Indesign Spellcheck - checking every word

I'd suggest a couple of things:

1. After selecting the Edit>Spelling>Check Spelling... menu command, or using the keyboard shortcut Cmd+I, to open the Check Spelling dialog box, I'd see if selecting other options in your Search: options box give you different results. Make a selection of an obviously (or intentionally) misspelled word, choose the Selection option in the Search: options box and see if it still searches the entire document. If it doesn't search the whole document, refining your search is as easy as going to the Check Spelling dialog box and picking another option.

2. As for missing all misspellings, I'd next check the Edit>Spelling>User Dictionary... menu command. I'd check if any language option is shown in the Language: options box. Sometimes there isn't, and opening the options box shows there's none available. Which means you have to go to your preferences and re-select your dictionary option. Sounds stupid, but it often works. You can also, of course, enter words which aren't specified in your language dictionary by adding them to the User Dictionary.

Note: If you add a word to the User Dictionary, make double-sure that you have actually entered it correctly. Look it up even! Because if you haven't, you'll be misspelling it that way forevermore.

Please let us know how this works out for you. If it doesn't, folks here are pretty sharp and may be able to come up with a more specialized solution for you.

Hope this helps,

Randy

Try trashing preferences and cache files. Hopefully, resetting the program to default will fix this issue.

To trash preferences:

For Macintosh Users: The User Library folder in which InDesign’s preferences are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that InDesign is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N). With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the folder called “Adobe InDesign” and the file called “com.adobe.InDesign.plist” and delete both that folder and that file. When InDesign is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

For Windows Users: You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so: On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>. Make sure that InDesign is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

To trash cache files:

For Macintosh Users: Use the same process as above to find the User Library folder. Within the Library folder find the “Caches” folder. Within the Caches folder find and delete the entire folder “Adobe InDesign”. I find that deleting the InDesign cache folder completely leads to a lasting change.

For Windows Users: Use the same process as above to find hidden files and folders. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\Version [#]\<Language>\Cache.

Reminder: all of the above should only be attempted with InDesign closed.

These are preferences only. What language is applied to your text?