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

[glensc]

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?

 

I'm the same Glen.

 

I finally got some information out of them today, apparently out ICT dept are saying, for their version, that they are allowed acess to spell check, as well as the internet.

[enjay]

I'm the same Glen.

 

In which case I'll "thank" you here, since there isn't that feature on Communities :-)

 

I finally got some information out of them today, apparently out ICT dept are saying, for their version, that they are allowed acess to spell check, as well as the internet.

 

Yes, sadly the requirements differ for each department.

[tonysharps]

Hi Oxcidius,

 

The method I've outlined above will disable spell checker in Office 2007. The box has to have all Office 2k7 components installed though. If anything 2003 is still installed, including supplementary applications such as Project and Visio then it won't get nobbled.

 

Thanks,

 

Tony.

[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.

 

Problem - turns out this doesn't work after all. It does successfully block the spell checker, but only for a limited time. When a new user logs in to the computer and opens Office, it runs the little first run configuration thing - unfortunately, that over-writes my modified msspell3.dll with a clean one.

 

Any suggestions how I can stop this, other than repeatedly running the script, of course?

[Richie1972]

You should be able to use GPO settings to apply the correct security to the DLL file. Otherwise use your logon (NOT startup) script to change security

[enjay]

You should be able to use GPO settings to apply the correct security to the DLL file.

 

Sounds good, tell me more...

[sippo]

I've been asked about this today. We have mandatory profiles, and they want to use a network PC. Can you bloke spell checker per user? I don't want to change any of the dll files on the PC itself, because as soon as the exam finishes other students will use the PC.

[Oxcidius]

I've been asked about this today. We have mandatory profiles, and they want to use a network PC. Can you bloke spell checker per user? I don't want to change any of the dll files on the PC itself, because as soon as the exam finishes other students will use the PC.

 

Hi Sippo,

I've literally just been playing with this today and we use mandatory profiles with an exam login. calling the reg file using a vbscript that TonySharps mentioned works perfectly for the user as it only effects current user so anyone else logging in won't be effected by it.

Also if you set up the GPO to block the Grammar check etc too it turns out to be very neat for disabling spellchecker in Word 2007! Happy days!!!

Edited December 8, 2010 by Oxcidius

[enjay]

Funny how I managed to help you, but can't get it working myself! Our problem is that Office re-configures itself each time a new user opens it, and over-writes my modified dll file.

[Oxcidius]

Funny how I managed to help you, but can't get it working myself! Our problem is that Office re-configures itself each time a new user opens it, and over-writes my modified dll file.

 

OK, here's everything I did to make it work for me...

 

1. Set up a Computer Configuration Policy (Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\File System) to Deny ALL for Exam User to the following folder:

• %Program Files%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Proof
  

And to the following 2 files (Although not entirely sure I needed to):

• %Program Files%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Proof\MSGR3EN.LEX
  
• %Program Files%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Proof\msspell3.dll
  

 

2. Set up a User Configuration Policy (Policies\Administrative Templates: Policy Definitions (ADMX files) retrieved from the local machine\Classic Administrative Templates (ADM)\Microsoft Word 2007\Word Options\Proofing\) to disable the following:

• Enable Context Sensitive Spelling for Word
  
• Check Spelling as you type
  
• Mark grammar errors as you type
  
• Check grammar with spelling
  

You may need to import the ADM file for Word 2007 if you haven't done this already.

 

3. Set up a login script that calls silently the .reg file containing the following:

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

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

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

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

 

Here is the script snippet:

 

Const strOFF12 = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\"

If objFSO.FolderExists(strOFF12) = true then

WshShell.Run "Regedit /s ""\\FQDN\NETLOGON\DisableSpell.reg"""

End If

 

AND....that was it!! So far I've tested it on several of our student laptops and works fantastically! We currently use Windows XP with Office 2007.

 

Don't forget though that we are using a single user login called 'Exam' that has a mandatory profile and we only let them save to memory stick and nowhere else. They can't access anything else like printers or internet, so as long as they have network connection this should work for others too!

 

Hope this is clear enough for everyone and is of use to those in need!

[Doc]

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!

