Spellcheck stopped working, shared tools does not exist in registry

Question

Less than a week ago, my spellcheck stopped working altogether, for every document.

No words are underlined, and when clicking the language box, I find that it's set to an option of "English (United States)", with no spellcheck, despite having set "English (United States)" WITH spellcheck as the default option.

When marking the entire document and clicking on the language box, I'm told part of the document is set to no spellcheck, and that the used language is mostly Danish with Spellcheck. I correct this to English with spellcheck, and make sure the "do not check spelling or grammar" box is entirely blank. I close the language box, and it immediately reverts back to English without spellcheck, and marking everything and clicking the language box reveals nothing has changed.

I've tried removing and later reinstalling the Danish spellcheck. I've tried repairing and resetting word. I've tried looking into the registry to delete the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools\1.0\Override", but finds that the microsoft tab does not have a "Shared Tools" tab whatsoever.

I have not been able to find anyone else who had the same issue, since removing the aforementioned registry key appears to work for others. My problems seemed to arise just as my computer (Dell, windows 10) changed the set language for the pc to Danish without my consent. After I finished setting it back (which wasn't particularly easy) spellcheck had stopped functioning.

Answer 1

I see that there are two entries for "English (United States)" in your Language dialog box. The first entry has no check mark next to it, which suggests that proofing tools are not installed.

The second entry does have a check mark. I have to admit that I haven't seen that before and I'm wondering what could be the underlying cause.

Above the horizontal line in the list of languages is the recently used languages. If you scroll down to "English (United States)," do you see two entries there as well?

One more thing: Note that every time you select a sufficiently large range of text, the "Don't check spelling or grammar" will be a filled box. In Word, this is normal for large selections. You'll see something similar for the "Font" setting if you select several pages of text in a document; even if the whole document uses the same font, the Font box will appear blank.

Answer 2

The options shown in your screen shot shouldn't cause any issues.

What happens if you create a new, blank document in Word (for example by pressing Ctrl+N)? Is spellcheck working in that document?

Answer 3

Is it listed as installed at File > Options > Language?

Answer 4

Has English (US) been installed properly? 

Also, are you sure that you are not using a style for which "Do not check spelling or grammar" has been activated?

For more, see http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/MasterSpellCheck.htm.

Answer 5

Which language is set as the default proofing language in Word? You should set the language you use the most as your default, and you should turn off the "Detect language automatically" option in the Language dialog box.

Also, note that there is a difference between the default proofing language and the proofing language of the currently selected text. Once you have successfully changed the default, existing documents must be dealt with one by one. Often, you simply have to select all the text and (re-)apply the correct language for that document. It is also a good idea to modify the language of the Normal paragraph style.

Unfortunately, language formatting is more complex in Windows 10 installations. I know this from experience, working with English and Swedish. Which display language is set in Windows 10? Strange as it may seem, spellchecking in Word/Office will be more reliable if the display language of Windows 10 matches the default proofing language in Word.