Spell check suggestions greyed out in MS Word 2003

I posted this back in February of 2008 but I am having the same problem with
Microsoft Office 2003 that I see others are having with MS Office 2007.

It was working fine until one day in February my spell check in MS word 2003
stopped working properly. It will have the green & red squiggly lines for
spelling & grammar problems, but when the box comes up with the suggestions
for the correct spelling, the words are black for less than a second and then
turns grey so I am unable to click on them. The weird thing is that when I
don’t go through spell check, I just I right click on the word that is
underlined with the red or green squiggly line, it DOES have the correct
spelling and it inputs the correct word that I choose. I have tried
everything that I have found on the other posts, everything in the
Tools-options-spelling & grammar is properly
checked.

My other question from my research is that it is a shared office file, and
spell check works fine in Office Publisher, Powerpoint, and Excel. I do not
use Outlook or Access.

Back in April I backed up all of my personal files, took in my original
operating system disks that I received from Dell and my computer to Circuit
City and had them wipe everything and reinstall windows. When I came home I
reinstalled Office 2003, and everything was back to normal!! Yay! About a
month later, I wrote a document and saved it. About a half hour later I was
going to email it to my dad to proof read before I turned it in, and I made
another correction and pressed the spell check button. IT WAS BACK TO GREY!!!
During that half an hour I was not using my computer at all. It was sitting
on the desk.


PLEASE HELP!
I have school reports I need spell check for!! Thank you all for your help!

Based on what other posts have said for my settings, here is what is checked:
- MS Word... Tools... Language
- English (US) is the default; this is my language
- The following is checked: Detect language automatically
- MS Word... Tools... Spelling & Grammar
The following are checked:
- Check spelling as you type
- Always suggest corrections
- Ignore uppercase, numbers, Internet and file addresses

Also under MS Word... Tools... Spelling & Grammar
- Custom dictionaries... Custom.dic is my default; no other dictionaries
are listed

Make: Dell
Model: Vostro 1000
Year: December 2007
OS: XP Home Edition 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OEM or Retail OS (Y or N): Asked for XP instead of Vista before they started
charging extra
Office Version: Microsoft Office 2003 Professional
OEM or Retail Office (Y or N): Retail (Have had it since it came out and
have used on my 3 prior computers with no problems.



--
princessallison

Here are some things to try:

1. Take custom.dic out of the picture by either renaming it or save in
another format, such as Unicode
--> re-test the spell checker

2. Click on Start > Run and type regedit
Expand the folder HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing
Tools\1.0\Override\en-US
Rename the String Values DLL and LEX to oldDLL and oldLEX
Close the registry editor and check the issue

3. Click on Office Button.
Then go to Word Options
On the left side of word options click on Add-ins
At the bottom, we have Manage: COM Add-ins. Click on COM Add-ins
and then from the drop down menu select Disabled items. then click on Go.
In the Diabled Items window, check if the add-in “Spell Checker”
is listed.
Click on that add-in, and then enable it.
Click on OK.

Let us all know which action solved it for you.

Debbie


"Princessallison" <princessallison1.TakeThisOut@aol.com> wrote in message
news:F580047E-6D06-43E3-A7B0-97973FEEAF1B@microsoft.com...
> I posted this back in February of 2008 but I am having the same problem
> with
> Microsoft Office 2003 that I see others are having with MS Office 2007.
>
> It was working fine until one day in February my spell check in MS word
> 2003
> stopped working properly. It will have the green & red squiggly lines for
> spelling & grammar problems, but when the box comes up with the
> suggestions
> for the correct spelling, the words are black for less than a second and
> then
> turns grey so I am unable to click on them. The weird thing is that when I
> don’t go through spell check, I just I right click on the word that is
> underlined with the red or green squiggly line, it DOES have the correct
> spelling and it inputs the correct word that I choose. I have tried
> everything that I have found on the other posts, everything in the
> Tools-options-spelling & grammar is properly
> checked.
>
> My other question from my research is that it is a shared office file, and
> spell check works fine in Office Publisher, Powerpoint, and Excel. I do
> not
> use Outlook or Access.
>
> Back in April I backed up all of my personal files, took in my original
> operating system disks that I received from Dell and my computer to
> Circuit
> City and had them wipe everything and reinstall windows. When I came home
> I
> reinstalled Office 2003, and everything was back to normal!! Yay! About a
> month later, I wrote a document and saved it. About a half hour later I
> was
> going to email it to my dad to proof read before I turned it in, and I
> made
> another correction and pressed the spell check button. IT WAS BACK TO
> GREY!!!
> During that half an hour I was not using my computer at all. It was
> sitting
> on the desk.
>
>
> PLEASE HELP!
> I have school reports I need spell check for!! Thank you all for your
> help!
>
> Based on what other posts have said for my settings, here is what is
> checked:
> - MS Word... Tools... Language
> - English (US) is the default; this is my language
> - The following is checked: Detect language automatically
> - MS Word... Tools... Spelling & Grammar
> The following are checked:
> - Check spelling as you type
> - Always suggest corrections
> - Ignore uppercase, numbers, Internet and file addresses
>
> Also under MS Word... Tools... Spelling & Grammar
> - Custom dictionaries... Custom.dic is my default; no other dictionaries
> are listed
>
> Make: Dell
> Model: Vostro 1000
> Year: December 2007
> OS: XP Home Edition 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
> OEM or Retail OS (Y or N): Asked for XP instead of Vista before they
> started
> charging extra
> Office Version: Microsoft Office 2003 Professional
> OEM or Retail Office (Y or N): Retail (Have had it since it came out and
> have used on my 3 prior computers with no problems.
>
>
>
> --
> princessallison