Getting spell checking to work in Outlook Express: a follow-up

When you try to use the spell checking feature of Outlook Express 4.x, you may get a message that says: "Spelling could not be initialized because initialization of the English dictionary failed. Please select a different language using the Spelling panel in Preferences." We have previously reported this on MacFixIt and noted some possible solutions. Scott Fannen alerted us to a Microsoft support document, that also covers this matter.

The document states that the spelling features are only available "when Microsoft Office 98 for Macintosh is installed on the same computer." If it is installed, the error message can occur if "there is an error in the Outlook Express preferences file that maps the path to the Proofing Tools folder incorrectly." The main solution suggested is to copy the Office 98 Proofing Tools folder (located in Office's Shared Applications folder) to the Outlook Express folder. Spell checking should now work. Alternate causes and solutions are also described.