"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. 

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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. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-04-20T05:43:40+00:00

    Note that "everything" language-related is covered in Suzanne S. Barnhill's article on the topic:

    http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/MasterSpellCheck.htm

    When selecting the main body of a document, you shouldn't have to switch to Draft view, though. Ctrl+A can be used in Print Layout view. In both cases, areas outside of the main body of the document will not be selected, but must be dealt with separately. Often, it is a good idea to also change language options for the Normal style, whenever appropriate.

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  2. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-01-12T11:39:02+00:00

    If i insert a table or add a row to and existing table in word, the new row has a different default on language and spelling. also the do not spell check box is ticked for the new row whilst the rest of the document is spell checking. I ususally have to use ctrl A and the review language to reset it. Even when I tick, make this the default. its still needs to be repeated for each and every row I add.

    Can any help me set up a default so that I do not have to keep doing this.

    much appreciated.

    What is the language setting in your Normal style? If you are running a ribbon version (Word 2007 or later), press Ctrl+Shift+S to display the Apply Styles pane. Type in Normal (if that style isn't already selected) and then click Modify. In the dialog box, click Format and then click Language. You can (re-)apply the correct language there.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-05-06T18:13:53+00:00

    The selection is my dissertation, 300 pages, because I don't know how to find what might have been marked "don't check".

    Yes, after running spell check again, the "text marked ..." message still appears. Every time I go in and clear the check box, it's not greyed out, it's got the half-filled symbol that means it applies to some of the text but not all. I click this twice, so it goes to fully checked and then fully cleared, but as soon as I go back to the document and back in to the language preferences, it's back. by checking some of the pages as groups, I've found that at least part of the problem is tables.

    However, it's still frustrating that I'm allowed to "clear" the checkbox but it immediately gets overridden by something else. I would expect the option to be completely greyed out if it was not possible to change the entire document this way.

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