"do not check spelling or grammar" will not stay unchecked

Anonymous
2013-04-28T04:05:48+00:00

Hi - I have a document that's been merged from a lot of single documents. When I run spellcheck, I always get the "Text marked do not check has been ignored." So I go to Review, Language, Set Proofing Language, and there is no language set and the box "Do not check spelling or grammar" has the half on/half off box in a box. When I click it twice, it clears, and I set the language to English, but when I go to re-check for spelling, I get an immediate "The spell check is complete", and when I go back to review, language, set proofing language, the check box is back to the half on half off setting and no language set. I am doing select all text each time, too. 

Office Professional Plus, version 14.0.6129.5000 64-bit

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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2013-05-06T18:34:51+00:00

Finding elusive "no proofing" text can be frustrating. When you select the entire document, you are selecting only the text layer. This doesn't include headers and footers and may not even include footnotes and endnotes. In one instance, I found "no proofing" text in an unused header. Here's how to ferret it out.

  1. Press Ctrl+H to open the Replace dialog and then select the Find tab (to my mind this is the easiest way to get to the Advanced Find without bothering with the Navigation pane).
  2. Click More>> to expand the dialog.
  3. Leaving the "Find what" box empty, click Format, then Language.
  4. Check the box for "Do not check spelling or grammar" and click OK. You'll see "Format: Do not check spelling or grammar" beneath the "Find what" box.
  5. Since "Find in" allows you to search only one layer at a time, it will probably be quicker to use "Find Next" (the likelihood is that there will be only one hit, anyway).
  6. Note where the found text is located. In the instance I cite, it was in an Even Page Header. Although "Odd and Even" was not currently enabled for headers and footers, Word had remembered the text entered for the Even Page Header, and it was formatted as "Do not check spelling or grammar." I could never have found this merely by inspecting the document in its current state.

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Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2013-04-28T16:27:16+00:00

Depending on the size of the selection, check boxes may appear greyed out; this is by design in Word...

Or you saying that the message "Text marked with 'Do not check spelling or grammar' was skipped" also resurfaces? Have you looked at the style definitions involved? For example, see if "Do not check spelling or grammar" has been added to the Normal style.

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-11-26T13:16:27+00:00

    Word has a built-in Plain Text paragraph style that is often used for code, and the "Do not check" property could easily be added to this style.

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  2. Charles Kenyon 171K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2013-11-26T05:00:34+00:00

    I strongly agree with Suzanne that this is something best addressed by using a character Style for the text you do not want checked. You can then turn it on or off by changing the Style settings.

    I can't think of a reason to ever have spelling checking turned on for code! You could also format the code to be monospaced of a given size at the same time.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-25T17:11:45+00:00

    Depending on the size of the selection, check boxes may appear greyed out; this is by design in Word...

    Or you saying that the message "Text marked with 'Do not check spelling or grammar' was skipped" also resurfaces? Have you looked at the style definitions involved? For example, see if "Do not check spelling or grammar" has been added to the Normal style.

    Stefan, I have been searching a long time and your post is the first I've ever seen that mentions "Depending on the size of the selection, check boxes may appear greyed out; this is by design in Word".

    Typically posters (and Microsoft itself) just say to select your desired text, or use Ctrl-A to select the whole document, and then apply proofing changes to the selection; but they don't ever mention that there is a limit to how much text may be selected for the proofing change to "stick".

    Can you tell me what the selection size limitation (the actual size value) is, please?  If you could also comment on where this is documented, and why the proofing change is accepted without warning if too much text is selected, I'd be very interested in hearing about that as well.

    Thanks!

    P.S.  Suzanne S. Barnhill, your answer was helpful as well.

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