Deactivate spell and grammatical checking for a document

[buhtz]

According to this settings dialog of MS Word 2016 it seems to me that the spell checking ON/OFF is stored in the document itself.

Do you have a hint where in the XML this could be and how I can use python-docx to manipulate that value?

Beside enabling and disabling for the document also interesting would be how to set the documents default language.

[buhtz]

I compared the XML.

In word/settings.xml between <w:settings> and </w:settings> there appear this two tags.

<w:hideSpellingErrors/>
<w:hideGrammaticalErrors/>

I think that is what we need. But I don't know how to get them into the document via python-docx.

About the language

I was able to find tags like <w:lang w:val="de-DE"/> for specific parts of the document (e.g. runs). But I couldn't find a document-global setting for the language. How does word know that the Document generated by python-docx is "English"? My Word an my system is German by the way. So Word does not use the systems default language/locale here. It must be somewhere in the document.

Maybe it is in the file word/settings.xml where I find this tag.

<w:themeFontLang w:val="en-US" w:eastAsia="ja-JP"/>

Now I'm out of ideas how to handle that. I may know the location of the tags but don't know how to manipulate them.

EDIT: Relevant docu.

• https://python-docx.readthedocs.io/en/latest/dev/analysis/features/settings.html
• https://python-docx.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api/settings.html

[buhtz]

I separated the language topic from this Issue into #1179.

Deactivating the spell-checking and grammar-checking on the level of the document seems to work with this.

    doc.settings.element.append(
        docx.oxml.OxmlElement('w:hideSpellingErrors'))
    doc.settings.element.append(
        docx.oxml.OxmlElement('w:hideGrammaticalErrors'))

Thats it. I leave this Issue open because I request for review. There maybe is a better solution?

[scanny]

I think this solution is just fine if it works. This governing section of the XML Schema is here:

python-docx/ref/xsd/wml.xsd

Lines 2890 to 2992 in 36cac78

	<xsd:complexType name="CT_Settings">
	<xsd:sequence>
	<xsd:element name="writeProtection" type="CT_WriteProtection" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="view" type="CT_View" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="zoom" type="CT_Zoom" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="removePersonalInformation" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="removeDateAndTime" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotDisplayPageBoundaries" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="displayBackgroundShape" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="printPostScriptOverText" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="printFractionalCharacterWidth" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="printFormsData" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="embedTrueTypeFonts" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="embedSystemFonts" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="saveSubsetFonts" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="saveFormsData" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="mirrorMargins" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="alignBordersAndEdges" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="bordersDoNotSurroundHeader" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="bordersDoNotSurroundFooter" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="gutterAtTop" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="hideSpellingErrors" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="hideGrammaticalErrors" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="activeWritingStyle" type="CT_WritingStyle" minOccurs="0"
	maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
	<xsd:element name="proofState" type="CT_Proof" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="formsDesign" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="attachedTemplate" type="CT_Rel" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="linkStyles" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="stylePaneFormatFilter" type="CT_StylePaneFilter" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="stylePaneSortMethod" type="CT_StyleSort" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="documentType" type="CT_DocType" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="mailMerge" type="CT_MailMerge" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="revisionView" type="CT_TrackChangesView" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="trackRevisions" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotTrackMoves" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotTrackFormatting" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="documentProtection" type="CT_DocProtect" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="autoFormatOverride" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="styleLockTheme" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="styleLockQFSet" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="defaultTabStop" type="CT_TwipsMeasure" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="autoHyphenation" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="consecutiveHyphenLimit" type="CT_DecimalNumber" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="hyphenationZone" type="CT_TwipsMeasure" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotHyphenateCaps" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="showEnvelope" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="summaryLength" type="CT_DecimalNumberOrPrecent" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="clickAndTypeStyle" type="CT_String" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="defaultTableStyle" type="CT_String" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="evenAndOddHeaders" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="bookFoldRevPrinting" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="bookFoldPrinting" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="bookFoldPrintingSheets" type="CT_DecimalNumber" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="drawingGridHorizontalSpacing" type="CT_TwipsMeasure" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="drawingGridVerticalSpacing" type="CT_TwipsMeasure" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="displayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery" type="CT_DecimalNumber" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="displayVerticalDrawingGridEvery" type="CT_DecimalNumber" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotUseMarginsForDrawingGridOrigin" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="drawingGridHorizontalOrigin" type="CT_TwipsMeasure" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="drawingGridVerticalOrigin" type="CT_TwipsMeasure" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotShadeFormData" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="noPunctuationKerning" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="characterSpacingControl" type="CT_CharacterSpacing" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="printTwoOnOne" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="strictFirstAndLastChars" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="noLineBreaksAfter" type="CT_Kinsoku" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="noLineBreaksBefore" type="CT_Kinsoku" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="savePreviewPicture" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotValidateAgainstSchema" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="saveInvalidXml" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="ignoreMixedContent" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="alwaysShowPlaceholderText" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotDemarcateInvalidXml" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="saveXmlDataOnly" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="useXSLTWhenSaving" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="saveThroughXslt" type="CT_SaveThroughXslt" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="showXMLTags" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="alwaysMergeEmptyNamespace" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="updateFields" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="hdrShapeDefaults" type="CT_ShapeDefaults" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="footnotePr" type="CT_FtnDocProps" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="endnotePr" type="CT_EdnDocProps" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="compat" type="CT_Compat" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="docVars" type="CT_DocVars" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="rsids" type="CT_DocRsids" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element ref="m:mathPr" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
	<xsd:element name="attachedSchema" type="CT_String" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
	<xsd:element name="themeFontLang" type="CT_Language" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
	<xsd:element name="clrSchemeMapping" type="CT_ColorSchemeMapping" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotIncludeSubdocsInStats" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotAutoCompressPictures" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="forceUpgrade" type="CT_Empty" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
	<xsd:element name="captions" type="CT_Captions" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
	<xsd:element name="readModeInkLockDown" type="CT_ReadingModeInkLockDown" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="smartTagType" type="CT_SmartTagType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
	<xsd:element ref="sl:schemaLibrary" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
	<xsd:element name="shapeDefaults" type="CT_ShapeDefaults" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="doNotEmbedSmartTags" type="CT_OnOff" minOccurs="0"/>
	<xsd:element name="decimalSymbol" type="CT_String" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
	<xsd:element name="listSeparator" type="CT_String" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
	</xsd:sequence>
	</xsd:complexType>

