[ms office - xp] Disabling spell checker in Word??????

[rusty155]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been asked this morning if it is possible to disable the spell checker in Microsoft Word. There is a student soon to sit her SATS but has a damaged hand and needs to use a laptop. The SAT requirements state that spelling and grammar checks need to be disabled.

 

I have no idea how to do this however, or even if it is possible!! The version of office being used is XP.

 

The only way I know of is to uninstall Office and have the student use Notepad or Wordpad!

 

Any help greatly appreciated.

Edited May 4, 2011 by ZeroHour

[Geoff]

I believe you can do that with the Office ADM templates.

[john]

It never seems to work, I tried it and it still kicks back in if you press F7, so after talking to the exam boards Wordpad is the option for them

[djm968]

You could can a new Style and configure the format option not be spell-checked.

 

Click on Format | Styles & Formatting | | Modify | Format | Language | check the "Do not check spelling or grammar" box.

 

Text formatted with this style will be skipped when running a spell check however, I am not sure if it is possible to remove or disable default styles though.

[maniac]

We have some older laptops specifically set up for exams. We install just microsoft word on them with no optional extras, just the shell of the program. This means there's no spelling/grammer check, and no fancy features.

 

it's also possible to use the add/remove componants feature to remove the 'proofing tools' which removes the spelling check and other bits.

 

Mike.

[Finch7]

I removed the proofing tools and renamed msspell3.dll to msspell3.old.

 

Did the trick (remember to restart word if you have it open already)

 

D.

[webman]

We set one up with Wordpad and removed MS Office.

[CyberNerd]

I gave the 'exam' group deny read permission to the msspell3.dll

[gwendes]

I just renamed msspell3.dll and it works beautifully - nice tip Finch7

[Teth]

I've had to set up 3 exam laptops to be shared by 5 pupils this year due to time table clashes. I got away with just the 1 last year.

 

I use older machines that have been retired and clean install them.

 

my basic formula is.

 

2 local user accounts 1 admin 1 exam user since they wont be on the network during the exam if at all.

 

Uninstall all optional extras. The exam board document we have here specifies no access to calculator etc either.

 

Empty the exam user start menu.

 

The pupil works on an RTF document on the desktop which is then transfered to memory stick and signed by the candidae and myself.

 

Its a been a bit of a pain in the past because the laptops used had to go back into service somewhere but this years will just remain exam laptops for life.

[webman]

Also remember you can just apply the hidden attribute to start menu folders so they are not shown, instead of deleting/moving them.

[Andi]

We wipe the laptops, install standalone Windows XP, remove all components from add/remove Windows Components (one at a time in the accessories, otherwise Wordpad goes AWOL), create an admin and a limited user, clear the exam users start menu and just give them a link to Wordpad.

 

Have to put the laptops back in service everytime though and is becoming a huge pain as we have to use at least 5 laptops everytime there are exams.

[CyberNerd]

People seem to be going to quite extreme lengths with this, We just create 'exam' accounts in an exam group and make the students log on using those accounts. They get a mandatory profile with only the apps they need and can't get access to internet or any other resources because the exam group i sbanned. The banned group also doesn't get access to spellcheck due to NTFS as I mentioned earlier. No need to rewipe computers or have exam only machines

[Andi]

Well, we have no network in the exam hall, so a standalone is necessary.

 

We do have locked down accounts setup for any network based exams, CLAIT etc.

[Finch7]

I gave the 'exam' group deny read permission to the msspell3.dll

 

far superior idea and works well.

[acrobson]

Proofing Tools, like the spell checker and grammar checker, are stored in a Registry key called "Proofing Tools" and also in a Microsoft Shared folder on your hard drive called "Proof" You could have a look here and see if you can do 'adjusting'.

 

Best of luck.

[tonysharps]

Hi,

 

What you'll need to do is import something like the below into the registry on logon:

 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools\1.0\Override\en-US]

"dll"="c:\\temp\\dud.dll"

"lex"="c:\\temp\\dud.lex"

 

Assuming that you are using bespoke exam accounts then you'll not need to do anything further.

[brewster]

TonySharpes you are a genius, that has ended an afternoon's worth of searching for the answer!

 

As an extra, if you want to turn the thesaurus/grammar check off, rename

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\PROOF

to :

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\PROOFOLD

Change permissions on C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared to Write:Deny (to stop it recreating the folder)

 

Many thanks again!

[enjay]

This is exactly what I'm needing to for some Controlled Assessment users for whom WordPad is unsuitable.

 

I gave the 'exam' group deny read permission to the msspell3.dll

 

Can I ask how you did this, CyberNerd?

[enjay]

Hi,

 

What you'll need to do is import something like the below into the registry on logon:

 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools\1.0\Override\en-US]

"dll"="c:\\temp\\dud.dll"

"lex"="c:\\temp\\dud.lex"

 

Assuming that you are using bespoke exam accounts then you'll not need to do anything further.

 

I couldn't get that to work when I tried it just now. I thought at first it was because I had a UK English dictionary set, not US English, but even when I changed it to US, I was still able to spell check. Am I missing something?

[enjay]

Okay, here's what I've done.

 

I copied C:Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\PROOF\msspell3.dll from my PC to the network and then changed the permissions on it so that the exam users have "deny" permissions on it. Then I copied the file to all the curriculum PCs using the batch file Xcopy msspell3.dll "\\[computer name]\c$\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\PROOF" /O /Y. This will obviously need repeating any time I re-image the PCs.

 

The first time a user tries to run the spell check, they get told that it isn't available for their language; any subsequent attempts to spell check simply come back saying "spell check complete". Changing the language doesn't make any difference, since all languages use the same DLL file.

 

Happy days.

[ShorehamGeek]

What an excellent selection of posts. Just the ticket for me in these days of increased controlled assessment. I've taken a combined approach. Set the permissions using GPO:

Progs\Common Files\Microsoft Shared -> deny write to the exams group (to stop anything being installed)

Progs\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Proof -> deny read to the exams group (to stop the use of spelling, grammar, thesaurus etc)

Add students to exams group and all is well with the world (as long as there is enough notice for the domain controllers to sync)!

[glensc]

The first time a user tries to run the spell check, they get told that it isn't available for their language; any subsequent attempts to spell check simply come back saying "spell check complete". Changing the language doesn't make any difference, since all languages use the same DLL file.

 

Happy days.

 

Glad that worked as I did overhear our ICT dept talking about having to do controlled assements, so that was what set me thinking about how to do it.

They haven't actually asked if it's possible yet though, which I guess is par for the course

Edited November 10, 2010 by glensc

[enjay]

They haven't actually asked if it's possible yet though, which I guess is par for the course

 

We specifically asked staff about their CA requirements, as we knew the potential minefield and headache it would be, so wanted as long as possible to work on it.

 

BTW, are you the same Glen that gave me this solution over on RM Communities?

[Oxcidius]

We had no problems with disabling Word 2003 spellchecking last year, but this year we have upgraded to Word 2007 and, to start, there is no msspell3.dll in the Microsoft Shared folder anymore!

I tried renaming PROOF folder and deny access for the exam user to this folder but still it recreated itself and even though the exam user has full deny on the PROOF folder, we were STILL able to spellcheck!

Has anyone managed to disable it properly in Word 2007?

Also, anyone know how to disable F7 too?

Cheers guys!