Spell check thinks words are misspelled when they're not (Word 200

[SwingsetAbby]

My copy of Word 2003 is about eight years old. Yesterday, it began
underlining words in red that are, in fact, spelled correctly -- for example,
"final," "fifty," and "feet." I checked to make sure that English (U.S.) was
set as the language for the entire document, but the problem persists. In
addition, when I try to add the supposedly misspelled words to the Custom
Dictionary, I get a message telling me the dictionary is full. I read the
Master Spell Check FAQ I've seen posted in this forum, and learned that the
dictionary problem may mean my spell checking files are corrupted. Would that
also explain the problem with underlining words that are spelled correctly?
None of the four possible reasons identified in the Master Spell Check FAQ
seem to apply to my situation.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Unless those words have been added to an exclusion dictionary, and if you're
sure that the language applied to those specific words is in fact English,
then it does seem likely that the proofing files are damaged.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[SwingsetAbby]

Thanks for the quick response. We haven't added any words to an exclusion
dictionary, and I selected all of the text before applying U.S. English as
the preferred language. I also positioned my cursor at the top of the
document and set the language as U.S. English, just to be sure. So I'm
certain that those specific words were being spell checked against the
English dictionary.

Am I correct in assuming, then, that the "fix" suggested for the Custom
Dictionary problem is what I should use to repair/replace the damaged
proofing files?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I believe so, yes, following the directions in the linked KB article.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org