spellcheck a read only document

[The Rock]

Was sent some word files that are read only and i want to spellcheck them but can't?

How do i enable myself to spell check these documents? I'm using word 2003

[patio]

Cant

[BC_Programmer]

If the files themselves are read-only, you can do a Save As to a new file (or remove the read-only attribute); if the document is protected, I don't know if you can.

Here's a rather involved method to get around spellcheck being disabled in protected documents:

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/macrosvba/SpellcheckProtectDoc.htm

[Salmon Trout]

OCR software is pretty good these days, so maybe OCR a screen grab, convert to doc and spell check that?

[soybean]

Was sent some word files that are read only and i want to spellcheck them but can't?

How do i enable myself to spell check these documents? I'm using word 2003

Obviously, you are not the creator of the documents and the creator may have had a reason for making them read-only.  So, why do you want to spellcheck them?

[The Rock]

I don't think whoever sent them knew they were read only. Anyway it doesn't mattter i just wanted to know how to enable the spell check.

Thanks anyway.

[patio]

Obviously, you are not the creator of the documents and the creator may have had a reason for making them read-only.  So, why do you want to spellcheck them?

An excellent point....why ? ?

[BC_Programmer]

An excellent point....why ? ?

One of the most common reasons to spell check a document is to check the spelling of said document. Just because the person "protected" the document doesn't mean they are infallible.

Actually I think the entire concept of protecting word documents, excel worksheets, and so forth is completely absurd. The only reasonably common use case for such a feature is in corporations to prevent people from editing the documents, and that can be facilitated by simply changing the access control lists of the document file, rather then using the ridiculous "roll your own" implementation that word or excel provide. There are some very specific use cases where it might be useful (such as "applications" written in excel using macros and so forth) but people seem to think "oh, I better protect this document" from what? people changing it Why? Why shouldn't people be able to change it? Why send somebody a document they cannot change? What is the point? the person sending it  has a copy, so unless they delete your copy when they send the file it's pointless for them to protect the document before sending it on.

[rthompson80819]

There are some legal documents that should never be changed, even if there are typos.

[BC_Programmer]

There are some legal documents that should never be changed, even if there are typos.

That's why they get printed out.

[rthompson80819]

That's why they get printed out.

Not always.  Recently I received a PDF legal document for a friend who had a problem receiving it. I printed it out, she signed it and had to fax it back to the law firm so they had her signature on file.

[alexK]

There may be a very good reason for not being able to alter the document.
Consider this:
If the document is part if a Writ, and the addressee is asked to sign and return it by faxing or other, then it must be in UNALTERED condition. Correcting, by even changing a misspelled Mailing Address will in fact INVALIDATE the document.

[Salmon Trout]

A friend who worked for a UK legal company told me that quite far into the 2000s they used to use a dailywheel printer with multipart stationery (multiple layers with a top page and carbonless copies) because of a legal requirement that valid copies of certain documents had to be produced at the same time as the original. They changed to dot matrix eventually.

[rthompson80819]

they used to use a dailywheel printer

A dailywheel printer?  Did it just print once a day?  Or do you mean daisywheel.

[alexK]

Keep an eye on those printers!!
 
Not to change the subject but....

In my days as Unit Record Operator, the 1403 Chain Printer was the best on the market.
Cheques were produced on that printer. Believe it or not, but one day one of the hammers got stuck, and a hundred or so cheques were produced with incorrect money in the Amount field. In stead of $999.99 it printed as $9 9.99