Turn off Spell Checking permanently

Here's a method which I think seems to work system-wide and kills red underlining, overriding the way many apps annoyingly default back to "Check Spelling While Typing".

1. Open "Language & Text" in System Preferences

2. Under the "Text" tab, select Spelling... (which is probably set to "Automatic" by default), and scroll down to the bottom where it says Set Up...

3. in the box that comes up, uncheck every language. It seems to require that at least ONE remain checked, though, so I just left "Polski" (Polish?) checked. I don't think it matters at all which one you leave check as long as the English ones are unchecked? Anyway, I left Polish checked and this all is working great.

4. Click Done to apply the settings, and that main Text tab, leave Spelling set to "Automatic by language"

Once you do this, from what I can tell you can type anywhere in any app, even with Check Spelling While Typing set to on, and the red underlines won't appear. This is working for me, anyhow. I can type some gibberish like "lkjsfdkljhf" and it will not be underlined. If I go back in and check those language boxes again, type the same gibberish, it will come up underlined in the same app.

I have the same requirement. I use Stickies quite a lot during my daily work tasks, I'm a software developer. I combine english, spanish, and technical stuff, so the text gets full of absolutely no necesary spelling suggestions. It's annoying that unchecking the "spelling and grammar" feature won't make it to an application restart, nor that there isn't a system wide set up option.

Best,

Here is the CORRECT SOLUTION to permanently disable spell check in the STICKIES application...

First, make sure spell checking is disabled for the current note, using Edit » Spelling and Grammar » Check Spelling While Typing. Then, mark that note's settings as the default, using Note » Use as Default. (This will also set the note's color and font as the default.)

PetriSirk wrote:

I am no longer on 10.6.x. In 10.11.x the AppleSpell no longer seems to contain the spelling resources folder.

You might want to repost your question in the right forum for your OS as well.

OS X El Capitan

OSX Yosemite settings for spelling are in keyboard.

I unchecked English and the underlines went away.

It will be interesting to see how other programs behave now.

If I don't want to keep it I'll recheck English.

No offence (well, ok, I'm going to offend you), but you'd have to be utterly stupid to offer such an answer. What if you happen to write in two languages, for instance? Your native language and English, for instance? And so on, and so forth.

Would you mind if I'd offer you an equally random reply to that? Such as, you're stupid? I hope you won't. And I really hope you're not as idiotic as to think that "offence" is actually spelled wrongly 😀

I understand that Apple fans are totally uncritical in their admiration of everything Apple, but this yet another ridiculous limitation in the otherwise best OS. I know how to spell, I am actually quite skilled at using my native language, and I know how to bend and break the rules to achieve an impact. The spell checker of OSX, not so much.

Why the **** can't there just be an option to turn off the **** spell checker? I don't need it!

But there is a solution: http://www.chromescreen.com/disable-spell-checker-in-mac-osx-system-wide/ Essentially you rename the spell check program so OS-X can no longer find it. It worked really well for me (in Mavericks).

Verme005 wrote:

But there is a solution: http://www.chromescreen.com/disable-spell-checker-in-mac-osx-system-wide/ Essentially you rename the spell check program so OS-X can no longer find it. It worked really well for me (in Mavericks).

I took a look at the fine article @Verme005 mentioned, but unfortunately I am no longer on 10.6.x. In 10.11.x the AppleSpell no longer seems to contain the spelling resources folder.

~ ❯❯❯ stat /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/Resources

stat: /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/Resources: stat: No such file or directory

~ ❯❯❯ ls /System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/

Info.plist MacOS PkgInfo _CodeSignature version.plist

On another note I only would like to disable Finnish spelling as it is really not working.

I have considered writing an idiomatic spelling library called Finnish2 that for any word would say it is correct. This Finnish2 I would then select as my default and then I would no longer have any misspelled words. If selecting a spelling language is globally possible either.

Unfortunately I do not know how to write a programmatic spell checking library.

-Pete