Re: MS Word Spell Check Highlighting Problem

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

I've created documents longer than 300 pp. and much larger than 2 MB. In
Word 97 (!) on a computer that by today's standards was woefully
underspecced, I created a 270-page (nearly 4 MB) book with over a hundred
photos (linked), literally hundreds of small tables, and 4,865 XE fields.
But it was a family history book full of names, and I see that I have "Hide
spelling errors in this document" checked. If I try to turn it off, I get a
message that "There are too many spelling or grammatical errors in "Link
Family.doc" to continue displaying them. To check the spelling and grammar
of this document, choose Spelling and Grammar from the Tools menu."

So I ran the spell check manually, just clicking Ignore All on every name. I
ran out of patience halfway through the document (stopped at page 135), but
Word didn't seem to give any indication of wearying. There was one case
where I was unable to click Ignore All, perhaps because the word contained
an optional hyphen? At any rate, I clicked Ignore Once, and it resumed. In
all those 135 pages, I found only one actual mistake (and it didn't get
corrected because I was reflexively clicking Ignore All for everything!),
but the spelling checker seemed not to have a problem with these literally
thousands of names.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Pete B" <petescastle@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uf9jN99YGHA.508@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well, we can rule outthe formatting causing the problem. When this
problem
does occur, he gets an error message that says he has too many spelling
errors and Word is shutting down spell checking. However, this is new
info
that he just told me, I am going to ask him to record everything in the
error message to see if we can get some ideas that way.

AFA memory hogging or something, he tells me the document is about 300+
pages, about a 2MB file. I really don't think that should cause a
problem.
We'll see....

--
Pete B

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uuQUgJ8YGHA.3496@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Some things that could help in general would be working in Normal view
as
much as possible (with background repagination turned off), using
picture
placeholders when possible, telling Word's spell check to ignore words
with
numbers, and applying a "no proofing" character style to anything else
that
is clearly not subject to spell-checking. But I still can't help feeling
that something else is wrong here; I just don't think spell checking
should
be quitting like that.

One avenue we haven't really explored is whether the text that is not
being
spell-checked has perhaps somehow gotten formatted as "Do not check
spelling
or grammar." That of course would explain everything.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Pete B" <petescastle@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:utKmjw7YGHA.4652@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I do not know for sure, but I am sure it is sizable. Knowing this
gentleman
as I do, it is highly technical in nature, so it likely uses a lot of
graphics, special fonts, math symbols, science graphs, etc. Memory may
very
well be a problem, see my other post this morning. He is strongly
opposed
to breaking up the document, though, so I will leave that suggestion
alone
for now, although I agree it might help.

Thanks, I will be back if anything else is found that might help.
--
Pete B

"Herb Tyson [MVP]" <herb@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23sB%23Lq1YGHA.3752@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
When you say that it's a book length manuscript, that suggests to me
that
it's a large document. How big is it? Does it contain non-text
elements
(e.g., tables, numbered lists, graphics, equations, etc.) that might
additionally be taxing Word's resources.

When I suggest breaking the document up, I do that based on years of
experience with very large documents -- some exceeding 50MB and
contains
numerous graphics, equations, etc. Once documents get very large,
they
can
become unstable, and Word can become unable to handle them. So, it
was
in
that context that I was suggesting that breaking the document up
might
be
a way to manage the problem.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
http://www.herbtyson.com
Please respond in the newsgroups so everyone can follow along.
"Pete B" <petescastle@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u9DL9SxYGHA.4060@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks, Susan, and I apologize if my comments seemed abrupt or rude,
please mark it up to frustration as I have been chasing this problem
for
quite awhile now with no success. I will check about the RAM
available,
if that would help I will propose it as a solution that should be
tried.
It certainly sounds reasonable that Word would make the choice to
limit
the function rather than degrade performance. I will also mention
the
Autocorrect functionality you discuss, but I think that may not be
much
help in this particular case. Lastly, I guess I missed that
newsgroup
you mention, I will look again; had I seen it, I would certainly
have
tried it first, and maybe that will bear fruit.

