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Participant
October 12, 2017
Answered

Why does spelling check in FrameMaker 11 not work in tables?

  • October 12, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 722 views

When i run the Spelling Checker in FrameMaker 11 document, it checks the body of text, but will not catch misspelled words in my tables.  Is there a switch somewhere that is not checked?

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    Correct answer Lynne A. Price

    Hi,

       Spell-checking is language-dependent. Check the paragraph formats used in the table cells, in particular the Font page. If the Language property is set to None, then no spelling dictionary is associated with the content and FM cannot check the spelling. It is also possible that a character format that sets Language to None has been applied.

       Is the content of the table cells in all caps? There is a spelling option for ignoring words that are all uppercase.

            --Lynne

    2 replies

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 12, 2017

    Not that I'm aware of. I certainly used 11 and never observed that tables were excluded from spell check. I did check in versions 13 and 14 (aka 2017) and it spell checks table content as expected.

    Here are the spell check controls—which I think looked just like this in 11—nothing about avoiding tables, but are there other controls in here that are included in your tables, like words containing a period, or words that are all uppercase?

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Lynne A. PriceCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    October 12, 2017

    Hi,

       Spell-checking is language-dependent. Check the paragraph formats used in the table cells, in particular the Font page. If the Language property is set to None, then no spelling dictionary is associated with the content and FM cannot check the spelling. It is also possible that a character format that sets Language to None has been applied.

       Is the content of the table cells in all caps? There is a spelling option for ignoring words that are all uppercase.

            --Lynne

    dbrogers3Author
    Participant
    October 17, 2017

    That was it, Lynne. Language was set to none. I changed it to US English and was able to check spelling in my tables. Thank you so much!

    Inspiring
    October 17, 2017

    You are quite welcome.

    I don't know what your content is like, but some tables contain technical notation such as chemical formulae or mathematical expressions where spell checking is not wanted. A table format that turns off spell checking for such content improves the user experience. Unfortunately, over time, especially when multiple writers use the same template, such a table format can be used for tables containing phrases or sentences where spell checking is desired.

    --Lynne