WORD 2003: Spelling and Grammar
Spelling and Grammar Settings
The defaults for the spelling and
grammar checkers are to have them
active.
To see if they are activated, go to
Tools>Options>Spelling & Grammar.
If the boxes are checked in front of
“Check spelling as you type” and
“Check grammar as you type,” the
checkers are active.
When they are active, there will be
red wavy lines underneath words that
may be spelled incorrectly. There will
be green wavy lines underneath
phrases that may be grammatically
incorrect.
To deactivate the red and/or green wavy lines, go to Tools>Options>
Spelling & Grammar and clear the boxes in front of “Check spelling as you
type” and “Check grammar as you type.”
You can still check the spelling or
grammar at any time by using
Tools>Spelling & Grammar or
clicking on the Check Spelling
button
.
Other choices available in the
options are asking for suggestions,
ignoring words with numbers or
internet addresses, checking
grammar with or without checking
spelling, and showing readability
statistics.
Davienne Jacobson
1
June, 2006
AutoCorrect
If you want misspelled words to automatically be corrected, use
Tools>AutoCorrect Options>AutoCorrect. Check the box next to
“Automatically use suggestions from the spelling checker.” Click OK.
While you are typing, the word is automatically changed. If you move the
mouse button over the word, there will be a blue line underneath the first
letter in the word.
Move the mouse to the blue line to see the AutoCorrect options. If you do
not want to make any change, just ignore the blue line. It will only show up
when the mouse button is nearby. The blue lines will not show up when you
print the document.
Working With the Green and Red Wavy Lines
If you have chosen to check spelling and grammar as you type, red wavy
lines will show up for spelling errors and green wavy lines will show up for
grammatical errors. The red and green wavy lines will not show up when
you print the document.
Davienne Jacobson
2
June, 2006
Right-click on the word or phrase that has been flagged. There will be
suggestions about the spelling or grammar. You can choose to make
changes or choose to ignore the checker. After making a choice, the wavy
lines for that word or phrase disappear.
Working With the Check Spelling Tool
If you have chosen to hide the red and green wavy lines, you can use the
checker dialog box.
Use Tools>Spelling and Grammar. The checker will highlight a word and a
dialog box will appear. The spelling errors will be in red.
You can choose to change to a
suggested word by clicking on the
word and clicking on “Change” or
“Change All.” (Change just changes
the word this single time, not
throughout the entire document.)
You can choose to ignore the word’s
spelling just in this example or
throughout the document by clicking
on “Ignore” or “Ignore All.” If it a word
that you will use often, you can click
on “Add to Dictionary.”
Davienne Jacobson
3
June, 2006
You can choose to edit the word
yourself, clicking on the word in the
upper box and typing changes. Then
your choices are to “Undo Edit” or to
“Change” or “Change All.”
If you choose to make a typing
change in the document itself,
outside of the dialog box, the
spelling and grammar checker will
stay on the screen waiting. You can
click on “Resume” to continue with
the checker or click on “Cancel” to
make the dialog box disappear.
If you have added a word
to the dictionary and then
changed your mind, or
wanted to see what was in
the dictionary, click on the
Options button. This takes
you to the Spelling &
Grammar options box.
Click on the “Modify”
button to see what is
stored in the custom
dictionary.
Click OK several times to
get back.
Davienne Jacobson
4
June, 2006
Grammar Checking While Checking Spelling
Use Tools>Spelling and Grammar. Make sure that the “Check grammar”
box is checked. The checker will highlight words or phrases in green.
The grammar rule will show above the
upper box.
You can take the suggestion and click
on Change.
You can choose to ignore this
incidence or ignore the rule
mentioned.
You can also choose “Next Sentence”
which ignores the incidence unless
you recheck the document.
Readability Statistics
If you are interested in the readability statistics of a document, make sure
that in Tools>Options>Spelling & Grammar the box next to “Show
readability statitstics” is checked.
After you have finished checking
spelling and grammar, you will see
the information about the document.
Click OK to close the box.
Davienne Jacobson
5
June, 2006
Rechecking a Document
After you have checked a document, Word remembers what has been
checked. You can check the spelling and grammar again, rechecking what
you may have ignored previously. However, if you changed a word or
phrase, it will not change back.
Use Tools>Options>Spelling & Grammar, and click on the Recheck
Document button. You will get a message asking if you really want to do
this. Click Yes.
Then click OK to close the Options dialog box.
Continue by using Tools>Spelling and Grammar or clicking on the Check
Spelling button.
Davienne Jacobson
6
June, 2006
Spelling and Grammar Examples
Although the spelling and grammar checker may seem like a nice feature,
the person still needs to be the final say. When checking spelling, if a word
in mistyped but not misspelled, such as “greed” and “reed,” the spell
checker will not catch it. If a homonym is used, such as “blue” and “blew,”
the spell checker will not catch it.
The grammar may catch words that are mistyped but not misspelled.
However, the grammar checker is not very accurate. There are websites
emphasizing the fallibilities of Word’s spell and grammar checker.
Davienne Jacobson
7
June, 2006