Microsoft Word Spell Check Troubleshooting

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Word’s spell check feature is a handy tool that highlights spelling and grammar errors as you type. It underlines mistakes in different colors – red for spelling, green for grammar, and blue for contextual issues.

Sometimes, though, this feature can act up. You might find it’s not catching errors or it stops working entirely. If you’re having trouble with Word’s spell checker, here are several things you can try to get it working again.

Method 1: Check Language and Proofing Options

The most common reason spell check isn’t working is incorrect language settings. Word tries to auto-detect the language, but this can sometimes cause problems. Here’s how to check and correct your settings:

1. First, open the Word document where the spell check is malfunctioning. Then, select all the text by pressing Ctrl+A.

2. Go to the “Review” tab, click on “Language,” and select “Set Proofing Language.”

3. In the dialog box, make sure the correct language is selected. For example, if the document is written in English, ensure English is selected. If it’s set to something else, Word will mark your words as incorrect. Also, note that British English (like “flavour”) will be flagged if your language is set to US English (which uses “flavor”).

4. Choose the correct language under “Mark selected text as:”.

5. Make sure that the “Do not check spelling or grammar” option is unchecked. If it is checked, uncheck it.

6. Uncheck “Detect language automatically” too. Auto language detection can cause errors if you use a different language occasionally in your document.

7. Click “OK” and press F7 to run the spell check. See if the issue is resolved. If not, continue to the next method.

Method 2: Check for Proofing Exceptions

Word has a setting that can prevent spell check from running in specific documents. It’s called a proofing exception. Here’s how to check if it’s causing your issue:

1. Open any Word document. Select all the content by pressing Ctrl+A, then go to “Review”, click “Language” and then “Language Preferences”.

2. Alternatively, you can go to “File”, then “Options” to open Word Options.

3. In the Word Options window, go to “Proofing”. Scroll down to the “Exceptions for” section and make sure that both the “Hide spelling errors in this document only” and “Hide grammar errors in this document only” checkboxes are unchecked. Then, click ‘OK’ to save the settings.

Method 3: Enable “Check Spelling As You Type”

If spell check isn’t working at all, the “Check spelling as you type” setting may be disabled. This is what checks for errors in real-time. Here’s how to turn it on:

1. Go to “File” and click “Options” in the sidebar.

2. In the Word Options dialog, click “Proofing”. In the “When correcting spelling and grammar in Word” section, make sure that both “Check spelling as you type” and “Mark grammar errors as you type” are selected.

3. Click the “Recheck Document” button.

4. Click ‘Yes’ to confirm.

5. Finally, click “OK” to save the settings.

Method 4: Start Word in Safe Mode

If an add-in or other program is interfering with the spell checker, you can start Word in safe mode to identify the issue. Safe mode starts Word without add-ins:

1. Press and hold the Ctrl key, then double-click any Word document to open it.

2. Click “Yes” in the popup.

3. Alternatively, you can use the Run command. Open Run with Ctrl + R, type winword /safe and press Enter.

4. This will open Word in Safe Mode.

5. Open a new document and type some text to see if the spell check is working. If it works in safe mode, the issue is likely with one of your add-ins.

Method 5: Disable Conflicting Add-ins

If the spell check works in safe mode, a third-party add-in is probably the problem. Here’s how to disable add-ins to find the culprit:

1. Go to “File” then “Options”.

2. Click “Add-ins” on the left.

3. At the bottom of the screen, select “COM Add-ins” from the “Manage” drop-down menu and click the “Go” button.

4. In the COM Add-ins pop-up, uncheck the add-in you want to disable. If you want to remove an add-in, click on it and select “Remove”. Then click “OK” to close the dialog.

5. Sometimes, not all add-ins appear in the COM Add-ins dialog. If an installed add-in is not there, do this:
   • Go to the ‘Insert’ tab and click the ‘My Add-ins’ button.

- Click the three-dots button (Options) next to the add-in you want to remove.

• Select “Remove” from the menu.

6. Check if the spell checker now works.

Method 6: Rename a Windows Registry Folder

Some users report that renaming the Proofing tools folder in the Registry Editor helps. Here’s how to do it:

1. Close Word completely. Open the Run command box with Win+R and type regedit and press Enter. Click “Yes” if you see the User Account Control dialog.

