How can I get MSWord to spellcheck in French?

Factual Questions
1

I’m using Microsoft Word 2000 (version 9.0.2720 according to About), from a copy of Office 2000, the CD for which is at my parents’ place (my mother has several different [legal] versions of Office, she let me have one and I forgot to bring the CD with me to college). Oh, and I’m running Windows 98SE.

I know MSWord is capable of French spellchecking/grammar checking. I’ve done it on the computers at school. But I’d rather be able to do it at home, because the School of Humanities computer labs are the only ones on campus that don’t extend their hours during Finals Week, and I’ve got three French papers to write. Plus the desks are horribly unergonomic and the chairs are lowriders.

I tried asking Word to spellcheck in French, and it told me that bit wasn’t installed and asked for the CD. I explained nicely that I don’t have the time to drive to LA to satisfy its neediness, but to no avail. I downloaded the French spellchecker from the MS website, installed it, and it wouldn’t work.

Anyone got any ideas? (well, besides sticking to classes where the essays are in a language I can speak)

2

You have to buy Proofing Tools from Microsoft. Sweethearts, aren’t they?

3

Umm … from that link:

Meaning I should be able to proof in French without bying anything new.

4

If it was installed, you may be able to just turn it on, by following these directions;

Turn On the Language You Want
Quit all Microsoft Office programs.
On the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Office Tools, and click Microsoft Language Settings.
In the Show controls and enable editing for box, select the check box next to the language you want to turn on; for example, Spanish or French.
Click OK.

If that doesn’t work, you may need the CD, but try following the instructions in this article. It may work without the CD.

5

Wrong again Q.E.D. Are you wrong in every thread, or just the ones I lurk in? At least you didn’t recommend resintalling his Operating System this time. :rolleyes:

You may not have to install anything extra, Dragonblink. I had a similar problem, and all I had to do was “set” the language in my copy of Word. From the Tools menu, select Laguage…and select “Choose language” from the menu. You can set it to spellcheck in French from there.

6

Yeah right. I can’t even get my copy of Word to spellcheck British English instead of US English.

7

I’ve set the language to French, which works on the computers on campus, but when I ask it to spellcheck it insists that part isn’t installed, and asks if I want to install it. Which would require the CD.

(I’ve gotten Word to spellcheck in British English before, since I read so many British books as a kid I used to use British spelling out of habit, but that was years ago and much older copies of Word.)

Oh, and there’s no “Microsoft Office Tools” menu on my highly-customized Start Menu. “Microsoft Language Settings” sounds like a shortcut I would’ve kept, if I’d had it, but it’s nowhere to be found.

8

Exciled in OC? Orange County? You could have driven to LA and back by now, and had it working. Sometimes the simplest solutions are best.

-lv

9

Basically, if it’s not installed, you’ll need the CD. See if you can find someone else that will let you borrow it for the few minutes it would take to install it.

BTW, the Tools menu Urban Ranger referred to is within Word, not a Start menu item. Kudos on customizing your Start menu, though; not enough people do that. :wink:

10

See here, RatInDaKitchen.