Entourage X spell check doesn't work

[Joseph O'Brien]

I've seen a number of posts about this problem, but none of the
solutions have worked for me.

A few weeks ago, spell check stopped checking in Entourage. Works
just fine in Word, but in Entourage, it doesn't catch any misspleeled
werds, either by underlining them with red squigglies, or by going
through the spell check funtion.

I made sure that I have a US dictionary and my custom dictionary
selected. I have tried updating to the latest version of Office X,
trashing the Office X applications folder, trashing Office X prefs,
trashing the custom dictionary, trashing my neighbor's yard, and
driving a wooden stake through my TiBook's keyboard.

Just for fun, I even checked microsoft's support website.

Apple doesn't have anything to say about it, either.

I will continue working on it and post any positive results, but if
someone has already figured it out, can you post it?

Here are my system's specs:
667MHz Powerbook G4 512 MB RAM
OS X 10.2.latest.update
Entourage x 10.1.latest.update just installed from MS's website

Thanks,
joseph

 

[Diane Ross]

A few weeks ago, spell check stopped checking in Entourage. Works
just fine in Word, but in Entourage, it doesn't catch any misspleeled
werds, either by underlining them with red squigglies, or by going
through the spell check funtion.

I made sure that I have a US dictionary and my custom dictionary
selected. I have tried updating to the latest version of Office X,
trashing the Office X applications folder, trashing Office X prefs,
trashing the custom dictionary, trashing my neighbor's yard, and
driving a wooden stake through my TiBook's keyboard.

Just for fun, I even checked microsoft's support website.

Apple doesn't have anything to say about it, either.

It's FAQ #30 on the Entourage Help Page:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>


Go to Word's Preferences and check to see if Custom Dictionary -- with
language set to None -- is selected. Also be sure the Custom Dictionary is
at the top of the list of dictionaries. Entourage can only access the top
dictionary in the list.

Go to MS Word/Preferences/Spelling & Grammar/Custom Dictionary, and browse
again to your Custom Dictionary. You're best leaving language as (none).
Restart your computer. Now, try Entourage again.

 

[Frank J. Pycroft]

Dear Joseph

You may have a system software problem - suggest use Norton Utilities,
DiskWarrior, Drive 10, TechTool Pro, Disk Tools. Make sure you use
versions which operate well with OS X!

Cheers FRANK PYCROFT

 

[Joseph O'Brien]

Frank,

I tried running Norton, but it didn't help. I think I will have to
completely uninstall Office X, including all the little bits that end
up all over my computer...

Oooh... or maybe try it under a different account. That could work.
Any other thoughts?

thanks,
joseph

 

[Joseph O'Brien]

It was a long and winding path, but I finally made it. Here's what
happened...

After moving the Main Identities folder to another computer, I
experienced the exact same problem, but only with that identity. This
confirmed that the culprit was a corrupt idenity file. However,
neither the typical rebuild nor the complex rebuild solved the
problem.

Since there isn't an option to import an identity from Entourage X
(only available for 2001...), I had to do it manually:

- I dragged each folder (and subfolder) to my desktop to create an
mbox file (you have to do subfolders separately!)
- Then I created a new identity in Entourage.
- Next, I imported each mbox file into the inbox of the new identity.
- From there, I rearranged the folders, and transferred messages from
specials folders, like Sent Messages, directly into the same folders
on the new identity.

This worked like a charm, but I also had to consider all the address
book, calendar, and task information. Entourage makes it easy to
export and import the address book, so that wasn't a problem.
However, to get the calendar and task list, I had to sync up with my
Palm Desktop. I was fortunate to have this setup, since I don't think
there is a way to extract the calendar data from its home within the
Database file. I wonder if there is a way to do this...

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. If anyone else has
this problem, I would recommend trying Diane's method first, since
it's less of a hassle.

joseph

 

[Joseph O'Brien]

First, let me say that, depsite the personal pronoun usage, all of
this took place on another person's computer. So when he called me
the day after I fixed it saying that spell check was not working
again, I was dumbfounded. After much probing, we finally figured out
that the only thing he changed before it broke again was the font used
in the body of his messages.

I changed the font to something normal (Verdana or Arial, I think),
and, presto, everything worked just fine.

I guess the whole convoluted proceedure I came up with above really
only did one thing: by created a new identity, it loaded the default
font set.

Should have known.

Joseph