Gallery: Check your spelling with Microsoft Word

When you type a word that isn’t recognised by Word’s dictionary it will do one of two things: either flag the suspect entry by placing a red squiggly line beneath it, or attempt to correct the misspelling automatically. The system behind this is Autocorrect, which is a giant list of words and shortcuts designed to quickly fix misspellings or provide shortcuts (for example, type (c) to get the copyright © symbol). Roll the mouse pointer over any word that has been automatically corrected and you’ll see a small blue underline appear – select this to reveal the Autocorrect options.

Three options appear when the Autocorrect menu opens. Reverse the individual Auto correction by choosing ‘Change back to…’. To stop Word from changing the same spelling of the word in future, select ‘Stop Automatically Correcting…’. This permanently removes that individual automatic correction from the Autocorrect list, so your spelling of that particular word won’t be corrected again. If you make an alteration and then change your mind, undo it prior to closing the document – just roll the mouse back over the word and choose ‘Redo AutoCorrect’ to undo it.

The final option – ‘Control AutoCorrect Options’ – opens a new window where the Autocorrect settings can be fine-tuned. A number of standard options – accidentally leaving Caps Lock on, failing to capitalise the beginning of sentences, and so on – can be switched on or off here. You’ll also see a list of words and phrases that make up the bulk of what Autocorrect does – if you dislike it automatically changing words as they’re typed, untick ‘Replace text as you type’ and click OK.

To make changes to words marked with a red squiggly line, right-click the word. You’ll see a list of suggested alternative spellings appear – typically one substitute, but sometimes more depending on the word. To correct the spelling, select one of the alternative spellings. You can opt to ignore the spelling for this one instance or all instances of the word in the document, or add it to the dictionary. To create an Autocorrect entry so the word is automatically corrected when the same misspelling is made, select Autocorrect followed by the spelling Word should use.

When adding words to the dictionary, a special custom dictionary is created alongside Word’s standard dictionary. This custom dictionary can be edited to add new words or remove words accidentally added by mistake. Click the Office button and choose Word Options before selecting Proofing (Word 2007) or open the Tools menu, select Options and switch to the Spelling & Grammar tab (Word 2003 or earlier). Click Custom Dictionaries followed by Edit Word List (Word 2007) or Modify (Word 2003 or earlier) to add words manually; alternatively, select unwanted dictionary entries and click Delete.

Word’s built-in proofing tools should be set to English (United Kingdom) by default. Change this to another language by closing Word and clicking Start followed by All Programs then Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Tools and finally Microsoft Office 2003/2007 Language Settings. Have your Office installation disc ready in case you’re asked for it. Use the dropdown menu to change the default language. To add extra languages to the Spelling & Grammar dialogue box, select your choice from the left-hand menu and click Add (some individual choices will automatically add a number of French, English and Spanish regional dictionaries). Click OK to finish.

If your document contains passages of text written in a different language, Word should automatically detect this and mark them up accordingly. If this doesn’t happen, select the block of text and then either switch to the Review tab and click Set Language (Word 2007) or open the Tools menu and choose Language followed by Set Language (Word 2003 or earlier). If necessary, pick the language from the list and click OK. It’s also possible to switch off the spelling and grammar check for the selected text or to disable the automatic language detection.

To avoid using the same word over and over again, take advantage of Word’s built-in thesaurus, which provides alternative words to use. Right-click the word and move the mouse pointer over Synonyms on the dropdown menu. A list of possible alternatives will pop up – either pick one or choose Thesaurus to open the Research task pane where you can use a number of different thesauruses and dictionaries or expand your search for a better word on to the web. Click ‘Research options’ to select which resources are available.

Word also checks the sentence structure for what it considers grammatical errors, marking problematic sentences with a green squiggly line. Right-click the sentence to see a summary of what it thinks is wrong – choose Ignore Once if you disagree with its findings, or select About This Sentence to see a more detailed definition of the apparent problem and view some examples of how you might improve it. Any changes you do make must be performed manually. If Word likes what you’ve written, the green line will vanish.

To change Word’s grammar settings, open the Spelling & Grammar options dialogue box (see Step 5). Disable the automatic proofing checks by unticking ‘Mark grammar errors as you type’ and ‘Check spelling as you type’. Now, to manually proof documents, click Spelling & Grammar on the Review tab (Word 2007) or Tools menu (Word 2003 and earlier). To check documents for style points, like the use of jargon, select ‘Grammar & Style’ from the Writing Style dropdown box. To determine exactly what grammatical and stylistic points Word checks, click the Settings button and untick any suggestions you want ignored.

To change Word’s grammar settings, open the Spelling & Grammar options dialogue box (see Step 5). Disable the automatic proofing checks by unticking ‘Mark grammar errors as you type’ and ‘Check spelling as you type’. Now, to manually proof documents, click Spelling & Grammar on the Review tab (Word 2007) or Tools menu (Word 2003 and earlier). To check documents for style points, like the use of jargon, select ‘Grammar & Style’ from the Writing Style dropdown box. To determine exactly what grammatical and stylistic points Word checks, click the Settings button and untick any suggestions you want ignored.