My MS Word spell checker is not working. What to do?


MS Word spell checker behaves abnormally most of the time. It doesn't detect misspelled words even if “Check spelling as you type” option is enabled. Sometime it doesn't work for one specific document or other time for any document. Either way it is the most annoying situation for user. To resolve this issue you can try below methods.

If spell checker doesn't work for a particular document: Sometime spell checker create issues with one specific document. To resolve this issue try below steps:
  1. Open your document and select the whole text by pressing Ctrl + A.
  2. Go to Tools-> Select Language-> Set Language.
  3. Check to ensure correct language is selected.
  4. Uncheck the 'Do not check spelling or grammar' option.
  5. Click Ok and again check your document.
Word 2007 and 2010:
  1. Open your document and select the whole text by pressing Ctrl + A.
  2. Go to Review-> Proofing-> Set Language (Word 2007).
  3. Go to Review-> Language-> Set Proofing Language (Word 2010).
  4. Uncheck the 'Do not check spelling or Grammar' option.
  5. Click Ok and again check your document.
If spell checker doesn’t work for any document: There could be many reasons for this problem. Follow below methods to resolve this issue.

Check spell checker option
  1. Open your document.
  2. Go to Tools-> Options-> Spelling and Grammar tab (For Word 2003).
  3. Go to MS Office Button-> Word Options-> Proofing (For Word 2007).
  4. Check mark the Check spelling as you type option and click Ok.
  5. Now check your document.
Start Word in safe mode: Sometime Word add-ins create problem so check whether spell checker work in safe mode. To open the Word in safe mode follow below steps:
  1. Press and hold Ctrl key and click on the document to open it.
  2. Below dialog box will appear, click Yes.


Rename global template: It might be possible that problem is caused by Word global template which is the Normal.dot file. To resolve this issue you need to rename the Normal.dot file.
  1. You will find the Normal.dot file usually at C:\Documents and settings\<user name>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates location.
  2. If the file is not present at this location then make a search with .dot or .dotm extension depending upon your Word version.
  3. Once you find the file then rename it.
  4. Now recheck spell checker is working or not.
Edit Registry: To resolve the issue you may need to edit the Windows registry key. If you are not comfortable with editing registry then first read Microsoft KB and then perform below steps.
  1. First close all the applications.
  2. Go to Start-> Run-> regedit.
  3. Search the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools\1.0\Override and delete it.
  4. Restart your computer.
  5. Now recheck spell checker is working or not.
I hope the solutions provided above will help you.

Comments

  1. Hurray, your suggestion to uncheck and recheck the “Do not check spelling or Grammar option” worked like a charm. I’m a terrible speller and have experienced this issue off and on for years across various versions of MS Office products. The only solution that worked in the past was shut down and power back up. Many thanks. Today I decided to do a Google search on this issue and the rest is history. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's the most recent with invention which aims to help you learners achieve their goal outcomes by means of having large degrees using their company assignments. Since you would have to look at your current task pertaining to glitches although don’t possess the time to practice it, you may use the Spellchecker.
    If you interested this comment please share your friend. Thanks for read this comment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yup I can confirm, your suggestion to uncheck and recheck the “Do not check spelling or Grammar option” worked like a charm

    Somehow this seams to disable the Microsoft Dictionaries

    Many thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Friends,

    Link suggested by Abdur is not working, so don't use it.

    ReplyDelete

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