It sounds as if you don't have Word or Office installed. According to OE's
Help: "Outlook Express uses the spelling checker provided with the following
Microsoft Office programs: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft
PowerPoint. If you do not have one of these programs installed, the Spelling
command is not available."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
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"Larry" wrote in message
...
I have XP Home and use Outlook Express for my email. the
ABC Spell feature has never worked since I got this
machine 2 years ago from a local comapany no longer
around. I know I should have addressed immediately but
didn't
I rec the following error message
"An erroe has occured while spelling was being checked."
Any suggestions or fixes for this problem?
Thanks, Larry