Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.
QUESTION: I used to have spell check on Outlook Express when I had XP Home Edition 2002. I now have Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 and the spell check on OE no longer seems to work. My Yahoo.com e-mail spell check works fine. Am I doing something wrong (I am not very computer savvy)? Is there a free program that is safe to download, or which programs do you recommend I buy? I am a poor speller and need a spell checker ASAP. ~ Donna
PC Club: Leave it to Microsoft to ignore all of the Outlook Express users in the world, Donna. If you install Office 2007, spell check in Outlook Express may not work as expected, unless you want spell check in French.
This is because Office 2007 uses new proofing tools and OE can’t use them because it’s designed to use the older tools. This happened to me several years ago prompting me to utter “Sacre bleu” among other epithets. The reason that your Yahoo e-mail is spell checked is that its software resides online but OE relies on software on your computer to do its job. There are several solutions for this and one of the two below should resolve your problem.
If you have a disc with a previous version of Office, install just the proofing tools from that version (using the custom install option). You can get the tools from any older Office suite or application – including FrontPage, Publisher or standalone versions of Word, Excel, or Outlook.
To install just the proofing tools from Office 2003, for example, follow these steps:
- Run Office setup and choose the custom option.
- Uncheck all programs in the list and add a check to choose the options at the bottom of the programs list.
- On the next screen, set each top level item to be Not Available (red X icon).
- Expand the Office Shared Features branch and locate Proofing tools in the list. Expand proofing tools and choose English, setting it to Run from my computer.
- Finish the installation.
- Once installed, restart OE. Then go to Tools, Options and select the Spelling tab and verify Spelling is configured to use the correct English dictionary.
If you do not have access to Office 2003 or want a simpler approach, download a free utility at www.geocities.com/vampirefo. After you install this program, you will have a spell checker in English. I use this on computers with Office 2007 installed and it works fine.
According to the program’s author, Vampirefo, “The purpose of the program is to supply for free the ability to use Spell-checking in OE, without the need to purchase other software, such as MS Word, Works, or Office.” - Ed Schwartz, NOCCC member. View his blog at edwardns.wordpress.com.