You receive the "Word cannot find the spelling file Mssp3XX.dll or Mssp232.dll" error message when you check the spelling and grammar of your Word 2002 document

When you try to check the spelling and grammar of your Word document, you may receive one of the following error messages: where XX represents a two-letter language identifier. For example, the English two-letter language identifier is EN, so the English spelling file name would be Mssp3EN.dll.

This behavior occurs in the following situation:

• Text in your document is formatted with a language that does not have a spelling dictionary installed.
• Do not check spelling or grammar is not selected in the Language dialog box. To view this setting, point to Language on the Tools menu, and then click Set Language.

To work around this issue, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Install the Language Proofing Tools

Method 2: Set a Default Language Dictionary

To resolve this issue, set English (US) (or another language with a spelling dictionary) as the default dictionary. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the text to be checked for spelling errors.
2. On the Tools menu, point to Language, and then click Set Language.
3. In the Mark selected text as box, select the language that you want (the language that you select must have a spelling dictionary installed, which is indicated by a blue checkmark), and click Default to set the selected language as the default language.
4. Click OK.

Method 3: Select the "Do Not Check Spelling or Grammar" Option

To work around this problem, select Do not check spelling or grammar in the Language dialog box for text in the languages that do not have a spelling dictionary. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Microsoft Word, and then open the document that you want.
2. Select the text that you want to format change the Language options.
3. On the Tools menu, point to Language, and then click Set Language.
   
   Notice that the Language dialog box appears.
4. In the Mark selected text as list, click to select the language that you want.
5. Click to select Do not check spelling or grammar, and then click OK.

Method 4:

If you have tried the previous methods, but are still experiencing the issue, copy and paste the text from the Word document into Notepad. Then, copy and paste the text back into Word. To do this, follow these steps.

Note Use this method if you are experiencing this issue with only one document. If you copy and paste the text into Notepad, all the formatting is lost. You will have to re-format the text after you copy the text back to Word.

1. Start Microsoft Word.
2. Open the document that is having the issue.
3. Click Edit, and then click Select all.
4. Click Edit, and then click Copy.
5. Start Notepad.
6. In Notepad, click Edit , and then click Paste.
7. Click Edit, and then click Select all.
8. Click Edit, and then click Copy.
9. Switch to Word.
10. In Word, click Edit, and then click Paste.
11. Click Tools, and then click Spelling and grammar.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: