XL98: MS Excel Hangs When You Use the Italian Dictionary

• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

If you check the spelling in a Microsoft Excel worksheet, Excel may stop responding (hang), and you must force quit the program by pressing COMMAND+OPTION+ESC.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when you use the Italian dictionary to check the spelling in your document. You cannot use the Italian dictionary to check the spelling in Excel.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, open the workbook in Microsoft Word and check the spelling in that program. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Microsoft Word.

2. On the File menu, click Open.

3. In the Select a Document dialog box, click Readable Files in the List Files Of Type list.

4. Locate and select the Excel workbook. Click Open.

5. In the Open Worksheet dialog box, select the appropriate worksheet in the Open Document In Workbook list and click OK.

6. On the Tools menu, point to Language, and then click Set Language.

7. In the Language dialog box, click Italian, and then click OK.

8. On the Tools menu, click Spelling And Grammar.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Excel 98. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Nicrosoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition includes several foreign language proofing tools that can be used by Office programs to proof documents in a language other than English. To change the language Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition uses to check the spelling in workbooks, you must first install the Set Language add-in, which is available in the Value Pack:Proofing Tools folder on the Office compact disc (CD). After you install the Set Language add-in, click Language on the Tools menu in Excel, and then select the language for the spelling checker dictionary.

Note that there is one scenario in which the spelling checker dictionary can be set to Italian (or any other language) even if the Set Language add- in is not installed or you have never changed the language in Microsoft Excel. If you click the Default button in the Language dialog box in Microsoft Word, the language that is selected when you click Default is selected for both Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Therefore, the language you set as the default in Microsoft Word is the language that is used when you check the spelling in a Microsoft Excel worksheet. However, if the Set Language add-in is installed, and you reselect the language in Microsoft Excel, this language becomes the language that is used by the spelling checker in Microsoft Excel.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q181974
   TITLE     : XL98: "Set Language" Add-In Specifies Language for Proofing