Knowledge Base

WD97: Punctuation May Cause Word to Constantly Check Same Word

Article ID: 178407

Article Last Modified on 1/22/2007

Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q178407

SYMPTOMS

When you add punctuation to the end of a word that is not contained in either the main or custom dictionaries and then click Change All, the spelling checker will enter an infinite loop while spell checking the same word.

NOTE: To stop the infinite loop of the spelling checker, press ESC.

CAUSE

The added punctuation is not considered part of the word, so when the spelling checker rechecks the misspelled word, which it does after you make a change, it finds the same word and adds more punctuation. The spelling checker then checks the word again, and so on.

RESOLUTION

To correct this problem, do not add punctuation to a misspelled word in the "Not In Dictionary" area of the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.

WORKAROUND

To avoid this behavior, use the Replace function in Word to search for instances of the word without punctuation and replace the word with the punctuation. To do this, follow these steps:

On the Edit menu, click Replace.
In the Find What box, type the text you want to search for.
In the Replace with box, type the replacement text.
Click Replace All.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: hang endless

Keywords: kbbug kbpending kbproof KB178407