Word spell check FIXED!

Hey, a newbie with something to offer. I couldn't get Word spell check to work and I've tried every method offered by everybody. Well, i actually fixed it by going to the Microsoft site. I'm going to write it almost word for word since some people (like me) need to talked to as if we were kids!

1. The easiest way to fix it: Click on the OFFICE BUTTON (that's the multicolored square in the upper left corner).
2. Then click WORD OPTIONS which is at the bottom of the square.
3. Click PROOFING
4. If you see that 'HIDE SPELLING ERRORS IN THIS DOCUMENT' is checked, uncheck it.

The above is one of the first things people try. If that doesn't work, there's two more things you can try:

1. Click on OFFICE BUTTON
2. Click on WORD OPTIONS (just like above)
3. Click on ADD-INS
4. Click on MANAGE
5. If you see any item that says "disabled" and is related to spelling, try enabling them.

Okay, if it's still not fixed, this next step worked for me:

1. Close Word and all other programs
1. Click on START
3. Click on RUN
4. Click on OPEN and type the term regedit
5. Now, if the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools\1.0\Override exists, delete it (that means delete that line)
6. Exit - hit the X button in the upper right corner
7. Restart your computer

The only way this might not work is if you've installed a separate spell checker because you were so damn frustrated with Word. In this case, it might not work in other languages.


If you need more help, there's a very good explanation of how spell checker works and ways to fix other problems (i.e. marks words incorrect when they are spelled right and other variations of problems), go to the MICROSOFT section on this (it's about 11 pages printed out):

http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs:)/MasterSpellCheck.htm

 

Thanks, mate! Clear instructions are always helpful and some of the Microsoft guides and some others can be a bit daunting to novice users.

 

I saw a situation recently where a Word spell checker wasn't working also. So I changed the language to French, restarted the program, changed it back to English, restarted again and voila! It worked again.

Dumb luck on my part.