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| Microsoft Word, by default, automatically checks for spelling and grammar mistakes as you
type. You can tell when this function is turned on because you will see lots of red and
green wavy lines appearing under words or phrases, as you type them, because Word thinks they
are wrong. |
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| Ironically, nothing is more irritating to the person typing than those distracting, wavy, coloured lines - so much so that many people disable the checker and ignore that it exists. They do this as soon as they realise that (i) some of the words being flagged up as spelling errors (like grey or labelled) are, in fact, correct English (ii) the phrases or sentences being flagged up as bad grammar are, more often than not, perfectly correct (whereas the suggested
changes are often wrong and downright stupid) and (iii) bad English, whether accidental or intended, is not flagged up at all. Having said that, the checker does, sometimes, find the odd, genuine, inadvertent spelling or grammar error. So it is wrong to ignore it. In fact, it should always be used to perform a final check on any document before you print it or email it out to others. This article will show you, for Word versions prior to Word 2007, (a) how to efficiently turn off the wavy underlines from appearing while you are still typing a document (step 1 below) and (b) how to make it easy to
carry out a final spelling and grammar check of a document when you have finished typing it - ideally by adding a couple of incredibly useful buttons to Word's toolbar (steps 2 and/or 3). |
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| 1. To disable Word's Spelling & Grammar checker |
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| Open Word > click Tools > Options > Spelling & Grammar tab > at Spelling, untick 'Check spelling as you type' > tick 'Always suggest corrections' > untick 'Suggest from main dictionary only' > untick 'Ignore words in Uppercase' > tick 'Ignore words with numbers' > tick 'Ignore Internet and file addresses' > at Grammar, untick 'Check grammar as you type' > tick 'Check grammar with spelling' > untick 'Show readability statistics' > at 'Writing style', choose Standard > click the Settings button and check the default grammar and style settings are appropriate to your writing style. On completion, click OK > OK to exit the dialog. And good riddance to those wretched wavy lines! |
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| 2. To do a Spelling and Grammar check after (or during) typing of a document |
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| When you have turned off Word's Spelling & Grammar checker (step 1 above), you can still
check a document during or after typing simply by clicking Tools > Spelling and Grammar,
or by pressing the F7 function key. If you want to check just the spelling of a tricky
word or phrase immediately after typing it, simply select the word(s) and either
click Tools > Spelling and Grammar or press F7. The brilliant thing now is that you
will not get the wavy lines in your actual working document. Instead, you will get a popup
dialog with the suggested changes displayed. However, even with this improvement, the
spell checker and the grammar checker will, by default, both run simultaneously, which can still
prove somewhat overwhelming and confusing, especially with a long document. To get round
even this problem, we strongly recommend you apply step 3 below. |
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| 3. Add Spelling and Grammar buttons to Word |
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| The ability to personalise and customise the toolbars of Microsoft Office programs (before
the ribbonised Vista versions) was the main factor that gave Office its tremendous advantage
over every other office suite on any operating system. However, it is not commonly known
that standard buttons are available for adding to the toolbars for checking the spelling and
grammar of a document. The said buttons are normally hidden but can be dragged straight
onto Word's Standard toolbar (see Fig 1). Once in place, clicking either button
at any time will invoke the appropriate check on demand. This is precisely what is required
in order to use these features conveniently and efficiently without the irritation of the wavy
underlines! |
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| To add the Spelling button to Word's Standard toolbar, click Tools > Customize > Commands tab > in the Categories panel, choose Tools > in the Commands panel, left-click on "Spelling..." (note "Spelling..." not, repeat not the similarly named "Spelling & Grammar..." item) and drag the item up to the toolbar and drop it to the right of the Paste button. |
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| To add the Grammar button, return to the still-open Customize dialog > left-click on "Grammar..." and drag this item up to the toolbar and drop it to the right of the Spelling button you added a moment ago. |
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| 4. Add a "Last four edits" button |
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| While the Customize dialog is still open, we further recommend you add yet another of Word's
normally-hidden buttons to the Standard toolbar. You may or may not be aware that Word
remembers the last four places where you have carried out edits in a document and can jump you
back to each one in turn. This can be really handy if you are editing a multi-page document
but, because it is something that is needed infrequently, the relevant shortcut key (Shift+F5) is easily forgotten. The solution is to add the 'Last four edits' button
to the Standard toolbar. Clicking the said button will jump the cursor back to the place
of the last four edits, one at a time, the same as Shift+F5. To add this button (see Fig 1),
return to the still-open Customize dialog > in the Categories panel, click Edit > in the
Commands panel, scroll down to the item called "Previous Edit" > left-click on
it and drag it up to the toolbar and drop it to the left of the Spelling button > right-click
on the new button > from the menu, choose 'Change Button Image > from the gallery of icons
which appears, choose the bold upward-pointing (or left-pointing) arrow > right-click on
the button again > from the menu, choose Default Style > right-click on the button yet
