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?

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

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.

0 comments

68 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-10-18T18:43:05+00:00

Every time I click Visual Basic Editor, nothing will come up so I can't do this.

Please help I have tried all other options and have never tried a macro before.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2014-10-18T20:54:12+00:00

Do you have many documents that need correcting the language? Because that's what the macro is for.

Is it possible that you did not include the "Visual Basic for Applications" components when you first installed Office? To check this, run the installer (or re-download it), then proceed slowly because you need to press the "Customize" button and take out all checkmarks except the one for "Visual Basic..."
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2015-02-23T06:08:19+00:00

This is a really old post, but seeing as I had the same problem, and there's no solution posted, I thought I'd chime in with what worked for me.

Only the grammar section of spelling and grammar was grayed out in word preferences. Spell check would appear to run, but not find spelling errors. It would fix stuff like capitalizing the first word of a sentence, but complete gibberish wasn't flagged.

I double-checked the language settings, styles, etc. - all looked right. Deleting preference files didn't solve it. Reinstalling word didn't help either.

Then I realized spell check wasn't working in any of the office apps, so it was an office issue, not a word issue. Indeed - the office language register wasn't working (error message when I launched it). I dropped the entire installation, reinstalled, and all was well. (Perhaps just reinstalling the language register might have worked too, but I was impatient by that point.)
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2015-04-23T02:57:28+00:00

Thank you so much!!!!!
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments