Spell Checker not working in Microsoft Word 2011 for Mac

Anonymous

I just installed Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac a few weeks ago, and when I type a document in Word, it is not flagging misspelled words as I type, even though the "check spelling and grammar" button is selected. Additionally, when I run a spelling/grammar check, it tells me that it's been run already and it still does not flag any misspelled words. I tried reinstalling the proofing tools, but that has not helped. Does anyone have any feedback on how to fix this?

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Anonymous

The convenience of this macro is, once you know it works, all you need to do is open all documents requiring fixing, ALL AT ONCE, and run the macro one final time.

To force Australian English, change the language specification from wdEnglishUS to wdEnglishAUS

(in two places).

There is a Preference setting that, curiously, is saved with each document and is probably the root of your current problem: *Word > Preferences > Spelling and Grammar > Hide spelling errors in this document.*I've added it to the code as well, so here's a new version with the changes in boldface, which you can add manually:

Sub ApplyEnglishAUStoAllOpenDocuments()

For Each aDocument In Application.Documents

aDocument.Activate

'Apply language ----------------------

Selection.WholeStory

Selection.LanguageID = wdEnglishAUS

Selection.NoProofing = False

'Redefine the Normal style ----------------

ActiveDocument.Styles("Normal").LanguageID = wdEnglishAUS

ActiveDocument.Styles("Normal").NoProofing = False

'Enable spelling errors --------------

ActiveDocument.ShowSpellingErrors = True

'Save changes and close -------------

aDocument.Save

aDocument.Close

Next aDocument

End Sub

In case you don't know anything about macros, the name that follows the starting "Sub" is arbitrary (thus, you can use pretty much any descriptive name there, like Sub ChangeLang(), etc.) while comment lines start with an apostrophe and are ignored by Word.

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68 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-06-29T00:24:41+00:00

Reply

Beware! Never buy Office: Mac 2011. The spell check does not work—it will work sometimes, not others. It will pick up some words, not others. If you need to produce clean copy, do not buy this product! The tech people will give you the runaround......they admit that it is a bug on their end and they don't know when it will be fixed.

Rubbish!

If you are having troubles with spell check, read through the answers already posted. Your fellow Word users here in this forum are happy to try to help you understand this topic. Once you learn how spell check works, you will discover that it works very well, indeed.

****Actually....I got it straight from the engineers that there is a bug in

the program......it works inconsistently…..I’ve had to “uncheck” the

"don’t use spell check” box 20 times in a row to get it to work…..and

then it picks up only SOME of the misspelled words……I almost sent

off an important document riddled with errors……do not trust the

2011 version of Office for Mac. Mircosoft is selling a defective product.
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Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP

2013-06-28T15:34:29+00:00

Beware! Never buy Office: Mac 2011. The spell check does not work—it will work sometimes, not others. It will pick up some words, not others. If you need to produce clean copy, do not buy this product! The tech people will give you the runaround......they admit that it is a bug on their end and they don't know when it will be fixed.

Rubbish!

If you are having troubles with spell check, read through the answers already posted. Your fellow Word users here in this forum are happy to try to help you understand this topic. Once you learn how spell check works, you will discover that it works very well, indeed.
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Anonymous

2013-06-27T22:56:46+00:00

Beware! Never buy Office: Mac 2011. The spell check does not work—it will work sometimes, not others. It will pick up some words, not others. If you need to produce clean copy, do not buy this product! The tech people will give you the runaround......they admit that it is a bug on their end and they don't know when it will be fixed.
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Anonymous

2013-01-28T05:55:07+00:00

Yes, that was published a couple of months after this thread was started. We now regularly refer users to that article. Thanks for adding the link.
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