Is “MISSING PROOFING TOOLS” appearing in Microsoft Word when you have opened the app to edit it? This message appears when Word can’t detect the proofing tools in Word. Generally, the corruption in the Word data file causes this problem. So, if you are wondering how to fix this problem, you have just landed in the correct place.
Fix 1 – Download the tools
Directly download the specified proofing tools in Word from the error prompt.
1. Exit Word, if you have already opened it.
2. Now, open Word again.
3. Wait till it loads up on your computer. When Word completely loads up, click “Download” that appears on the ribbon.
This will download the tools from the Office server in the background and install them automatically.
Check if this solves the problem.
Fix 2 – Change the Proofing Language
Try changing the proofing language to something different in Word.
1. At first, open File Explorer on your computer and reach the location of the Word file.
2. Double-tap to open the file in Word.
3. When the Word loads up, select the full document with your mouse or by pressing the Ctrl+A keys together.
4. Then, visit the “Review” tab in Word and click “Language” from the menu bar.
5. In the drop-down menu bar, tap “Language” and tap “Set Proofing Language…” from the drop-down option.
6. Now, simply select the language you want from the drop-down menu and tap “Set as the Default” to set the language as the default language.
7. A confirmation prompt may appear. Tap “Yes” to set the language to the default setting.
8. Coming back to the Language pane, tap “OK” to save the changes.
Now, test whether this works out for you.
Fix 3 – Download & install Proofing Tools
If you are using Office 2016, you can download and use the consequent proofing tools as well.
Step 1 – Check whether 32-bit or 64-bit
You should check which version of Office you are using. If you already know, skip these steps and go ahead to Step 2.
1. Open Word.
2. Then, click “File” and then tap “Account“.
3. All the information about the Word will appear on the right-hand side.
4. Tap “About Word” to know which version you are using.
5. Here, notice which version of the application you are using.
In our case, it is a 32-bit one.
Step 2 – Download & install Proofing tools
Now, you can easily download and install the proofing tools in Word.
1. Go to the Microsoft Office Proofing Tools 2016.
2. Then, tap “Download“.
3. Now, do these steps according to which version of Office you have.
If you are using a 32-bit Office, tick the “proofingtools2016_en-us-x86.exe“.
For 64-bit Office users, check the “proofingtools2016_en-us-x64.exe“.
4. Then, tap “Next” to proceed.
Now, wait for the downloading process to be complete.
5. Open File Explorer and reach the download location.
6. Then, double-tap the “proofingtools2016_en-us-x86” to access it.
Now, just follow the on-screen instructions and complete the installation of the proofing tools.
After this, open Word and you won’t get the MISSING PROOFING TOOLSÂ error banner again.
Fix 4 – Disable the Word add-ins
You can disable all the add-ins in Word and the test.
1. Launch the Word application.
2. Then, click on “File” and tap “Options” to view the Word options.
3. Next, go to the “Add-ins” on the left-hand pane.
4. Then, go to the bottom of the screen and choose the “COM Add-ins” from the drop-down and choose “Go…“.
5. Now, just check all the add-ins. Then, click “Remove” to disable the add-ins.
6. Finally, tap “OK” to save this change.
After this, close the Word app. Open the document in Word again and test it out.
Fix 5 – Run the Repair tool
Run the repair tool to fix the Office automatically.
1. At first, press the Windows key and the R key at once.
2. Then, input this in the Run box and click “OK“.
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3. Reaching the Programs & Features page, look for the Office app in the list of apps.
4. Then, right-tap the Office app and tap “Change“.
5. Next, select the “Quick Repair” option first.
6. Then, click “Repair” to repair the app.
Allow a few minutes so that Office can fix the program automatically.
7. If that doesn’t work, select “Online Repair” to perform an online repair.
This way, Office should fix the problem and re-download all the missing files (including the proofing tools as well).
This should help you resolve the problem.