French & Italian dictionaries for use in MS Word

[Maryn]

I am having awful trouble trying to get French and Italian spellchecking working within Microsoft Word. Is there some knack to this that someone knows of?! Alternatively, has anyone come across a website which might offer this sort of download? It seems incredibly difficult for something that should be so simple...or is that just me?
Thanks in advance!:)

[Paul Komski]

I don't think it is all that simple and what to do is also dependent on which version of Word you are using. The OS can also make a difference.

If you are using OfficeXP (Word2002) then there should be a couple of additional languages supported under Add/Remove and then check out the options under proofing tools. I have Spanish and French in Addition to English in my set up. Other languages can be obtained elsewhere; eg
http://shop.microsoft.com/Referral/Productinfo.asp?siteID=10989

Before you can use any supplemental dictionary to check spelling you may have to enable those languages' own support in Win2K/XP or enable multinational support under Win9X/ME.

From MS Office Tools go to the Microsoft Office XP Language Settings and enable the relevant language(s). Other versions of Office will be different.

Install the spelling and grammar tools for the language you want. If Word can't install the correct files, you may need to obtain the files from the Microsoft Office XP Proofing Tools. Proofing Tools is available for purchase at Shop.microsoft.com or outside the United States from a licensed reseller.

On the Tools menu, point to Language, and then click Set Language.
Select the Detect language automatically check box.

On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Spelling & Grammar tab. Set the options you want.

The above is mostly for OfficeXP and WinXP - so which versions are you using?

I think the older the set up the easier (though there may be less of a range of languages).

.... and there's some stuff relating to Office2000 at http://www.google.ie/search?q=cache:zMnbwZ-hhZsJ:www.microsoft.com/education/DOWNLOADS/tutorials/classroom/office2k/word2000.doc+ms+proofing+tools+office2k&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[Maryn]

Paul
Thanks very much for the info. I shall have a read and try and get this working! I am using Office 2000 as it happens. I find it will let me choose French for example for a spell check but it reverts back to English after each word that it has checked? Is this normal or just me?!!
Thanks!:)

[malcore]

There is no spell check for Italian in Office 2000 (Word), other than using the Proofing Tools of which Paul spoke .There is French spell checking and it is usually pretty simple to get working.

It is not installed by default with Office however. Usually, when you change the language by the method Paul suggested, upon your first use of the spell checker in that new language, Office will ask you if you want to install the grammar and spell checker for that particular language. You then need the Office 2000 Premium disc.

Have you done this already Maryn ?

If so, have you checked your settings in Tools>Options>Spelling and Grammar?

If your main language is still set to English (Tools>Language), then you will only be able to spell check one word at a time in French. To check all words in French you must have the main language set to French. (Unfortunate when writing using more than one language, but I don't know of a workaround.)

It works fine for me. Of course there is little support for other languages (only English, French and Spanish spell checking). There is a Spell Link or Spellrite program which gives Italian spell checking support for MS Office (I think). I was given a version of Universal Word, which is quite a program, support for over 165 languages (including keyboard input) and spell checkers for most European languages. It is a $500US piece of software however.:eek:

[Maryn]

Thank you all so much for your help. Spell checking in French and Italian now!!!
This forum is so much more useful than MS's website Ha! Ha!
Thanks!:)

[malcore]

What route did you take Maryn to have Italian spell checking also? New software? If so, which?

Just nosy.;)

[Maryn]

Oh dear! Seems I got happy too quick! You'd think after all these years of using MS I would have expected defeat!! Ha! Ha! The Italian is giving me grief, when I try to spell check with it it comes up with a missing dll message, so, I typed the dll (msth3IT.dll and msth32.dll) into the good old Google bar and was brought to the following MS(!)page. I have SP3 on my Win2K but I still cannot get this to work... attach herewith the link in case you can make better sense of it, I really hope to sort this without having to buy any software to be honest, it's already cost €900 to buy Office Pro and I think that's quite enough money to be spending really!!!! Any ideas/opinions??!!

:confused: :( http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/journ/Igt0901a.htm

[malcore]

Interesting.

You say you have Win2K SP3. To be able to use the Italian package, it says you need to have the Office 2000 SP3 installed, and before you can do that you need the Office 2000 Service Release 1!!!

Have you updated Office to SP3??

[Maryn]

Yep! I have Office 2K SP3 as well as Win 2K SP3!!

[malcore]

Have you checked if those dlls are actually on your computer by doing a search for them? You could try installing the Italian Grammar pack again. If it was installed correctly you will get an error message stating so when trying to reinstall.

Page here (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813715)

[Maryn]

Hi
Haven't had a chance since I last wrote to do more with this, other than to try and set up another computer user here with the French spell check, he has Off 2K SP3 and Win 2K Pro SP3 and the all important "Automatically Detect Language" tick box within language settings in Word, is ghosted so it just won't work, I'm nearly giving up!!!!!

Will try the Italian hopefully this week and let you know :mad:

[malcore]

the all important "Automatically Detect Language" tick box within language settings in Word, is ghosted

Sounds like you have not enabled any extra languages in Office Tools.

Start>Programs>Microsoft Office Tools>Microsoft Office Language Settings, tick the boxes for languages you want to enable. The "Auto Detect Language" box should no longer be ghosted.

Have you also enabled these languages in Keyboard properties? Office will not auto detect and Spell-Check (in the correct languages) unless you enable keyboard input for those languages and switch between each. If your keyboard is set to input English and you type a word in French, word will not recognize it as French.

For Word to Auto Detect you must "switch" your keyboard input to French when typing a word in French.

To add languages to keyboard - Start>Control Panel>Keyboard>Language click "add" and select the languages you want one at a time. You can have a choice of what key stroke combination you would like to use to easily switch between languages.

Edit- In 2K you would need to go to ControlPanel>Regional and Language Options>Languages>Details and then add the languages one at a time.

[Inka]

Just out of curiosity... if using WinXP - and its profiles..

Would it be possible to set a different language per profile? One could then have a french profile, italian, english etc :p

Hmm got me thinking now, off to experiment!