Word 2007 Proofing tools - disabling

[Blendon]

In the UK some students with special needs are allowed to use laptops in
public exams. These computers must have all spelling and grammar checkers
disabled so the student can not use them. Turning them off in options is not
enough.

In Word 2003 this could be achieved by preventing access to MSSPELL.DLL say
by renaming or deleting it. If you try the same thing with Word 2007 (I
think the file is MSPROOF.DLL Word just repairs itself.

Can anyone tell me how we can prepare the laptops to make them acceptable to
the examination boards. If we can't the students will have to use Wordpad.

Many thanks

 

[Graham Mayor]

Are these your laptops or theirs? If yours, I guess you could uninstall the
proofing tools?

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Blendon]

:
They are the school's. When I tried un-installing the proffing tools on a
home PC Word insisted in putting them back again!

 

[Graham Mayor]

Did you uninstall them by making them not available via the Control Panel
add or remove programs applet, or simply delete required dll files as you
described previously?

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<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Blendon]

To be honest it was a while ago and I can't remember. I know I certainly
tried deleting the dll files.
I think I tried by entering Office setup via the change button on the Add or
remove programs applet and making the proofing tools not available. However
proofing still worked.

 

[Graham Mayor]

If you uninstall the function correctly it should not be available. If you
delete system files you will screw up the installation.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Blendon]

I have tried the following:

To an existing installation, I have entered setup via Control Panel>Add
remove programs>Change. I have made the proofing tools unavailable and
verified all components have the red cross on them. I have then completed
setup. (Office Home & Student trial on VHP)

I have taken a spare PC, formatted the hard drive, made a fresh installation
(XPH) and fully patched it. I theninstalled Office Enterprise trial making
the proofing tools unavailable through custom install. I fully patched
office.

In case the problem was with the trial versions I got a fully licenced
version of Home and Student and installed this again making proofing tools
unavailable in the custom install (on XPH).

The result of all of these was that on starting Word the spell checking was
still working and looking in set up for each attempt the proofing tools were
available.

The custom installations do not appear to be working having tried on 3
different machines.

Next looking in Word Options Proofing, you can not turn proofing off, just
not display errors (F7 still works) so I tried setting the language and
dictionary to Finnish and removing all English dictionaries. This would
effectively defeat its use for English. Restarting Word as instructed I find
English (US) has been added back by Word.

Word has defeated me.

I am a senior IT professional who has used PCs and Office for over 20 years.
I know Word pretty well so I am fairly confident I have carried out the
above work correctly. However, I do not have in depth technical knowledge of
Word, eg register entries. I don't know if there is anything there that can
be changed to achieve the objective or if anyone has any other suggestions
that I can try.

Examination time is getting close so the matter is getting urgent.

Many thanks