After reading your post I decided to check my Word '97 program to see if I would get similar problems.

If you don't like the paper clip, you should be able to change it to something like Einstein, Shakespear, or a really cool bouncing red ball! It still is annoying. A year ago in typing class while we were studying the proper way of typing business letters, right after I typed "Dear Sir/Madam:" it popped up with a message that said "It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help with that?" Or something like that anyways. I've learned to ignore it since then.

About the language problem, I don't know about your software but mine comes with different spelling dictionaries for most if not all world languages including the different English dialects. Go to Tools, then Language, then Set Language for your particular language. Things should automatically change.

You CAN send me a message here. Just type my user name in "send private."