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

2011-09-20T18:35:54+00:00

Horus25:

For exemple, in French if I write "jsuis" it won't tell me to correct it to "Je suis", it'll only change the "j" to a capital J.

Even in English, when I type "Ican", it won't say it's wrong and suggest to change it to "I can".

Well the two examples you give won't help. When you type "jsuis" with French settings, it won't correct it to "Je suis", unless you added this in the Autocorrect tool. Same thing regarding "ican" with English settings. All I get is red waves under the words.

Do you see the red waves or not at all? If you create a new document form scratch, what is the language that appears in the "Tools" > "Language…" window? This should be the language you have selected as "Default…" If you type a couple of words in this language, what can you see, regarding the spellchecking?
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Anonymous

2011-09-20T15:25:57+00:00

I tried doing that but my Word still won't spellcheck my documents.

I'm using Microsoft Office Word 2011 14.1.3 on Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).

Wether I try spellchecking in French or English, Word just won't tell me if any of the words I'm writing down are correct or not.

For exemple, in French if I write "jsuis" it won't tell me to correct it to "Je suis", it'll only change the "j" to a capital J.

Even in English, when I type "Ican", it won't say it's wrong and suggest to change it to "I can".

I set French (Canada) as my default language, made sure the "Do not check spelling and grammar" is unclicked, I even went in Tools > Autocorrect... and unclicked the option to automatically change spelling as I type, and even in Preferences where I have "Check spelling as you type" and "Always suggest corrections" clicked. However, I cannot unclick "Check grammar as you type".. it's just plain gray.

Is there anything I could do to change that 'cause I really need the spellcheck to help me out writing my reports for school and I hate losing points because I made spelling errors...

Thanks!
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Anonymous

2011-07-10T18:41:31+00:00

That solved the problem! Didn't know that was even an option under the language setting. I figured out how to select all of my previously entered text and change that setting so that I could rerun the spelling/grammar check.

Thanks so much!
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Anonymous

2011-07-10T17:35:42+00:00

From the "Tools" menu, select the "Language…" line and make sure the document (or the part you have selected) is set to the correct language. See if the "Don't spellcheck" button is checked while you're at it.

If that doesn't bring you on the way out of it, could you describe precisely how you proceed, what language you're using, etc.
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