Application.Checkspelling always returns false

I'd like to use the Excel Application.CheckSpelling method in a userfunction, but it seems not to work for some reason.

If I use it in a macro, say one activated when the sheet content changes, it works fine, correctly spelled words return TRUE and incorrectly spelled words return FALSE.

However, when I use it in a userfunction it always return FALSE.

According to the help, there seems to be no reason why this should be the case when it is used in this way. Anybody have any ideas what the problem is and if there might be a fix?

Here are examples of the codes that do and do not work:

This works - it inserts TRUE or FALSE into the cell to the right of a changed cell depending on whether the change cell contains a correctly spelled word:

Code:

---

  Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal target As Excel.Range)
  If target.Text <> "" And target.Text <> "FALSE" And target.Text <> "TRUE" Then
    target.Offset(0, 1) = Application.CheckSpelling(target.Text)
  End If
  End Sub

---

This does not work:

Code:

---

  Public Function chkspell(ByVal target As Range) As Boolean
  chkspell = Application.CheckSpelling(target.Text)
  End Function

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I am running on XP and have tried the above in Excel in both Office 2003 and Office 97 with the same problem in both cases.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Tony