Repeatable:
- Install Outlook 2010 without the other major pieces of Office 2010 on a newly built machine.
- Open Outlook (and establish and account) and go to File -> Options -> Mail -> Spelling and Autocorrect... and note that the "Check spelling as you type" option is both checked and available (not greyed out).
- Close the options and *immediately* open it again and note that the preference is still checked but the whole section "When correcting spelling in Outlook" is greyed out.
- Close the options, create a new message, and notice that there is no spellchecking occurring while you type.
- Close Outlook.
- Go to %programfiles%\Microsoft Office\Office14.
- Create a new, empty (0 kb) file and name it "winword.exe".
- Open Outlook, create a new email and notice that spellchecking is active again. The option is now repeatedly available.
This is a bug because the spellchecking ability is not dependent on Word, only dependant on a file with the same name existing. You can delete the "winword.exe" file and spellchecking-while-you-type again doesn't function.
It's shameful that MVPs are claiming that Outlook needs Word to do spellchecking.