2. In the Registry Editor, go to this path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools

3. Right-click the “1.0” folder and select “Rename”.

4. Rename the folder to “1PRV.0”.

5. Close Registry Editor and restart your PC. Check if the spell checker is working after restarting.

Method 7: Rename Your Word Template

A corrupted global template could be the cause. The global template is either “normal.dot” or “normal.dotm” in the Microsoft Template folder. To fix this, rename the file. This will reset MS Word to default settings.

1. Open Run (Win+R), type %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates and press Enter.

%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates

2. This opens the Word Templates folder where you’ll find “normal.dot” or “normal.dotm” depending on your Word version.

3. Right-click the file and select “Rename”, or press F2.

4. Rename the file from Normal.dotm to ‘Normal_old.dotm’.

This will reset your Word settings.

Method 8: Add Proofing Language

Sometimes, the preferred proofing language might be set incorrectly, causing spell check issues. Here’s how to add or change it:

1. Go to “File” and then “Options”. Then, select “Language”.

2. Make sure the correct language is installed and set as preferred under the “Office authoring languages and proofing” section. To set the preferred language, click the language and select “Set as Preferred”.

3. If your language isn’t available, click “Add a Language”.

4. Choose the language and click “Add”.

5. Select the language from the list and click ‘Set as preferred’.

6. Click ‘Yes’ in the dialog box.

7. Click “OK” to close Word Options.

8. Check if spell check is working now.

Method 9: Add to Custom Dictionary

Word might not recognize certain words like names or specific terms. You can add these to the dictionary to prevent them from being flagged as errors:

1. Right-click the word you want to add and select “Add to Dictionary”.

Method 10: Check Document Style Settings

Word uses different language settings for each paragraph based on the applied style. If a style is formatted with an incorrect language, new paragraphs may be flagged as errors. To fix this, set the correct language in the Style.

1. On the “Home” tab, in the Styles section, right-click on the style in question and select “Modify”.

2. In the Modify Style dialog, click “Format” and select “Language”.

3. Select the correct language for the selected style and make sure the “Do not check spelling or grammar” option is unchecked. Then, click “OK”.

Method 11: Repair MS Office Application

A corrupted MS Word app could be the reason behind spell check issues. Repairing MS Office might solve the problem.

1. Right-click on the Windows Start menu and select “Installed apps”. Or go to Windows Settings (Win+I), “Apps,” and then “Apps and features.”

2. Find your Microsoft Office version and click the three dots and select “Modify”.

3. Click “Yes” to User Account Control. In the repair window, first, select “Quick Repair” and click “Repair”.

4. Click “Repair” again.

5. If Quick Repair doesn’t work, select “Online Repair” and click “Repair”.

6. Click “Repair” again.

7. Restart your computer after the repair is done.

Method 12: Disable the “Do Not Check Spelling Or Grammar” Option

If you are seeing the error message “Text marked with ‘Do not check spelling or grammar’ was skipped”, this option might be preventing the spell checker from working correctly. Here’s how to disable it:

1. Open your document and highlight the word or paragraph that is being ignored by the spell checker. Press Shift+F1.

2. This opens the Reveal Formatting pane on the right.

3. Click on the “Language” option under “Formatting of the selected text”.

4. Uncheck “Do not check spelling or grammar” and click “OK”. Restart Word.

Method 13: Use Grammarly Plug-in

If Word’s built-in tool isn’t working, Grammarly is a great alternative. It detects spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors and integrates with Word and Outlook.

1. To download Grammarly, go to Grammarly’s website and click “Get the add-in It’s free”. Install the add-in after downloading it.

2. Restart Word and you’ll see a “Grammarly” tab in the ribbon.

3. Open a document, go to the “Grammarly” tab and click “Open Grammarly”.

4. The Grammarly pane will open on the right, showing suggestions to fix any mistakes.

You can also use the Microsoft Word web app as another alternative to check for spelling mistakes. With a Microsoft 365 subscription, you can access the same document through the web app.