Spell Checker not working in Microsoft Word 2011 for Mac

Anonymous
2011-07-10T17:10:35+00:00

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?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2013-11-12T23:59:22+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2012-04-21T04:40:07+00:00

    If you redefined the language in the Normal template, that change would only affect new documents. Once a document is created, it dissociates from the template. Existing documents would not be affected by that change and should be manually fixed one by one: Select All, then apply the language.

    For good measure, in each document select Format > Style and modify the Normal paragraph style by clicking on the Modify button, then selecting Language in the dropdown menu at the bottom left. This is not essential if you won't be working with that document anymore.

    The duplication of designations can be confusing:

    • There is a Normal template (the mold used to cast new documents), and…
    • Within every document (and even within the Normal template itself), there is also a Normal paragraph style (the mold for paragraph formats)

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-04-21T01:27:00+00:00

    Daniel,

    Thank you for the advice.  Unfortunately, pulling the templates worked so that spell check is working for a newly opened file, but not for any previous files (including those made with the current verion: docx files).

    Your continued advice/work to help solve this problem would be highly appreciated.

    Best,

    Adam

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-04-20T07:52:17+00:00

    Marcene, try the method suggested above for user Falif.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-04-20T07:50:30+00:00

    @ Fali

    If all works OK when starting Word with Shift pressed, then it's a matter of "a corrupt either/and/or" of the following:

    • Normal.dot template
    • Word preference files

    To replace your Normal template:

    1. Quit Word
    2. Go to the Finder
    3. Select Go > Go to folder
    4. Paste this in the blank text field: ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates
    5. Drag Normal.dotm  to the Desktop (Word will rebuild it)

    To replace your preference settings:

    1. Repeat Steps 1-3
    2. Paste this in the blank text field: ~/Library/Preferences
    3. Locate files com.microsoft.Word.plist  and com.microsoft.Office.plistand drag them to the Desktop (Word will rebuild them)

    You can do both steps at once, or in sequence, or do one and if the problem is not fixed, restore the files to their original place and try the other step. Why would you? Because you will be losing your customizations, which are stored in such files, so the less you change, the better.

    Test Word after each file movement. Once you get it running to your satisfaction, dispose of the files you dragged to the Desktop.

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