Spelling Checker Uncooperative

[Doug Parrish]

"An error occurred while the spelling was being checked." After a short
power failure (2 or 3 seconds) while Windows Mail as open and being used,
this message now appears over each and every email I send. I have reset the
default language to English, but that doesn't remedy it. Does anyone have
any ideas?

Thanks much.

Doug Parrish
Howell MI

 

[Guest]

"An error occurred while the spelling was being checked." After a short
power failure (2 or 3 seconds) while Windows Mail as open and being used,
this message now appears over each and every email I send. I have reset
the default language to English, but that doesn't remedy it. Does anyone
have any ideas?

Thanks much.

Doug Parrish
Howell MI

Sometimes you need to change the default language to something else,
click apply, then change it back to English and click Apply again.

 

[mac]

"An error occurred while the spelling was being checked." After a short
power failure (2 or 3 seconds) while Windows Mail as open and being used,
this message now appears over each and every email I send. I have reset
the default language to English, but that doesn't remedy it. Does anyone
have any ideas?

Thanks much.

Doug Parrish
Howell MI

Try selecting/highlighting all the text to be checked, and hit the F7 key on
the top row?

 

[Doug Parrish]

So far, none of these great suggestions has worked! The hook between the
program and the spellchecker has been broken, apparently. However, the
spellchecker does work in WORD 2007, so this is a problem specific only to
Windows Mail at this point. Would the set-up disk allow me to re-install WM?
Thanks again.

Doug Parrish

 

[Joe]

I had this problem. It started after I edited my Windows Mail user dictionary
in Notepad after mistakenly adding a mispelt word. To cure the broken
spellchecker I simply deleted the user dictionary (which luckily only had
four words in it), which is called UserDictionary.lex, and is found here:

C:\Users\yourusernamel\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail

Note that this is a separate user dictionary to the one in Word. After
deleting my user dictionary in Windows Mail my spell checker worked fine
again. The UserDictionary.lex file is recreated next time you add a word.

 

[Doug Parrish]

Thanks much, Joe. I have a very large UsersDictionary.lex file, so I renamed
it simply OLD_UsersDictionary.lex and left it in the folder. WM created a new
one, of course, but that has, unfortunately, not reconnected the spellchecker
to WM. Do you know whether it is possible to reinstall WM from the MS website?

Thanks again.
Doug Parrish

 

[Guest]

Windows Mail is very difficult to reinstall without also reinstalling the
rest
of Vista.

However, Windows Mail comes with the default language for spelling
checks partly set to English, but not enough to work. To correct this,
start Windows Mail, then click Tools, then Options, then Spelling, then
the triangle to the right of the language, then any language except
English, then Apply, then the triangle again, then English, then Apply
again. If you want to check spelling in all outgoing messages, and there
is no checkmark in the box before Always check spelling before
sending, click on this box, then Apply. Click on OK.

 

[Doug Parrish]

Hi, Bob...

Actually, I have tried all the remedies suggested here...resetting it to
English after choosing another language, re-booting...all that good stuff.
And still the spellchecker refuses to re-engage with Windows Mail. It works
fine in WORD 2007, so it's something specific to WM. I have to think that
the power outage corrupted an integral file in WM.

My work-around is now to CTRL-A the email, COPY it, PASTE it into a blank
document in WORD 2007, run the spellchecker, then COPY it once more, then
PASTE it back into WM and send it. Cumbersome? Yes. Effective? Yes.

Maybe with this exchange, MS will figure out a way to re-install the email
client without having VISTA tumble down around my ankles!

Thank you once again.

Doug Parrish
Howell MI

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

No, you can't reinstall WM without reinstalling all of Vista.

My suggestion would be to upgrade to Windows Live Mail,
since that is the only free Microsoft email program that will
continue to receive updates and support.
http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

 

[Joe]

I wonder whether it would be possible to find another copy of the file that
Windows Mail uses for spellchecking, presumably another lex file, and replace
it, after the same principle I used with my user dictionary file. But this is
working in the dark. I think your best bet would be to use system restore and
go back before the problem occured, assuming that not too much time has
elapsed and that system restore point is still saved.

 

[Guest]

Microsoft is no longer offering new updates for Windows Mail. Most
of their email effort is now going to a newer email program, Windows
Live Mail:

http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

I've seen no sign that anyone from Microsoft has even been reading
this newsgroup during the last few months, so this exchange isn't
likely to persuade them to do anything.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Thanks for your feedback.
Hopefully it will stay fixed.

--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP


Hello, Guys...

The spellchecker in Windows Mail has been fixed. I went back 5 days to a "restore point" on Monday, June 9, called it up and set
it in motion. When it was finished, it said in the dialog box that the restore options did not work(!), but something somewhere
managed to reconnect that hook to the spellchecker. It might have been in the Registry for all I know. When nothing else worked,
restoring the files seems to have done the trick. Let me check this email...yes, the spellchecker works.

So here's the answer to others who might have trouble with the Windows Mail spellchecker.

Doug Parrish

 

[jimboy]

I have had the spell checker problems for months now, actually from not long
after purchasing the computer with Vista last October. (I read at some point
that it was a "known glitch" that Microsoft refuses to fix.) I'm wondering if
it's practical to do a "restore." Can you tell me how you get to a "restore
point" so I can try it?
Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Some antivirus programs tend to cause a variety of problems in Windows
Mail, although seldom immediately. What if any antivirus programs do you
have and have you ever had a Norton or McAfee antivirus program on
that computer, even one of the free trial versions that often come already
installed on new computers?

Check your list of installed programs to see if it includes any of these:
Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, or SMS Desktop. If it does, uninstall
them, since they also cause problems in Windows Mail. Web pages that
let you do a Google search are not a problem.

Windows Mail comes with the default language for spelling checks
partly set to English, but not enough to work. To correct this, start
Windows Mail, then click on Tools in its main window, then Options,
then Spelling, then the triangle to the right of the language, then any
language other than English, then Apply, then the triangle again, then
English, then Apply again, then OK.

Do you think you still have any restore points from last October anyway?

 

[Tim]

I had the exact same problem as you (caused by the same reasons) but my
computer unfortunately did not have system restore turned on. After further
investigation, I actually found an easier way to fix this problem. Just
change the file names for all three the UserDictionary files in your windows
mail directory. This solutions was originally described earlier in this
thread, but the suggestion was only to delete the UserDictionary.lex file.

Instead, try renaming all tree files (including ChangeSession.lex and
IgnoreSession.lex) by adding an underscore the the front of the file name. Do
this only when Mail is not running.

Then restart Mail. The three files will be recreated by the program and
spellchecker will run fine (does for me anyway).

 

[E.L. Marr, Phd]

This will fix it.

I had the same prob. Somethingm gets corrupt. Rename the files. It will
fix it.

 

[Marc]

Thanks very much. I finally have my spell checker working after applying
your suggested fix.

 

[Edward]

Joe,

Your fix worked for me except that I had to delete three files in that
folder, two of the files had no content and the .lex file had one kb. I
think your fix is a lot better than going back to some arbitrary reinitialize
point and taking the chance of corrupting something else.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

For future reference, there is a utility to edit the contents of your custom
dictionary:
http://www.winhelponline.com/articl...tly-used-email-addresses-in-Windows-Mail.html

 

[Maggie]

This didn't work for me. My specific problem is that I have somehow changed
the accepted spelling of 'to' to 'ot' & can't remember how to change it back.
I have tried several of the ideas suggested & can't get back to the tool
that will do the trick. Any ideas? (on Vista)