Alert warning - Can't contact spell checker

Does any one else have this problem when using Pages? The alert notice comes up on the screen repeatedly and then causes Pages to freeze. It is most frustrating. I have reloaded iWorks, downloaded all the update but nothing seems to change. Help any one please.....

Welcome to Apple Discussions
This was a frequent topic when iWork '08 was first released. It is related to third-party spell checkers such as SpellCatcher. If they haven't been updated to the newest versions, this error comes up, especially when opening Word documents.
If you have SpellCatcher or another spell checker installed, I would just try disabling it first & see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, do a Spotlight search for "spell" & see what comes up. Trash anything that looks like it belongs to a third-party spell checker & restart your Mac.

Similar Messages

  • Alert! Can't find spell checker

    After installing the latest security update, I am getting the "Spinning beach ball" in Mail.app and then the message:
    Alert! Can't find spell checker
    Mail.app is unable to find its built-in spell checker (AppleSpell.service).
    However, AppleSpell.service is where it should be, but it appears to be corrupt and won't start up to run in the background (as normal).
    A workaround is to select "never" in the preferences of "Check Spelling" in Mail.app's preferences/Composing.
    Any ideas how to fix this?
    Can I get a non-corrupt version of the AppleSpell.service and try overwriting mine?

    The "couldn't contact spell checker" error has been brought up in this forum many times (at least three times in the last two days). The error usually is the result of having remnants of older versions of third-party spell checkers, most commonly, Spell Catcher, but others have been identified. The solution is to remove those remnants and/or install the most recent version.

  • I keep getting this message when I try to type a mail in yahoo- "Alert. Couldn't contact Spell Checker." It slows everything down and I get the beach ball

    Alert! Couldn’t contact Spell Checker. I keep getting this message when I try to type a mail in yahoo. I get the beach ball and it slows down everything.This has been happening since yesterday. Please help if anyone else has had similar problems or has ideas to fix this. Thanks.

    Chris,
    I am having Spell Check probs too - it underlines, but that's all. I Googled and tried 5 different places for an answer - even 'jumped the pond'....but got no answers.
    i started a thread, "Spell Checker on the fritz!!", and got one good and reasonable answer...
    only it didn't work. It involved a .plist file, and once you toss one and do a re-start, it's supposed to re-build itself. But, no, SpCk still 'on the fritz'. I'm going to do one more re-start, but otherwise....
    May the first one on either thread that gets an answer that works - PLEASE let us all know.
    Keep your fingers crossed and hold your mouth right - lol. Nikki B.

  • "Can't contact Spell Checker".... in ANY program?

    I've been getting the message "Can't or Couldn't contact Spell Checker" in both Neo Office and Text Edit, or any non-browser program that uses word processing. It used to happen some in Safari, but the latest version seems to have fixed the issue w/that browser. Please help, if you can. I really need spell checking! I haven't been using Pages recently, but this seems to apply to Text Edit, so I'm assuming it would apply to iWork should I do the new upgrade. It seems to be an "internal" problem that is affecting multiple software programs.
    Thanks in advance for any help. Garth.

    thanks peggy, but...
    Been there. Done that. I did check the Crash Log files, and I can tell you that the filepath has something to do with the Frameworks folder---maybe a corrupted file in there that was brought on by one of the recent apple updates. I don't have iWork yet. Text Edit spell check doesn't work at all. Since I've had no 3rd party spell check apps installed (that I can see anywhere), then I'm assuming that this problem originated with one of the Tiger updates. It seems as though all of the posts I've read say Tiger is the OS particularly affected. I don't want to Archive and Install if it just ends up repeating the same Kernel flaw when I re-download the software updates.
    thanks anyway,
    GArth.

  • "Alert:  Couldn't contact spell checker" in text fields

    Whenever I put my cursor in a text field of any type (login, password, search, filling a form) in Safari, I get a spinning rainbow wheel and then a message that says Alert: Couldn't contact Spell Checker. If I click Okay, I have about two characters worth of typing again before I get the same alert. Making it very difficult to do much on Safari at the moment. This only started recently (within past two days). Any ideas? Can I just turn off the spell checker or auto-fill function to make the error go away?