BTW I may have not made it clear, Word does not ever refuse to do a
spell
check at all, it just shuts down before completing the task when
this
overload is present; IOW it does proof a "small" portion of the
document
and then will not check any further if there are too many errors
detected. So it may very well be a resources problem as you say

Thanks to both of you for the replies and advice. I will see what
the
customer says..

--
Pete B

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e7ERz$wYGHA.1204@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well, I would lump poor typing in with poor spelling as being for
all
practical purposes the same in this instance, but I see your point.
I
think
this may be a resources issue: that is, very likely adding more RAM
to
the
computer would make a difference. Generally speaking, when Word
shuts
down a
function (suppressing spell checking, for example, or showing
picture
placeholders), it's because resources are taxed to the point where
the
user
would be even more frustrated by poor performance. But this would
apply
primarily to "Check spelling as you type." I can't imagine a
situation
where
Word would refuse to spell check a document explicitly, and this
suggests to
me that something more is going wrong (possible document
corruption,
perhaps?).

I am NOT an authority on Word's proofing tools; to get an answer
from
those
who are, I suggest you post in the
microsoft.public.word.spelling.grammar
newsgroup.

I would also suggest that, if the user's typing errors are
consistent,
he
consider adding at least some of the corrections as AutoCorrect
entries
(some may already be in there). I've long since given up hope of
ever
typing
some words correctly, and since I inevitably mistype them the same
way,
it's
easier just to have Word perform the correction for me. AutoCorrect
is
also
a tremendous boon to avoid typing of long strings of words that
appear
repeatedly in a document; see
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/AutoCorrect.htm.

Pace Herb, I would definitely *not* advise breaking the document
up.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Pete B" <petescastle@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23QMi0ywYGHA.4060@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The problem is NOT poor spelling, it is simply that, like myself,
this
customer is not the world's greatest typist, so he frequently
mistypes
a
word. The problem is also NOT that Word does not recognize these
mistakes
because they are in the dictionary, to the contrary it recognizes
a
certain
number of them but then just stops checking any farther when it
has
reached
some kind of arbitrary limit.

Not checking the spelling at all rather defeats the purpose of
having
a
spell check function, so that is also not a solution. Also, as I
noted
at
the beginning, the customer does not want to "check as he goes",
he
prefers
to continue typing and wait until his editing session is done
before
he
makes corrections; he wants to make all the corrections at once,
rather
than continually interrupt his work as he types. This is the same
way
I
work, because like him I would be stopping every other sentence to
correct
mistakes if I were to do it continually as I work.

Telling a customer to change his work habits to accomodate a
defect
in
a
product (if that is what this is) is not my ordinary business
practice
unless I have no other option, because to me that essentially is
the
same
as
telling him it is a bug and there is no fix, so live with it. He
purchased
the product in order to continue doing what he has always done for
years
with other word processor products, which have never had such a
problem.
What I am seeking here is a fix for the apparent problem with the
product,
in order that he may work in the manner he is accustomed after
many
years.
If you are telling me that this is a product defect for which
there
i
s
no
fix nor software patch or correction, then I will do so but I will
clearly
identify to him the source of the problem as being a product
defect,
because
he may want to exchange his software for a non-MS package. I do
not
want
to
do this, and I am sure MS does not want an unhappy customer over
this
either.

Since you appear to be a recognized MS "authority" on this
product,
I
will
ask you flat out whether there is any way to correct this problem
with
the
MS Word software that is transparent to the user or nearly so.
This
gentleman is a very prolific writer, and would not take kindly to
limiting
or altering his work habits of many years past to accomodate what
he
considers to be a serious defect in the product, since non-MS word
processors have no such defect. At the very least, this problem
should
certainly be taken under consideration for future correction by MS
if
there
is no fix, and as such it would certainly warrant an immediate
MSKB
article
expressing that fact; at least then I could show him something
that
indicates concern. As the links I posted show, he is not the only
person
having this problem.

