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
    2012-04-16T04:10:48+00:00

    Thank you!

    While the "Don't spellcheck" was not checked, and the correct language was indeed selected "English (US)," clicking on the "Default" button and selecting "English U.S." as the default for spellcheck was my solution.

    Also, the suggested "Synonyms" in the right-click contextual menu began populating again.

    Sincerely,

    --Liko

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-01-31T01:33:58+00:00

    You're a lifesaver! This solved my issues right away. Thanks for the great response!

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-12-14T09:53:03+00:00

    There was a problem in .doc documents "remembering" the proper language. Too often, spell checking a document would zip through and report "no errors," when you positively knew that the text contained several terms that should have been questioned.

    The "minus" sign should indicate that the selected text is a mixture of "do check" and "don't check," but it obviously is not working. Are you using the older .doc format? If so, see this clarification: Word documents created with Office 2004 are read and formatted by Office 2011 but do not respond to spell check. why?

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-12-14T07:57:02+00:00

    Thanks Daniel, this fixes the problem, at least temporarily.

    Turns out different part of the document were formatted to different languages.

    However, if I do this fix and save the document, it reverts to its old behavior the next time I open the same file. The language box shows no language has been selected (nothing is highlighted) and the "Do not check spelling and grammer" field at the bottom has a dash (-) in it.

    Is there any permanent fix? I've already set me default language to English (UK).

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