Hello everyone,

I have been able to reproduce this issue if I have manually added an (otherwise empty) custom macro in the default document template of Microsoft Word (Normal.dotm file). Spell checking communication relies on an empty document that is created by default by Word using that template in a temporary folder, leading to the issue in certain cases, possibly linked to changes recently done by Microsoft (maybe related to the group policy default changes that somebody also has pointed to).

To cause the issue I simply recorded a macro in there (into Normal.dotm) and started Trados Studio, then attempted to set it to use Word as spell checker.

To resolve the problem, I had to:

- close Trados Studio, close Outlook
- open Normal.dotm file in Word using Open / Browse and going to: C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
- have all macros removed from ribbon Views / Macros dialog
- close Word to save the document template

However, for me this didn't immediately solve the issue; I also had to:

- close all Winword.exe processes from Task Manager / Details
- in Trados Studio attempt to set up Word spell checker again, in Options dialog / Spelling
- in case of the macro-related error still appearing, repeat the two steps above and it has finally worked.

This can help or not (still after removing the macros from Normal.dotm, though):

- clean up temporary files from C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word
- sign out and back in to Windows/restart machine
- have Word app started (and Outlook too/not) before opening Trados Studio to set up the Word spell checking again.

I don't know if this fix will apply in your cases (i.e. do you have macros in the default Word document template?), but I hope it helps!

Sorin Dolha

Hello everyone,

I have been able to reproduce this issue if I have manually added an (otherwise empty) custom macro in the default document template of Microsoft Word (Normal.dotm file). Spell checking communication relies on an empty document that is created by default by Word using that template in a temporary folder, leading to the issue in certain cases, possibly linked to changes recently done by Microsoft (maybe related to the group policy default changes that somebody also has pointed to).

To cause the issue I simply recorded a macro in there (into Normal.dotm) and started Trados Studio, then attempted to set it to use Word as spell checker.

To resolve the problem, I had to:

- close Trados Studio, close Outlook
- open Normal.dotm file in Word using Open / Browse and going to: C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
- have all macros removed from ribbon Views / Macros dialog
- close Word to save the document template

However, for me this didn't immediately solve the issue; I also had to:

- close all Winword.exe processes from Task Manager / Details
- in Trados Studio attempt to set up Word spell checker again, in Options dialog / Spelling
- in case of the macro-related error still appearing, repeat the two steps above and it has finally worked.

This can help or not (still after removing the macros from Normal.dotm, though):

- clean up temporary files from C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word
- sign out and back in to Windows/restart machine
- have Word app started (and Outlook too/not) before opening Trados Studio to set up the Word spell checking again.

I don't know if this fix will apply in your cases (i.e. do you have macros in the default Word document template?), but I hope it helps!

Sorin Dolha

Sorin Dolha 

Wow, thanks. That was complicated.

However, I need my macro(s) in the normal.dotm—so I'm afraid I'll better stick to Hunspell until there is another solution.

Good job, but I cannot remove the macros from normal.dotm, they are there for a good reason...

Concur. Word makes it very difficult to use macros from anywhere else than Normal.dotm, mainly because the keyboard shortcuts saved in another macro enable template will not transfer to a new document not based on the template when the macro itself is transfered. Neither will keeping the other template open allow usage of they keyboard shortcuts in the new document if it's not based on Normal.dotm to receive the shortcuts upon opening.

Thanks a bunch, Sorin Dolha! This works!
I've had word from SDL Support: their development team is working on an alternative solution.
Hopefully we'll be able to keep our macros AND use MS Word Spell Checker in the future. ;-)

Thanks for all of your contributions!

I forgot to say there, but you should surely backup your original Normal.dotm file before removing any macros, just in case you might need those at some point later. :-)

Anyway, if you do need to have macros in Normal.dotm and want to use Word for spell checking in Trados Studio, you can try the following:

- in Trados Studio / Options / Spelling, attempt to select Word as spell checker; it will start to wait for some communication with Word to see if it works;

- in background (because the instantiated Word is a hidden window, it won't become focused, i.e. may be shown behind other windows!), Word will trigger a modal dialog about macros, allowing you to disable them

- use Alt+Tab key to navigate between windows until you reach the macros dialog and close it;

- the dialog may appear twice, close it again;

- if you do these steps fast enough Trados Studio's waiting for communication with Word will not timeout, and eventually communication will be possible (even if in background Normal.dotm will be loaded without macros); i.e. you'll eventually see Word selected in the combo box in Options!

- now you can use the Editor normally, you can see that Word spell checking works - you can validate by adding a wrong word into the custom dictionary and then check it from Word app;

Note: unfortunately, this setting will only last until the next time you start Trados Studio; during startup, it will "see" that Word communication doesn't work well (the macros dialog appears again), but apparently there is no timeout for the wait there, so even if you are fast to close the dialog, the setting will be set back to HunSpell. But you can follow the original steps again then too; not very nice workaround, but may be good enough in case of emergency.

I hope this helps as well.

Sorin Dolha

Thanks Sorin, I tried your Alt+Tab hack and, as unprofessional as it sounded at first, it actually worked! :) Yes, I have to do that again and again after starting Trados but it's much less of a hassle than having to work with Hunspell (which is a poor option for Hungarian).

Thanks a lot!