again > at Name, change it from "&Previous Edit" to &Last four edits >
press Enter, or click in an empty area of the page (to make the name change take effect) >
close the Customize dialog. |
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| When you have finished typing your next Word document, and you are ready to print it or
attach it to an email, you should first click the new Spelling button and correct any errors
that are found (taking care not to accidentally apply any suggested Americanisations if you
are writing in English). Then click the new Grammar button and correct any genuine errors
that are found (taking great care not to inadvertently apply any of the many falsifications
that will be suggested - see Tip 2 in the right-hand column). The ability you
now have to execute these two commands as separate operations will avoid confusion and thereby
greatly reduce the risk of you inadvertently implementing any of the ridiculous changes which
Word frequently comes up with. |
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| Word's Spelling & Grammar checker will, once in a while, spot a genuine, unintended mistake and,
when it does, it is always a big relief to know the document never went out containing the error. Hence
the final check is always worth doing. Obligatory we would say! |
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| Fig. 1 (below) This is a screengrab showing three really helpful buttons you can easily add to Microsoft Word's original-style toolbar. It will take only a couple of minutes to do. |
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Tips |
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1. |
You will probably want this article to stay visible, so you can read it, at the same time as you are customising Word. You can do this now, while you are still online, or, if you save this page to your desktop, later when you are off-line. Either way, make sure that Word, and this page, are the ONLY two buttons showing on your Taskbar
> click the blue title bar of Word to make it the active window > right-click on the clock
in the System Tray > from the menu, choose Tile Windows Horizontally. After doing this,
Word's window will be across the top half of your screen, and this article will be across the
bottom half, and that is where they will stay, both visible, as you proceed with the custom
changes to Word. |
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2. |
Never take the changes offered by Word's grammar checker
as gospel. Always vet every single change it suggests. Otherwise you will almost
certainly end up with some grammatical errors where none actually existed before, or with worse
errors than those it thinks it has found. For a lot of the time, the grammar checker acts
exactly as what it is - a bit of crude, dated software, with no brain and no understanding,
which, sadly, Microsoft could not be bothered to improve. When using the grammar checker,
it is important to appreciate that bad English is NOT the same thing as bad grammar. Grammar
is governed by strict rules - bad English ain't(!). So, do not lose faith in the
Grammar checker merely because you see it failing to flag up any screaming illiteracies (accidental
or otherwise). The Grammar check is not there to correct bad English, only bad grammar.
If used with that in mind, it will help you, once in a while, to find some genuine errors.
It is trying to do that all the time, of course, but, when trying to apply the rules of grammar
to complex sentences, it often loses the plot completely!. Nevertheless, on the odd occasions
a grammar check does find something genuinely wrong. it will be a big relief to you knowing
the document did not go out to others in its uncorrected state. |
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3. |
Get into the habit, after typing each new Word document,
before printing it off or emailing it to somebody, of clicking your newly added Spelling button,
and do a full spell-check. Then click the Grammar button and do a full grammar check.
But still always vetting the changes it suggests. |
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4. |
To remove any toolbar button that you have no use for, hold
down the Alt key and drag the button onto an empty part of the page. But don't overdo
it. A toolbar full of some buttons you never use looks a whole lot better than a half-empty
toolbar. Toolbars with a dearth of buttons always seem to make a program look as though you've been short-changed. |
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5. |
You cannot edit the main spelling dictionary in Word - the one that routinely condones incorrect-English misspellings like color, favorite and labeled.
You can, however, view and edit your own custom dictionaries. This is very handy if you have accidentally added a wrongly spelt word to your custom dictionary and need to remove it. Click Tools > Options > Spelling & Grammar tab > at 'Custom dictionary' choose
which dictionary to edit (if you've created more than one) > click the 'Dictionaries...' button > click the Edit button, and your list of admissible words, capitalisations and acronyms
will be displayed as a Word document. Scan down the list, deleting or correcting any items
as appropriate. When finished, save the revised list. |
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6. |
If a document is going to be emailed to others, it becomes even more important to do a final spelling and grammar check. Otherwise, when they open
your document on their own computer, all the wavy underlines will reappear. This will
give them the false impression that your document, albeit perfect, is riddled with misspellings
and grammar errors - and hence that you are a bit illiterate. The way to avoid this
situation is to carry out a final spelling check and grammar check before emailing the document. Each time Word flags up one of its many false alarms, click the 'Ignore' button (i.e. tell Word
to bypass its rule). Thereafter, Word will not reflag the same word, phrase or sentence. Be sure to resave the document so it will remember you have declined some of its suggested,
incorrect changes. Then, when you forward your document, and a recipient opens it in Word,
it will be virtually clear of any red and green wavy lines on their particular machine even
if they have got the default setting turned on. |
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