Microsoft Word

Spelling and Grammar

Microsoft Word will automatically check your document for spelling and grammatical errors. As well as
these automatic checks, you can also run a spelling and grammar check on document at any time. Word
will underline any errors it detects with a coloured wavy line.
You should be aware that the spellings and grammar rules used by the Microsoft Office dictionary to
perform these checks are not always accurate or appropriate to your context you should always read your
work carefully to ensure that it is correct.
Spelling errors
Words that have been possibly misspelled are underlined with a red wavy line. Names, abbreviations and
obscure words may be correct but Word may still underline them if they are not in the Office dictionary.
Word checks spelling automatically as you type.


Grammar
Words or phrases that are possibly grammatically incorrect may be underlined with a green wavy line.
Grammar is checked automatically by Word as you type.



Other possible errors
Word uses blue wavy line for two different types of error. Text with inconsistent formatting may be
underlined in this way, and so might possible contextual spelling errors.
Formatting errors
Word checks the following areas for inconsistent formatting:
Formats applied to words such as colour, font or size
Bulleted and numbered lists
Formatting that matches a style
By default Word does not check formatting inconsistencies automatically.

There is a grammatical error here as this
word has been incorrectly capitalised
In this example
the underlined
text is a larger
font size than
the rest of the
paragraph
The word necessary has
been spelled incorrectly here


Microsoft Word
Checking formatting errors automaticall y
To set Word to check for formatting errors automatically, follow these steps:
Click the options button on the file tab
Click advanced in the panel on the left
Tick the keep track of formatting box
Tick the mark formatting inconsistencies box
Click OK
Contextual spelling errors
A contextual spelling error is where a correctly spelled word is used in the wrong context. This type of
spelling error is often caused by homophones such as your, youre and yore.



Correcting detected errors
As Word will automatically underline spelling, grammatical and other errors, many people prefer to correct
errors as they write. If using this method it is still a good idea to run a full spelling and grammar check when
you have completed the document.
To correct an underlined error, right-click on the underlined word and choose a correction from the list
shown in bold. The underlined word will be replaced with your choice from the list.
If no suitable replacement is available or you do not wish to change the word click ignore












Although the word There
is spelled correctly, in this
context the word Their
should have been used
Right-click the
underlined
word or phrase
Select a replacement
word or phrase from
the list
Ignore All skips
every instance of
this particular
misspelling
throughout the
document
Click add to dictionary to
stop Word from marking the
word as incorrect make
sure that it is correct first!
Ignore lets you skip this
error on this occasion
and continue checking
your document


Microsoft Word
Checking the spelling and grammar of a document
It is good practice to check the spelling and grammar of a document on completion even if errors have
been corrected on the fly. Word will scan the entire document for any errors and allow you to review them
in order.
Running a full spelling and grammar check
To run a full check of your document from beginning to end:
Click the review tab on the ribbon
Click the spelling and grammar button from the proofing group
The spelling and grammar dialogue box will appear
For each error Word will offer suggestions select one, then click Change
If no suggestions are given you can manually correct the word by typing into the dialogue box
Ignoring errors
As the spelling and grammar tool is not always correct you may wish to ignore the suggestions. In this
case there are a number of options.
For spelling errors:
Ignore once will ignore the current error only
Ignore all will ignore all instances of the error in the document
Add to dictionary will add the word to the dictionary so it is not flagged as an error in future
For grammar errors:
Ignore once will skip the error without changing it
Ignore rule will skip the error without changing it and will ignore any future errors relating to that
grammatical rule
Next Sentence will skip the error without changing it but the error will remain underlined and will
be flagged in any future spelling and grammar checks










To correct an
error, left click a
word from the
suggestions
box and click
change
You have several options if
you disagree with the spelling
and grammar checker
The word currently being
checked will be highlighted


Microsoft Word
Autocorrect
Autocorrect detects words from the pre-defined autocorrect list and then automatically changes them to
another word or words as you type. This can be used to correct common spelling or typing errors, and also
to automatically expand abbreviations to enable you to type text in faster. For example, you could set an
autocorrect so that if you typed in mmu it would automatically correct to Manchester Metropolitan
University.
Viewing the autocorrect list
To see a list of words that will be corrected:
Click the options button on the file tab
Click proofing in the panel on the left
Click the autocorrect options button
This opens the autocorrect options dialogue box where you can view the current autocorrect settings.
You can also add new words that will be corrected automatically. This can be very useful if there are words
that you frequently spell incorrectly.
Adding words to the autocorrect list
In the autocorrect options dialogue box, you can add words using these steps:
In the replace box enter the word you want to autocorrect
In the with box enter the word that will appear instead
Click Add to confirm




To add a
new word to
the
autocorrect
list, type the
word to
replace here
Type the
replacement
word here
Click Add
to confirm
This box
contains all
words in the
autocorrect
list scroll
to see more
words
Click OK to
close the
dialogue box