MS Word Spell Checker - Selective Failure

[Stoic Joker]

Okay, so a client sends me a Word document (.docx) that has some spelling errors in it that Spell Check isn't finding. The errors are reasonably obvious and don't result in the creation of another different/shorter word. They are indeed, wrong. But completely undetected.

To eliminate anything application instance or document related I copied just the one word to a new Word document...And Spell Check ignored that one too. Here's a screen-shot to save time and typing:


Pressing F7 (force full check) still misses the same bad word. Ignore word X only lasts - or is only supposed to last - until the line it's on changes...But that is not the case here. So I added a bit more garbage text to better dramatize the issue:


...So, does anybody have any idea how the hell that happened?

[tranglos]

Is the language set correctly for the text? Have you tried Ctrl+A then set language (on the Review tab)?

[Stoic Joker]

Is the language set correctly for the text? Have you tried Ctrl+A then set language (on the Review tab)?

-tranglos (May 24, 2011, 02:33 PM)

Yes, language is correct for the document. I also tried resetting it just to be sure. It had no effect.

The word in question, hurricane, is the main topic of the 20 page document...And is therefore used repeatedly. If I go up or down one paragraph from this block of text, spell check will again recognize the missspelling (much like the screen shot). But on this one line it just don't matter what you put in there ... Spell Check completely ignores it.

[Ath]

Where did you copy it from? Another Word document, or plain text?

Could you reset the attributes to the default (select + Ctrl-Space) that usually works if I have issues like these, or paste it as plain text (using Notepad++ as an intermediate, but there are several tools discussed here, that I don't want to install on my work-PC, that can do that for you).

[mwb1100]

The language (which is where spell checking can be disabled) for the the paragraph can also be specified in a style - I'm not sure if setting the language for the whole document will override a setting that's in a style applied to a paragraph or selection.  So check the style applied to the paragraph/selection of text as well.


Edit: I just checked - setting the language (and clearing the "do not spell check box") when the whole document is selected will override the style.  So my suggestion provides no value over tranglos'.

[Stoic Joker]

Where did you copy it from? Another Word document, or plain text?

-Ath (May 24, 2011, 03:09 PM)

Yes, it's from another Word document that was originally exibiting to odd behavior.

Could you reset the attributes to the default (select + Ctrl-Space) that usually works if I have issues like these, or paste it as plain text (using Notepad++ as an intermediate, but there are several tools discussed here, that I don't want to install on my work-PC, that can do that for you).

-Ath (May 24, 2011, 03:09 PM)

There's a lot of work in this perticular 20 page document, so stripping the formatting was the option the client was trying to avoid.

I'll have to play with and remember that hot key...Sounds interesting.

[Stoic Joker]

Is the language set correctly for the text? Have you tried Ctrl+A then set language (on the Review tab)?

-tranglos (May 24, 2011, 02:33 PM)

Yes, language is correct for the document. I also tried resetting it just to be sure. It had no effect.

-Stoic Joker (May 24, 2011, 02:49 PM)

Correction, It didn't have any effect, until I did it a 2nd time. So either it needed to be pounded into the documents little head... *Shrug* ...Or I did it wrong the first time (not sure).

But it is at this point resolved. Thank you.

[Stoic Joker]

I'm not sure if setting the language for the whole document will override a setting that's in a style applied to a paragraph or selection.

-mwb1100 (May 24, 2011, 03:55 PM)

When I tried it again (with Office 2007) at the clients location it worked fine the first time. I've got Office 2010 at the office but may have missed something the first time (Not sure). But yes the Ctrl + A (whole document at once) language correction does (or rather did) work.

[fenixproductions]

@Stoic Joker
I had similar issue at work and setting whole document language was not always working.
Solution: Review -> Set Language -> Detect language automatically -> OFF

BTW If you encounter similar issues with PowerPoint you will need special macro to fix it.

[Stoic Joker]

Solution: Review -> Set Language -> Detect language automatically -> OFF

-fenixproductions (May 24, 2011, 04:33 PM)

Hm... Ya know, I do recall doing that now that you mention it. Not sure if I did it the first time, but I do recall doing it the 2nd time. So I believe you're correct in that allowing Word to guess the language is bad.

[eleman]

You may also have inadvertently added the word Hurricne to the dictionary. Check your custom.dic (tools, options, spelling & grammar, custom dictionaries, modify).