Automattic / Automattic/harper
Clicking a suggestion in Harper's spelling popup doesn't replace the misspelled word in MS Word.
- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 15.4k
- Forks
- 627
- Avg merge
- 1d 15h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 102
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
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