InDesign CC - Spell check not working.

[Anonymous523]

I can purposefully type a misspelled word in InDesign and the Spell Check doesn't catch it. In fact it doesn't seem to work at all.

[filipes31572705]

David your advice was spot on. I was trying to get it sorted for a while, and then I used your tips, sorted, great stuff mate! thank you!

[Andy5E9A]

This happens regularly with updates and it takes me ages to find out how to get it back. Why cant they keep all our settings as they are on thier updates!  Very annoying.

[Sean5CF1]

2 things

the "correct answer" doesn't work. so not correct

and why do i purchase expensive software to be told to press "ESC" and "W" to make asimple spell check work?

Fix this problem

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Sean5CF1:

The original question—written in 2013—is vague. We don't know why spell check didn't work for the OP because no details were provided. We also don't know who marked it as correct—the OP or one of the moderators. If the OP marked it as correct, then it was correct for their situation. All of the possible answers are in the thread, however. You also chose not to provide details so we can't give you a single answer. I'm happy to summarize and you can pick the one that you need. 

1. The answer marked as correct referred to Dynamic Spelling. Is that what you are asking about? If not, move on to 2. Most of us work in Normal view, and both Check Spelling and Dynamic Spelling work in Normal view. If you would like to view your page in Preview Mode, you can choose it from the View menu, the Toolbox or tap the letter W.  If you are in Preview Mode, Dynamic Spelling doesn't work. Traditional spell check does work. If you want to use Dynamic Spelling, you will need to exit Preview. You can choose Normal view from the View menu, the Toolbox or press Esc (to make sure you have the Selection tool) then tap the letter. The shortcuts to move from one view to another are optional—you don't have to use them.
2. What language is assigned to the text? If no language is assigned, InDesign can't find misspelled words because it uses the assigned language dictionary. If you have a language assigned and spell check still isn't working, go to 3. 
3. Rebuild your preferences. Although Adobe's CC installer defaults to migrating preferences when you upgrade, this tends not to be a good idea because preferences become corrupt over time. When InDesign begins behaving erratically, it's time to rebuild them. Personally, I turn off the default to migrate preferences and spend 5 minutes setting them back up after an upgrade. It's not a big deal.

~Barb

[laura-808 · Accepted solution]

One thing to check, which I just discovered, is in Indesign Preferences/Spelling/Find there are tick boxes for what you'd like it to find and I found 'Misspelled Words' was unchecked. Here you can also Enable Dynamic Spelling. Pretty basic but seems to be what my problem was.