You'll notice it's an <xsd:sequence> which means the elements within are "required" to appear in the specified order (when they do appear). Sometimes Word seems to care and other times not. Maybe they optimized parsing for this order or something, I'm not sure.

Anyway, the fact that it works either means the order doesn't matter in this case or you luckily got it in the right order, perhaps because there weren't many settings there.

The ordering concern is why we have the _tag_seq specifier on oxml element objects like here:

python-docx/docx/oxml/settings.py

Lines 13 to 47 in 36cac78

	_tag_seq = (
	"w:writeProtection", "w:view", "w:zoom", "w:removePersonalInformation",
	"w:removeDateAndTime", "w:doNotDisplayPageBoundaries",
	"w:displayBackgroundShape", "w:printPostScriptOverText",
	"w:printFractionalCharacterWidth", "w:printFormsData", "w:embedTrueTypeFonts",
	"w:embedSystemFonts", "w:saveSubsetFonts", "w:saveFormsData", "w:mirrorMargins",
	"w:alignBordersAndEdges", "w:bordersDoNotSurroundHeader",
	"w:bordersDoNotSurroundFooter", "w:gutterAtTop", "w:hideSpellingErrors",
	"w:hideGrammaticalErrors", "w:activeWritingStyle", "w:proofState",
	"w:formsDesign", "w:attachedTemplate", "w:linkStyles",
	"w:stylePaneFormatFilter", "w:stylePaneSortMethod", "w:documentType",
	"w:mailMerge", "w:revisionView", "w:trackRevisions", "w:doNotTrackMoves",
	"w:doNotTrackFormatting", "w:documentProtection", "w:autoFormatOverride",
	"w:styleLockTheme", "w:styleLockQFSet", "w:defaultTabStop", "w:autoHyphenation",
	"w:consecutiveHyphenLimit", "w:hyphenationZone", "w:doNotHyphenateCaps",
	"w:showEnvelope", "w:summaryLength", "w:clickAndTypeStyle",
	"w:defaultTableStyle", "w:evenAndOddHeaders", "w:bookFoldRevPrinting",
	"w:bookFoldPrinting", "w:bookFoldPrintingSheets",
	"w:drawingGridHorizontalSpacing", "w:drawingGridVerticalSpacing",
	"w:displayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery", "w:displayVerticalDrawingGridEvery",
	"w:doNotUseMarginsForDrawingGridOrigin", "w:drawingGridHorizontalOrigin",
	"w:drawingGridVerticalOrigin", "w:doNotShadeFormData", "w:noPunctuationKerning",
	"w:characterSpacingControl", "w:printTwoOnOne", "w:strictFirstAndLastChars",
	"w:noLineBreaksAfter", "w:noLineBreaksBefore", "w:savePreviewPicture",
	"w:doNotValidateAgainstSchema", "w:saveInvalidXml", "w:ignoreMixedContent",
	"w:alwaysShowPlaceholderText", "w:doNotDemarcateInvalidXml",
	"w:saveXmlDataOnly", "w:useXSLTWhenSaving", "w:saveThroughXslt",
	"w:showXMLTags", "w:alwaysMergeEmptyNamespace", "w:updateFields",
	"w:hdrShapeDefaults", "w:footnotePr", "w:endnotePr", "w:compat", "w:docVars",
	"w:rsids", "m:mathPr", "w:attachedSchema", "w:themeFontLang",
	"w:clrSchemeMapping", "w:doNotIncludeSubdocsInStats",
	"w:doNotAutoCompressPictures", "w:forceUpgrade", "w:captions",
	"w:readModeInkLockDown", "w:smartTagType", "sl:schemaLibrary",
	"w:shapeDefaults", "w:doNotEmbedSmartTags", "w:decimalSymbol", "w:listSeparator"
	)

so we can compute the right position for inserted elements using this .insert_element_before() method defined somewhere I can't remember offhand.

python-docx/docx/oxml/xmlchemy.py

Lines 310 to 312 in 36cac78

	def _insert_child(obj, child):
	obj.insert_element_before(child, *self._successors)
	return child

I'll leave this as a feature request. All the infrastructure is present to add it pretty quickly.