--
Pete B

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uQl8LkvYGHA.3516@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If the problem is just poor spelling, then I think the customer
would
be
better advised to use "Check spelling as you type" and correct
the
errors
as
he goes. But if the problem is correctly spelled words not being
recognized
by Word, then the solution would be to either add them to the
custom
dictionary or format them as "Do not check spelling or grammar."
The
latter
is easily done by creating a character style, based on Default
Paragraph
Font, that adds on the the "Do not check spelling or grammar"
property.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Pete B" <petescastle@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u5Vft4uYGHA.3328@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Turning off spellcheck is exactly what the customer does while
he
is
composing the document (but it also happens when he does it as
he
goes,
it
is simply a matter of how many errors are detected). He
prefers
to
do
the
corrections as the last step, so that he will not have to
repeat
similar
errors every time they occur. The problem occurs when he tries
to
spell
check at the finish, that is what causes it. This is a
book-length
manuscript, and he finds it very inconvenient to break it up
treat
each
session as a separate document. The problem occurs wheneever
too
many
errors accumulate, that is why I am seeking help.

I really do not understand why it should make any difference at
all
when
he
does the spell check nor what the size of the document is.
Have
you
heard
of this problem before, and is there any fix you are aware of?
It
took
me
several years to convince this guy to go with MS Word, and now
he
is
ready
to toss it and go back to Wordperfect or Lotus Notes for his
work.
I
would
apprecia6te any help I can offer him.

--
Pete B

"Herb Tyson [MVP]" <herb@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u3w0G2oYGHA.3684@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Why not simply turn off Check Spelling as You Type, and do it
all
in
one
fell swoop at the end, by pressing F7?

I prefer to deal with spelling errors as they occur, since
for
really
egregious errors, I might completely forget a point I was
trying
to
make,
and hence what word I was trying to use. But, if I were going
to
save
spell-checking until the end, I certainly wouldn't want all
of
those
red
squiggly lines distracting me in the meantime. They're just
one
more
thing
for Word to keep track of, and one more thing to slow Word
down.

Those points aside, it generally IS a good idea to break up
larger
works
into multiple documents. Not only does that make working with
(opening,
saving, scrolling, etc.) the components faster, but it
reduces
the
probability of document corruption as well.

Note: I've never worked with Lotus products, so I can't
compare
Word
with
them. All I can tell you is how to get along with Word, and
how
to
reduce
the risk of losing work. If the customer prefers the way
Lotus
products
work, then that begs a certain question I'm too polite to
ask.
;-)

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
http://www.herbtyson.com
Please respond in the newsgroups so everyone can follow
along.
"Pete B" <petescastle@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OI9UDimYGHA.500@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a customer who is trying to use MS Word XP for
composing
a
book-length document. He is having a problem with the
spellcheck
function
in Word. Whenever he writes, he continues typing without
stopping
to
correct every spelling or grammar error that Word detects and
highlights
for him to take action, he prefers to correct all errors in
one
final
pass
through the document when he is finished working on it.

The problem he is having is that, when he reaches a certain
"threshold"
of accumulated pending corrections, Word simply shuts off
the
spell
checking function and does not do any furtther highlighting
of
errors
or
anything. He gets an error message similar to the following:
"there
are
too many spelling or grammatical errors".

He is forced to break up his work into small documents, but
for
him
this
is very cumbersome. Being a recent convert from Lotus
products,
naturally he is very upset claiming he never had the problem
with
that
product. I have searched and found nothing about this in
the
MSKB,
but
I
did find a few third-party forums that mention the same
problem:

http://www.proz.com/topic/39623
http://www.mcse.ms/message1550491.html

Does anyone have any information, fixes, or workarounds for
this?
It
appears to be an undocumented error, or else MS just does
not
want
to
acknowledge the problem, but it is very serious for this
person.

--
Pete B



















.

Relevant Pages

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