I followed the instrucions in the
help menu, i.e. I went to the word drop down menu, checked spelling
and grammar, and tried to access the styles. There was no "custom"
option to choose from, just 2 german settings. I went to "language"
on the "tools" menu, and selected English (US) and made it my default.
quit word, reopened it and tried spellcheck again. Still on German
grammar. I went to the proofing tools menu, deleted all dictionaries
and files for non-english languages, and tried again. now I can do a
grammar check in English, but the spelling options are all gone, even
greyed out in the preferences. I'm going to delete Word and reinstall
it, but i want to know what could have caused this and how to attack
it if it comes up again.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Sean,

The problem is that you never changed the language of the document itself to
English (US). What you need to do is open the document, select all, go to
Tools> Language, and change the setting to English (US). Now the spelling
should work.

The reason the spelling options were grayed out before is that you were
trying to use English proofing tools to spell check a document set to
German.

By the way, trashing and reinstalling your Word application is not the
answer. In fact, it may cause more problems (now or later). The proper way
to do a reinstallation is to first use the Remove Office tool and then
reinstall all of Office. If it comes to this and you need a how-to, post
back.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>