    Thanks, Peggy, I tried this solution, but alas I'm still getting the same alert message.
    It is odd, though, that I have Spell Catcher still installed and running on another computer (same OS 10.5.1 and Pages 3) without this problem. Now Spell Catcher has been completely removed from this computer, but the problem persists. Spotlight finds no trace that I ever had CocoAspell (and I don't remember ever using it either).
    Any other notions.
    I did, by the way, restart after deleting the traces.

  • Pages Alert - "Couldn't contact Spell Checker." doesn't go away.

    When opening Pages I get an Alert - "Couldn’t contact Spell Checker" which won't go away. How can I get rid of it?

    Welcome to Apple Discussions
    I haven't seen anyone mention that error in quite awhile. This was a frequent topic when iWork '08 was first released. It is related to third-party spell checkers such as SpellCatcher. If they haven't been updated to the newest versions, this error comes up, especially when opening Word documents.
    If you have SpellCatcher or another spell checker installed, I would just try disabling it first & see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, do a Spotlight search for "spell" & see what comes up. Trash anything that looks like it belongs to a third-party spell checker & restart your Mac.

  • Alert: "Couldn't contact Spell Checker."

    When I tried to run a spelling check of a two-page document, I got the above alert. I can't choose spelling or grammar check in the prefs or drop-down Edit menu without getting that alert box every few seconds. Why can't it contact "Spell Checker?"

    This was a frequent topic when iWork '08 was first released. It is related to third-party spell checkers such as Spell Catcher. If they haven't been updated to the newest versions, this error comes up, especially when opening Word documents.
    If you have Spell Catcher or another spell checker installed, I would just try disabling it first & see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, do a Spotlight search for "spell" & see what comes up. Trash anything that looks like it belongs to a third-party spell checker & restart your Mac.
    You may not have installed a third-party spell checker intentionally, but some other program may have.

  • Pages Alert "Couldn't contact Spell Checker."

    Out of the clear blue, after much use, Pages 3.0.2 Gives me an Alert "Couldn't contact Spell Checker" and the Spell checker does not work anymore in pages. However, the spell checker woks in all other programs I use. How do I get the spell checker back in pages?
    I've cleaned caches and repaired permissions and no change. English is the language being used.
    Thanks

    This was a frequent topic when iWork '08 was first released. It is related to third-party spell checkers such as SpellCatcher. If they haven't been updated to the newest versions, this error comes up, especially when opening Word documents. If you have SpellCatcher or another spell checker installed, I would just try disabling it first & see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, do a Spotlight search for "spell" & see what comes up. Trash anything that looks like it belongs to a third-party spell checker & restart your Mac.
    But I don't think that's the problem you're experiencing. I've seen several users here with the problem of the spell checker not working in Pages. All of them were fixed by deleting the com.apple.iwork.pages.plist found in HD > Users > (your account) > Library > Preferences & then restarting Pages.

  • Error: Could not contact spell checker

    Whenever I open Keynote or any iWork application, or even text edit for that matter, I get the following error: "Could not contact spell checker."
    I have looked around on other forums and I'm not the only one to have had this problem, but no working solution has been provided, as far as I can tell.
    I have not installed any third-party spellcheck software such as Spell Catcher or CocoSpell. I checked my international settings anyways, and there is no evidence that such programs exist on this computer. Nor do they show up in spotlight. There is no "services" directory in my library.
    I tried replacing the "en" file under the "spelling" directory with one from a leopard machine, but no use. (So I put the old one back.)
    I can't seem to figure this out. It is a system-wide error that happens with every application that uses spell checker.
    Any advice would be really appreciated!

    Try making a new user account and see if you are still having problems with spell checker with that user account. You may also want to try posting in the [MacOS 10.4|http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=177] area as it sounds to me like it is more of a system problem then Keynote specific.

  • How can I enable spell checking for a text box that is just one line, e.g. subject in e-mail?

