how to turn off spell-check in all office programs?

Anytime i open an office (2000) program and start a new spreadsheet,
document, template, or email the spell-check dialogue box comes up and wont
go away after i cancel. when i do say "ignore all" it sort of loops back
again and does the same thing. I have checked the spell-check features in
the options but none of that works. So, instead of editing a new document or
email the dialogue box is always present and persistenet that i cannot type.
Please help.

Thanks,
Tony