Disable Spell Check, Thesaurus, Dictionary (Microsoft Word 2007)

Question

How do I disable all 'proofreading' features in Microsoft Word 2007 for all users on a local machine?

Answer 1

I think the easiest way to

• completely remove the features and
• not allow users to just "turn them back on"

is not to install any of the related components in the first place. You can always remove components from an Office installation. Any my guess is that there are several related to spell checking (such as dictionaries and thesauri) that you can just disable.

_{I just can't prove it right now as I'm not on a Windows machine. Maybe just give it a try.}

Answer 2

Download 2007 Office system (SP2) Administrative Template files: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=73d955c0-da87-4bc2-bbf6-260e700519a8#SystemRequirements

1. Start>run>mmc
2. File>Add/Remove Snap-ins…
3. Add..
4. Select Group Policy Object
5. Add
6. Finish
7. Ok

Now you should see a small window inside of MMC called "Console Root" and a folder that also says Console Root. Expand this folder and navigate to Local Computer Policy\User Configuration\Administrative Templates. Go to the Actions menu at the top and click Actions>Add/Remove Templates. Find the ADM folder that you downloaded from Microsoft and add word12.adm (ADM/en-us/word12.adm).

Go to Local Computer Policy\User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office Word 2007\Disable Items in User Interface\Custom Select Disable Commands and double click, then check the enabled radio box. Click Show and then add the following numbers:

2566 
15780 
9056 
6111 
12842 
14453 
2815 
3492 
3492 
4025 
3997 
3958 
790 
2 
3217 
2349 
329 
3219 
2469 
2788 
11323 
7343 
7387 

Then go to the Disable shortcut keys and add:

118 
254 
79,12 
118,16 
118,4 

Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179143.aspx