    In a prior version of Firefox I found a website somewhere that told me what to do to enable spell checking for text boxes that are just one line. I got used to being able to send an e-mail with a Subject Line that didn't have a misspelling. Now it doesn't work. Please tell me how I can enable that again. I am on a Mac using Firefox 6.0.2. Thanks!

    See:
    *http://kb.mozillazine.org/Spell_checking
    *http://kb.mozillazine.org/layout.spellcheckDefault
    You can set the pref <b>layout.spellcheckDefault</b> to <i>2</i> on the <b>about:config</b> page.
    To open the <i>about:config</i> page, type <b>about:config</b> in the location (address) bar and press the "<i>Enter</i>" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.<br />
    If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.<br />
    *Use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a preference more easily.
    *Preferences that have been modified show as bold (user set).
    *Preferences can be reset to the default or changed via the right-click context menu.

  • I can't get spell check to work

    The instructions I've read continually talk about menu options I don't see. Then I found a link to download a dictionary and followed that hoping that might work, and when I tried to install that it said it wasn't compatible with 33.If I can't get Firefox to spellcheck I'm gooing to erase it immediately. I can't beleive I've already spent so much time on something so incidental, but unlivable without, in my world.

    ''kbrosnan [[#answer-646342|said]]''
    <blockquote>
    Spell check does not exist on Firefox for Android.
    Most keyboards provide this functionality by suggesting words as you type. The value of checking the spelling of correctly typed words is low. In addition the dictionaries for all the languages Firefox supports would result in a larger app to download by several megabytes.
    </blockquote>
    Sorry but I don't believe this is a valid answer. These days many small portable devices use Android and many are using tablets with physical Bluetooth keyboards. The functionality of predictive text that is provided with virtual keyboards is fine but that option is not available with physical keyboards. Usually there is already a dictionary installed in the system and that should be available but if it is not most users of Firefox would only want a dictionary in one or a limited number of languages and, just as in Firefox for other operating systems, it would only be necessary to download the languages needed.

  • How can i select spell-check in google chrome

    How can i set up spell-check in my google chrome?

    I do not know whether this will work or not.
    Chrome is not an Apple product.
    Highlight the text field. Right click it then Spelling and Grammer > "As You Type"

  • "Couldn't Contact Spell Checker"

    What does this error mean? Why won't it go away! I do not want to change the language region every time I open a word document from the Internet.. This is a problem that needs a permanent fix... I am a few days shy of buying MS Office 08 because of this issue. I need a operable word document program.

    This was a frequent topic when iWork '08 was first released. It is related to third-party spell checkers such as SpellCatcher. If they haven't been updated to the newest versions, this error comes up, especially when opening Word documents.
    If you have SpellCatcher or another spell checker installed, I would just try disabling it first & see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, do a Spotlight search for "spell" & see what comes up. Trash anything that looks like it belongs to a third-party spell checker & restart your Mac.

  • I can't save spell check

    How do I save auto-spell check as I work on a document on Pages '09?
    I have been attempting to save automated spell check on Pages '09.
    I go to Inspector and click to English from None, but when I move the cursor to the document, it reverts to None.

    The language setting in the More pane of the Text Inspector, like all Inspector settings, applies only to the Document in which it is set.
    If Save that document as a Template, any new document made using that Template will open with the same language setting.
    Regards,
    Barry

  • Getting following error: Alert - Couldn't contact Spell Checker

    This is a document from the new PC version of Office (.docx). But I can see everything just fine, and the formatting seems to be intact. The only thing is that there are a load of spelling errors, but none of them are showing up.
    I tried saving the file out as a Pages file type and it still won't check the spelling and gives the same error.
    I also tried copy and pasting the .docx content into a new Pages document and seeing if that worked. No dice.
    Deliberately typing out errors in a new Pages document show up just fine, so that doesn't appear to be the issue.
    Anyone got an idea of what might be going on, or have experienced this issue?
    TIA!

    My guess is that for the imported text, Language is set to none.
    Try to select all then go to Text Inspector, tab "More", set language to the required one.
    Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 11 juillet 2008 19:26:15)

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