Lock-Up during Spell Check -- WD 97
Colleen
There is plenty of available memory, the documents can be newly-created, or
converted documents (from WP 5.1 DOS). Sometimes the files are large, but
it has also happened in very short, 1-paragraph documents. Specifically, 2
users are having this happen very frequently.
One user told me she shuts down Word (via Ctrl+Alt+Del, End Task), re-opens
the file, re-runs the Spell Check. Sometimes, she locks up again,
sometimes she doesn't. Also, the lock-up doesn't always happen at the same
point in the document.
Of course, when I sat down at each of the two "problem" PCs, I had no
problems, so I can't give any more detail than what they've told me.
Initially, I wondered (and still wonder) if this is a corrupt Normal.dot
issue, but I haven't heard where that kind of problem can cause lock-ups
during Spell Check. I hesitate to delete the Normal template without
checking for other options, because of all the customizations that would
have to be recreated.
Any input?
Thanks!
Colleen Worley
Terry Farrell
there were problems in early versions of Word97 with spelling/grammar
causing lock ups. Make sure that you have updates all the installations to
SR2. Look in Word, Help, About Microsoft Word to see the exact version that
you are using,
--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
Please keep replies in the Newsgroup.
This enables everyone to share the problem
and other experts to bring their expertise.
Sorry, but emails cannot be acknowledged.
Colleen <col...@woodmaclaw.com> wrote in message
news:01bf0b69$425e2140$3b02010a@wp1...
Murdoch Brown
I'd also love to know a fix for this!
I've seen this with Word 97 (both SR-1 and SR-2) running on a clean
install of Win98 (second edition) (though with one 3rd party app). We
thought it might have been docs created in Word97 but saved as
Word6/95 but that doesn't now seem to be the case. We now wonder if
it's docs that are the result of a mailmerge but this is inconclusive
so far - maybe its the 3rd party stuff after all but it happens
whether its running or not (and its for connecting to Unix, not addins
for Word)!
Terry Farrell
is it definitely the spell checker or does it occur with the grammar checker
working?
Terry
Murdoch Brown <Murdoc...@compu-nospam-serve.com> wrote in message
news:37f648d1...@msnews.microsoft.com...
Murdoch Brown
Good point! I tend not to think of the grammar checker as I avoid
using it (I know my English needs improved without being reminded of
how to make it worse!) but leave it in the default install for the
users / clients. So it may well be active in these cases (the default
is active isn't it?) but I recall no wavy green lines in the test
docs, just red ones. Of course that wouldn't mean it wasn't working
away looking for something to underline.
However, these hangs happen when the user has initiated a spell check
with the ABC button or with F7, not when Word is doing it in the
background and not when the user right-clicks an underlined word and
corrects it. Also, AFAIK, it's only with Word97 on Win9, not Win95
Very grateful for _any_ thoughts on this!
On Sat, 2 Oct 1999 17:40:31 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
Terry Farrell
using F7 should only activate the spell checker - providing that the grammar
check as you type has been turned off. If the user hasn't turned this
feature off and presumably hasn't turned off spell as you type either, why
would they be using F7 to spell check because all mis-spelling will be
underlined anyway?! (Just thinking out loud here). If the spell as you type
is active in the document, does this not cause the spell check to lock up?
Check that each Word installation is pointing at the correct location for
the user dictionary and the main dictionary. I know that there was
definitely a bug in early versions of Office97 that caused lockups. I cannot
remember the exact details but it was a combination of grammar errors and
spelling that caused the problem. I have not heard or seen any reports of
this in Word97 with SR2 correctly applied.
Terry
Murdoch Brown <Murdoc...@compu-nospam-serve.com> wrote in message
news:37f6edba...@msnews.microsoft.com...
Murdoch Brown
Sorry, I'll need to check the status of grammar checking.
Some use F7 because they are touch typists and don't look at the
screen (well not much!) until they've typed all a two or three page
doc. Rather than rely on themselves spotting all the underlines, they
use the speller dialogue to jump from one to the next. They don't
bother to turn off check as you type. Some, however, do go through
right-clicking on each flagged error and the check is OK for them - no
lock-up.
All these are retail upgrade packs of UK Office 97 SR-1. We tested
applying SR-2 to 1 PC but it didn't help. We believe that a doc which
has the problem once will always have the problem but in this
situation most docs are fairly short and are created and then edited
maybe once if that.
As these were new installs, I assumed (!) that the file locations
would be correct - I'll check (I do know that in one case the
Custom.dic was deleted - no help - and later recreated - still no
better)
FWIW, there have been a few other threads in recent weeks with similar
problems - I've been keeping a special eye open for them :-) - at
least one with Word97 on Win98. In
microsoft.public.word.spelling.grammar there are 'Computer crash while
running spell check', 'Speller not working' and 'Spell check causes
Word to freeze' and, in microsoft.public.word.word97vba, 'spell check
form field .... lockups' but unfortunately, none of the ideas there
seem to help :-(
Thank you for responding - it's all much appreciated and sooner or
later I'm sure something will suddenly light a big bright light!
On Sun, 3 Oct 1999 09:59:44 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
Terry Farrell
I am not 100% convinced that the grammar/spell checker bug was properly
fixed in Word97. In early versions it was very common for it to happen and
was due to a combination of grammar errors that Word couldn't handle and
caused Word to barf. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't still a grammar
problem though. Try turning off grammar checking in Tools, Options and see
if that resolves the problem.
You could possibly troubleshoot the exact problem by breaking up the
document until the problem can be isolated,
Terry
Murdoch Brown <Murdoc...@compu-nospam-serve.com> wrote in message
news:37f852b4...@msnews.microsoft.com...
Murdoch Brown
Thanks (again!) - I'll certainly try that, but it probably won't be
possible until around Friday as we've a couple of hefty installs and
upgrades going in this week. As to breaking up the document, we've
tested this with a one page letter with about 3 lines in the body and
those were really in there just to have somewhere to put a couple of
spelling mistakes! Mind you, I'm getting to like the idea of breaking
things <g>.
I'll come back in a few days with anything to report
HTH
On Tue, 5 Oct 1999 21:57:17 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
Colleen
grammar checking issue. On one of the other newsgroups, a poster was
referred to "Article Q236394 - WD 97: Proofing Tools Do Not Function as
Expected". This KnowledgeBase Article suggests a Registry edit to fix the
Spell Check lock-up. Has anyone tried this with success before I attempt
it?
Terry Farrell
sorry, but'd be interested to hear if it is a solution!
Terry
Colleen <col...@woodmaclaw.com> wrote in message
news:01bf11bc$3791f760$3b02010a@wp1...