Automattic / Automattic/harper

Clicking a suggestion in Harper's spelling popup doesn't replace the misspelled word in MS Word.

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bug desktop
Dominant language
Rust
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Describe the bug
In Microsoft Word with Harper Desktop clicking on a suggested correction in the spelling popup does not apply the suggestion. Clicking a suggestion (e.g., "Microsoft") closes the popup but leaves the misspelled word unchanged in the document — no text replacement happens.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

- Open a Word document and type a misspelled word (e.g., "microsfow")
- Wait for Harper to flag it with a red squiggly underline and open the spelling suggestion popup
- Click on one of the suggested corrections (e.g., "Microsoft")
- See that the popup closes but the misspelled word remains unchanged in the text — the suggestion was never inserted

Expected behavior
Clicking a suggestion should replace the misspelled word in the document with the selected suggestion, the same way Word's native spellcheck suggestions behave.

Screenshots

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c3b94fdf-aeeb-45a5-bdd2-e0bb8f6418ad

Platform
Desktop app

Additional context
Tested in MS Word Version 16.112.1 (macOS) + Harper Desktop 2.8.0 on MacOS 26.5.1 (Apple silicon). I did reinstall Harper and still produce the same result.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No source file or test is named in the report. Start by reproducing the issue in Microsoft Word with Harper Desktop 2.8.0, then trace the desktop spelling-popup suggestion click handling and its document-editing path. Done means selecting a suggestion replaces the misspelled word in Word, matching native spellcheck behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
macos, rust
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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