MS Mail Spelling Error After Installing Office Application

 Last reviewed: September 16, 1996
Article ID: Q119816
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Office for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.2, 4.3
  • Microsoft Office Professional for Windows, version 4.0
  • Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a
  • Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0
  • Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows, version 4.0
  • Microsoft Mail versions 3.00, 3.00b, 3.20
  • Microsoft Project for Windows, version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you run the spelling checker in Microsoft Mail after you have installed one of the applications listed above, you receive the following error message: 

   An error occurred while loading the spelling library.

CAUSE

The Setup program for Microsoft Office and the individual Microsoft Office applications changes the Spelling setting in the [MS Proofing Tools] section of your WIN.INI file. When Setup uses a UNC (universal naming convention) path for the Spelling setting, the Microsoft Mail Windows Client can no longer find the spelling files, so the above error occurs. This happens because Microsoft Mail, unlike other Microsoft Office applications, does not support UNC network connections for the spelling checker.

The Setup program for one of these applications changes the Spelling setting from 

   Spelling 1033,0=C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF\MSSPEL2.DLL,
   C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF\MSSP2_EN.LEX
to 

   Spelling 1033,0=\\msx007\spell\MSSPEL2.DLL,
   \\msx007\spell\MSSP2_EN.LEX

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in version 3.0, 3.0b, and 3.2 of Microsoft Mail for Windows. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

WORKAROUNDS

Method 1: Use the following procedure to modify your WIN.INI and MSMAIL.INI 

          settings:

  • Add the following line to the [MS Proofing Tools] section of your WIN.INI file to provide a local path to the spelling libraries for Microsoft Mail: 

          Spelling(mail)1033,0=C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF\MSSPEL2.DLL,
      C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF\MSSP2_EN.LEX


        Note: Type the above setting as a single line. In the above
    setting, C:\WINDOWS\MSAPPS\PROOF is the directory where
    your shared proofing tools are located.

  • In your MSMAIL.INI file, modify the "Spelling=Spelling 1033,0" line to the following: 

          Spelling=Spelling(mail) 1033,0

    Method 2: Maintain a persistent connection to the server that contains the spelling libraries, and modify your WIN.INI file so it uses the persistent drive letter instead of the UNC connection. In the sample below, the drive letter E is used as a persistent connection: 

       Spelling 1033,0=E:\MSSPEL2.DLL,E:\MSSP2_EN.LEX
    For more information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 

       ARTICLE-ID: Q113194
   TITLE     : PC Win: Err Msg: An Error...Loading the Spelling Library

    • KBCategory: kbnetwork kberrmsg
    KBSubcategory:

    Additional reference words: 4.00 4.20 4.30 5.00 6.00 6.00a speller 3.00
    3.00b 3.20 winWord Excel officeinterop w4wproof w4woffice msmail checking
    macppt winppt spell




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    Last reviewed: September 16, 1996
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