Error when switching from Hunspell to MS Word Spell Checker in Trados Studio: "Unable to select spell checker extension. Unable to locate if Microsoft Word is installed on this machine."

Article Number:000019644 | Last Updated:1/9/2024 11:45 PM

Scope/Environment

Trados Studio

Question

When trying to switch to the MS Word Spell Checker under File > Options > Editor > Spelling in Trados Studio, the users are getting the error:

Unable to select spell checker extension. Unable to locate if Microsoft Word is installed on this machine.

and an additional message from Microsoft Office saying that Microsoft Office has identified a potential security concern.

User-added image

This happens only if the user has macros in the Normal.dotm file (default Microsoft Word document template located here: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Normal.dotm).

Answer

Workaround 1:

Open MS Word and go to Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Macro Settings
Change the option "Disable all macros with notification" to the new setting "Disable all macros except digitally signed macros."

Workaround 2:

Close Trados Studio, close Microsoft Outlook
Open Normal.dotm file in Microsoft Word using Open > Browse and going to: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
Make a backup of the file Normal.dotm
Have all macros removed from ribbon Views > Macros dialog
Close MS Word to save the document template

Workaround 3:

Close all Winword.exe processes from Task Manager > Details
In Trados Studio attempt to set up Microsoft Word Spell Checker again, in Options > Spelling
In case of the macro-related error still appears, repeat the two steps above until it has finally worked.
Clean up temporary files from C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word
Sign out and back into Windows/restart the machine

An additional step that can be made is to add this location: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word as per the contents of this article: How to add a specific location to the Trust Center

Reference

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