For those who'd like to have the Traditional Spelling and Grammar Checking Dialog back in Word 365 . . .

britechguy

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Lately, on a couple of the venues I haunt that focus on users who are blind and visually-impaired, there has been a clear displeasure expressed with the Editor feature in Word 365 and a desire for getting the old Spelling and Grammar check dialog back. So I went on an internet search expedition and found a way that works, and just published it on one of those groups, but will put it here, too, in case anyone might want/need it:
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Replacing your default Normal.dotm file with a custom version with a macro for the classic Spelling & Grammar Check

Notes:

  • You must have the Show Hidden Files and Folders option turned on in Folder Options of Control Panel before you can see your AppData folder.
  • The location for Normal.dotm is in the %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Templates folder. The %APPDATA% environment variable can be used in Command Prompt or PowerShell. When you’re trying to navigate to it in File Explorer, AppData is shown as one of the folders under your home folder, which is C:\Users\{the 5 characters that go with your Windows Acct}
  • You can choose to name your current Normal.dotm something like OldNormal.dotm if you wish to keep it if you’ve made customizations to it.
  • If you ever delete Normal.dotm, Word will automatically re-create it, but as it was when Word was installed. Any tweaks you had made will be gone and you’ll have to redo them.

Steps:
  • If you want to use the Normal.dotm I’ve created that has a macro to invoke the classic spell-checker, then download it by clicking the hyperlink to get it.
  • Put that replacement file in the previously noted %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Templates folder.
  • Create a new blank document. This will use the Normal.dotm you just put in as the replacement and that contains the macro.
  • In MS-Word, open the Customize Quick Access option using ALT, Up Arrow. If you hear either the Document name or place holder, then use left arrow, if you hear Autosave On, then then right arrow until you hear, “Customize Quick Access Toolbar, Collapsed.” Expand it.
  • Hit Up Arrow 3 times to navigate to the More Commands menu item, and activate it.
  • Hit TAB once, and you’ll be on the Choose commands from dropdown. Expand it and choose Macros from the list.
  • Hit Tab and you will be in the Macro list, and on an item for Separator. Hit down arrow once and you will be on the macro for using the traditional spell checker, which should be “List Item 2 of 2” since the separator is item 1. NOTE: NVDA does not announce any name for this. I have no idea what JAWS or any other screen reader may or may not say here. The issue has been reported to NVAccess.
  • Navigate to the Add button, and activate it. This will cause a button for triggering that macro to be added to your Quick Access Toolbar. If you have not added, or removed, anything from the Quick Access Toolbar in the past, it should have the shortcut ALT + 5. Oddly enough, the button will announce the fully qualified Macro name, which ends with UseTraditionalSpellCheck dialog.

If you were ever to add or remove items from the Quick Access Toolbar, it is possible that your ALT + Number shortcuts for the things on it will change, so bear this in mind.

You can activate the shortcut with ALT + Number, which will probably be 5.
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I can take no credit for writing the macro itself. The the one I used was written by Charles Kenyon back in 2018. I found it in this Cybertext Consulting Newsletter and the direct link there to the source page no longer works.

There are also various posts out there that state that this method has, on occasion, broken under Word 365 but has always begun to work again after Microsoft fixes whatever it was that made it break in the first place.
 
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