Making Microsoft Word and Thunderbird spell check hotkeys the same?

Question

I use Microsoft Word a lot and I also use Thunderbird for my email. I can't keep track of two different sets of hot keys for spell check, is there a way to force Word and Thunderbird to use the same set? I don't care which set it is as lone as it's the same for both programs.

Answer 1

If you are geeky enough, you could install AutoHotkey. You can program AutoHotkey to recognize which window has focus, and substitute one hotkey for another.

Answer 2

Autohotkey!

#IfWinActive, ahk_class OpusApp
[Key 1]::[Key 2]
#IfWinActive

Would remap key 1 to key 2, only in word (2007? If you're using a different version, you should grab the class using the bundled Window Spy)

I don't actually know WHAT keys they are, but F1::F2 would map F1 to F2, only in word, for example.

Answer 3

You could make a word macro to spell check and then set the keyboard shotcut for that macro to whatever key Thunderbird uses.

To make macros, you need to enable the Developer tab on the ribbon: check on the Office button, then under Word Options, click the Show Developrer Tab in Ribbon checkbox (third from the top in the Popular tab of the dialog, which is the top tab and active by default).

Then, click on the Record Macro button and type a name for the macro, and maybe a description. Click the keyboard button to assign it a keyboard shortcut, and in the appropriate field type Thunderbird's shortcut. Then click OK and check the spelling of the document. Finally, hit Stop Recording.

To check, you can open up the Visual Basic editor (again on the Developer tab) and you should see something that looks like:

Sub CheckSpelling()
'
' CheckSpelling Macro
'
'
    If Options.CheckGrammarWithSpelling = True Then
        ActiveDocument.CheckGrammar
    Else
        ActiveDocument.CheckSpelling
    End If
End Sub

Please note: These instructions are for Microsoft Office Word 2007. You can do something similar in other versions, but you will need to follow different instructions.