Microsoft says that Outlook, Word, and OneNote can 'unexpectedly shut down when typing'.

Software bugs are an everyday occurrence. It's not surprising that something will break in today's feature-packed programs. If an app's main purpose is to handle text, then you'd hope that the simple act typing would not cause it to shut down.

Microsoft has confirmed that this issue affects certain installations of Outlook, Word, and OneNote. Its Outlook and Office teams have begun investigating the issue (via Neowin). MS describes the problem in a support article as:

After updating to [Office] Version 17830.20138 (or higher) you may find that Outlook, Word or OneNote unexpectedly closes when typing or performing other authoring tasks, such as spell checking.

The simple act of typing in a word or performing a spelling check can cause applications to close. This will undoubtedly inspire a selection of curses from the affected users. Microsoft says you can confirm this issue by looking up Event 1000 or Event 1001 on the Windows Event Viewer Application Log. The issue may be caused older language packs.

The name of the faulting module will vary depending on which language packs you have installed. For example, mscss7it.dll could be used for Italian or mscss7ge.dll to represent German. Other names include: EN, ES FR, GE IT, NP PB.

Currently, MS recommends a workaround that involves an online repair of Office, searching for and removing old Office language installations and reinstalling Language Accessory Pack Microsoft 365.

Users are also directed to a thread in the Microsoft forums where multiple users report that their Outlook installations crash when they type, save drafts, or type in different languages, both in the Windows version and Android application.

The thread reports that many users were typing (or spelling-checking) German at the time the problem occurred. However, judging by the support post MS appears to believe that multiple languages can cause the affected applications to close.

Notepad gets a thumbs up, even though you can't send an email using the app that I call "Ol' Reliable". It has a good spellcheck, multiple useful features, and I haven't had it crash while I was taking notes. Sometimes the classics really are the best.