 

 

 

When tasked with disabling spell check for IB exams we ran into the same problems as everybody else. The Microsoft Office Word 2007 admin templates can disable auto correct but this can be turned back on via word options (Students could still press F7 to check spelling) which was kind of pointless.

 

My approach was to leverage the admin templates ability to disable items in the user interface (removing spell check altogether).

 

Here is what I did.

 

I started by disabling autocorrect and other unwanted features.

Microsoft Office Word 2007 > Word Options > Proofing

 

Then I removed these items from the UI

Microsoft Office Word 2007 > Disable Items from User Interface > Custom > Disable Commands

 

Control Name |Policy ID

 

Spelling |2

Grammar |329

SetLanguage |790

SpellingRecheckDocument |2349

GrammarSettingsDialog |2469

SpellingAndGrammar |2566

ProofingOptions |2788

SpellingHideErrors |3217

GrammarHideErrors |3218

Dictionary |3219

TranslationPane |6111

ResearchPane |7343

ReadingViewResearchPane |7387

Thesaurus |9056

(greys out Word Options)* |11323

TranslationToolTip |12842

EnglishWritingAssistant |14453

SpellingMenu |15780

 

*This does not show in the referenced document.

More information about this can be found here:

Disable user interface items and shortcut keys

 

 

 

Now we need to disable to the keyboard shortcuts

Microsoft Office Word 2007 > Disable Items from User Interface > Custom > Disable shortcut keys

 

F7 | 118

Shift + F7 | 118,16

Ctrl + Shift + o | 79,12

Alt – T | 254

 

 

Keys can be found here:

Virtual-Key Codes (Windows)

 

Hope this helps.

[networkingNut]

Having read this post and other posts on here for removal of office 2007 spellchecker I am still not able to do it. The students can just re-install it. After pressing F7.

 

The machine is standalone, with no access to the network/ Internet. The exam account has been created under windows steady state.

 

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

[tonysharps]

Hi,

 

I'm sorry this is not working for you. I can absolutely vouch for the process, we're running in the region of 80 computer based exams at the moment with spell check disabled.

 

The only gotcha that I have come across is that the workstation can only have 2007 components. Indeed this morning I was asked to look at one where the spellchecker hadn't disabled and the box still had Frontpage 2003 on it.

 

Can you check the registry to ensure that the .dll files have been renamed?

[networkingNut]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

 

We have disabled the registry under steady state to stop students interfering. If I am log in as an admin then the student will not be the 'current user'.

 

Are there any other ways to set it.

 

Thank you

nN

[tonysharps]

Hmm, I've had cause to look at Steady state a couple of times, both times I've thought better of it. If I was you I'd ditch steady state and let group policy do the work of securing the machine. I'll put up a post containing my documentation on using group policy to create a secure exams environment.

 

Thanks,

[tonysharps]

Delivering a secure exams environment using Group Policy - external.docx

 

Registry key mentioned in this document is the one detailed previously in this thread.

 

Thanks,

[enjay]

Following Doc's post above (http://www.edugeek.net/forums/office-software/7149-disabling-spell-checker-word-3.html#post668166), I have managed to grey out the toolbar options, however the squiggly red line is still coming up automatically under the words. This is in Office 2010. Any ideas?

[enjay]

Okay, getting closer. Doc's post allows me to grey out the toolbar options, and I have now stopped the squiggly red line from appearing, having found that Office 2010 keeps the proofing tools under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\PROOF rather than the Common Files location of previous versions. Everything looks good for about 2 seconds, and then Office starts a lengthy (i.e. over a minute) reconfiguration tool and tries to re-install the proofing tools - it doesn't actually do anything, but it does run every time you hit the space key.

 

So, I'm still needing a way of changing the permissions on that folder across the network rather than manually on each (can a GPO do that?), and some way of stopping Word from reconfiguring itself each time it tries and fails to run the proofing tools.

 

Any suggestions?

[enjay]

One more step closer - editing MSSP7EN.DLL and deleting the contents allows Word to run but stops the spell checker from working. Can anyone write a script which would copy a duff version over that file and then restore the correct one at logoff?