Turn off Spell Checking permanently

I would like to turn off spell checking permanently. The red underlines disturbs me extremely much.

In Mail my setting for this seems to be accepted, but for other applications (eg Stickies and Text Editor), it turns back to default as soon as I restart the app. This is very annoying, and also very unlogical.

Is there a solution?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Sep 11, 2010 12:49 PM

31 replies

Apr 8, 2011 11:09 PM in response to CT

"Dude",

If if the setting would stick it wouldn't be an issue, but the problem is that the grammarpolice keep popping up, and it's persistence is intolerable. I've had to create a global keybind to toggle it, but I shouldn't have to. Nor should I have to resort to a hack like altering the contents of system level bundles to fix it.

What I don't get is why they removed the option to configure spell checking globally at all.
If they were unhappy with the way it was implemented, they ought to come up with a better solution rather than just removing the option.

Removal of functionality seems to have become the the way to fix design-issues lately, and the effect can be seen in an increasing number of applications.

dm10003

Level 1

9 points

Jan 21, 2015 2:58 PM in response to octothorpe

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.

Oct 3, 2015 8:18 AM in response to sig

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.

Oct 3, 2015 11:32 AM in response to CT

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 😀

jryi

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2016 2:46 PM in response to Andreas Carlsson

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!

Verme005

Level 1

0 points

Jan 30, 2016 2:23 PM in response to jryi

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).

Jan 31, 2016 12:21 AM in response to Verme005

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

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

123,194 points

Jan 31, 2016 7:36 AM in response to PetriSirk

PetriSirk wrote:

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

You should be able to do that by just going to system preferences/keyboard/text/spelling and going to setup at the bottom of the list and then unchecking the box for Finnish.

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

123,194 points

Jan 21, 2015 7:00 PM in response to dm10003

dm10003 wrote:

OSX Yosemite settings for spelling are in keyboard.

And for questions regarding that OS version, best post in its own forum

OS X Yosemite

(This one is for the OS X of 5 years ago)

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

123,194 points

Mar 21, 2015 10:22 AM in response to metalgod2015

You are responding to a 5 year old message which relates to the old OS X Snow Leopard. If you want to post something about Mavericks, you should go to

OS X Mavericks

sig

Level 8

35,872 points

Sep 11, 2010 2:00 PM in response to Andreas Carlsson

"The red underlines disturbs me extremely much."

I guess your spelling leaves a lot to be desired. 🙂

ljubinho

Level 1

0 points

Mar 8, 2012 3:13 PM in response to Andreas Carlsson

I think this should help you. Try it: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20091127084855131

Mar 21, 2015 9:31 AM in response to baltwo

There are global settings as youll see in this link http://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/turn-autocorrect-osx-mac-mail-skype-10-9-mav ericks/

xray

Level 1

0 points

Aug 9, 2015 2:47 PM in response to CT

I didn't realize that you could uncheck this by selecting it when it was checked. finally. thanks! 🙂

Level 7

24,341 points

Oct 3, 2015 8:27 AM in response to lethargos

Learn to spell.

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Turn off Spell Checking permanently