Spell Check Options Are Grayed Out   

I use Office 2007 in a Windows Vista Home Premium environment on my Dell 
Inspiron 1501 Laptop.

Whenever the spell checker is selected (the ABC button is clicked), I can 
see the spell check options for a moment, but then they become grayed out.  I 
am unable to select a word from the list of suggestions that is presented.  
The Ignore All, Add to Dictionary, Options and Undo buttons are also grayed 
out, along with the list of suggested words.

I first noticed this in my e-mails and discovered that the same problem 
exists in Word, which is what I would expect since I use Word as my e-mail 
editor.

If I right click on the squiggly red line under a misspelled word, I am 
presented with the suggestions and can make the correction.  However, if I 
click the ABC button or neglect to notice a misspelled word upon sending the 
e-mail (I have it set to check before sending), I get the grayed out Spelling 
and Grammar screen as described.

This is very frustrating because I prefer to do it all at once, but mainly 
because it shouldn't be happening.  I have checked all of the options that 
are available and nothing stands out as a possible reason for this.  Also, 
all updates have been installed (except Vista SP1).  The problem doesn't 
exist on the desktop PC, which uses the same program with the same operating 
system.  Even the settings are the same, with one exception.  There's an 
option under on the Proofing page of the Options that says:

French Modes:  (then there's a box with options)

The language is set to English (U.S.), so I don't understand why this is 
there, nor how to get rid of it.  I have looked everywhere, except where I 
need to be to fix this, obviously.

If there is anyone out there who can tell me what's happening and how to fix 
it, I would be eternally grateful.

date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:03:01 -0700   author:   Debbie