Spell checking in Word 97

I can edit the registry, but I don't have a "proofing tools" folder under "shared tools"!

How sure are you that this will work?

To Jack 1000--
I don't use any version of OE or Office 2000, so now do I still have a chance?

I've never edited the registry, but I backed it up and it seems pretty straightforward...

I have been searching Microsoft's site for a few days to no avail. I have a brand new Fujitsu laptop. I don't have Office 97 installed. I have Word 97 and Excel 97 stand alone installed.

My copy of Word 97 has the spell checking area grayed out. I saw somewhere on the internet that it doesn't work without that "fix". I'm just not crazy about going into the registry if it's a guess.

Are we talking about backing up "Regedt32.exe"? If so, why does it have a date of 8/4/2004 when I installed a new program today?

Thanks. I'm new to XP and had no idea how to do that!

I went into Regedit and made the changes (it was easy), but it still doesn't work.