Inspiring

Question

Latest update flags perfectly spelt English words as wrong

Forum|Forum|20 days ago
July 29, 2026
20 replies
119 views

Presumably yet another bug but great news we now have more AI no one asked for.

Examples:

Maximise

Appetising

Are now flagged as spelt wrong with American options offered. Language is set to UK, language on computer is set to UK, this literally happened today with your wonderful new update.

G

GraphicalError

Inspiring

I too am having the same Issue. I am using ver 21.4 ( i know there is an update waiting but I refuse to update right away because it always has issues) Words like First, Fist, Flaunt are showing up as “not in dictionary”. My pref. are set to English USA and my text is also set to English USA. What is going on here? This seems crazy to be happening now.

FWIW I have never had troubles installing the latest version of all Adobe apps when I was on Win. 10. Now on Win 11 there are nothing but issues when I download the latest version, so I just give it time now. Also, updates just seem to be about AI now which adds no value for me personally.

leo.r

Community Expert

What dictionary providers are selected in Preferences > Dictionary?

G

GraphicalError

Inspiring

Hunspell

Rob28408453rp1r

Participant

It is important to check what language is applied to the text itself (language is a character level attribute). I have the opposite issue in that random bits of text in my US English docs get changed to UK English and therefore get flagged as incorrect when I spellcheck. This has been happening randomly for years.

leo.r

Community Expert

Do you have any alternative there (like Proximity?) If so, try to switch - will it make a difference?

G

GraphicalError

Inspiring

I just tried that and nothing is different. Just different words being flagged. I closed everything out and reopened the file. Set back to Hunspell and I am noticing that some of the words that are being flagged, like financial, are saying not in dictionary and the top suggestion is financial. Exact same spelling. Other words being flagged are not showing a suggestion for the same word. So it looks like it sees some words as not actual words and other words as spelled wrong, but wanting to replace it with the exact same word. Something strange is happening indeed.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @garethirwin1234,

Thanks for sharing the additional details. I understand how frustrating it is when something that was working correctly suddenly changes after an update, especially when it interrupts your normal workflow.

Could you please confirm the additional details that the expert requested, specifically the dictionary provider selected under Edit > Preferences > Dictionary?

I also tested this on Windows 11 with the dictionary configured for English (UK), and I wasn't able to reproduce the behavior. To help us narrow this down, could you please confirm whether you're using Windows or macOS, and also let us know your exact InDesign version? Are you on the latest 21.5 release, or another build?

One more thing I'd like you to check is the language assigned to the affected text. Even if the dictionary preferences are set to English (UK), the text itself may have a different language applied. Please select one of the affected words, then go to Window > Type & Tables > Character, and confirm that the Language is set to English: UK.

Looking forward to your update so we can investigate this further.

Abhishek

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @garethirwin1234

I just wanted to follow up and see if you had a chance to try the suggestions shared earlier. Could you let us know the current status of the issue? Is it still occurring? If you were able to reset your InDesign preferences, did that make any difference? Any update you can share will help us better understand the issue and determine the next steps to assist you.

Thanks,
Abhishek

Frans v.d. Geest

Community Expert

What is the language set to the actual text, check that in the Character specifications. Your dictionary may be set to UK but the character specifications (or Paragrap style or Character style) may be US as this is the default often.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Which language is applied to the text itself?

G

garethirwin1234Author

Inspiring

I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. If you mean Windows 11 its set to Uk English, as I stated in my OP.

Again and once more just in case its been missed. It was fine yesterday. Today InDesign has updated and now its broken in InDesign.

leo.r

Community Expert

I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. If you mean Windows 11 its set to Uk English, as I stated in my OP.

Well what’s selected in your Dictionary preferences in InDesign under Hypenation and Spelling?

leo.r

Community Expert

What dictionary provider is selected in preferences?

G

garethirwin1234Author

Inspiring

Why would it change in preferences, I didn't change it? Not that it matters its set to ‘English: UK’

However its presenting me American spellings. Only started with todays update.

I anticipate the answer is to reset prefs yet again so I have to set out all my panels because after 20 years indesign still does not sync your panel prefs, there's another area Adobe could look at rather than AI!

leo.r

Community Expert

Why would it change in preferences, I didn't change it? Not that it matters its set to ‘English: UK’

I’m referring to dictionary provider:

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