Choose how spelling and grammar checking work

Some of the content in this topic may not be applicable to some languages.

Spelling and grammar mistakes can distract readers from the work that you put into your documents, so you want to eliminate these mistakes. Even so, you probably have your own preferences for how to use your Microsoft Office program to help you do this. You might prefer to check spelling all at once when you finish a document. Or you might want to use automatic spelling and grammar checking (the wavy red, blue, and green lines) to keep mistakes to a minimum while you work.

This article explains all the ways that you can adapt the proofing tools to create the experience that you want in the Microsoft Office program that you are using.What do you want to do?

Display the proofing options

Select the AutoCorrect options

Select the spelling correction options that affect all Office programs

Change how the spelling checker works in the background

Improve the spelling checker results by using contextual spelling

Change the grammar checking options for Outlook and Word

Select the Outlook spelling options

Turn on or off fields for the spelling checker in Project

Display the proofing options

Many of the procedures in this article require you to first display the proofing options. To display the proofing options, do the following in one of these Microsoft Office programs.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Access

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Program Name Options.
2. Click Proofing.

Outlook

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, click the Spelling tab, and then click Spelling and AutoCorrection.
2. Click Proofing.

Visio, OneNote, Publisher, or InfoPath

• On the Tools menu, click Spelling, and then click Spelling Options.

  I can't click Spelling Options because it is not availableA file must be open before you can click Spelling Options. Create or open a file to make this command available.

Project

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Spelling tab, and then click More Spelling Options.

Select the AutoCorrect options

For more information, see Create or change automatic corrections.

Select the spelling correction options that affect all Microsoft Office programs

To view and change these options, you must first display the proofing options. After you do this, you can view and change the settings described in the following sections.

Select the global Office spelling checker settings

Some of the options shown in the window that is displayed apply to all Microsoft Office programs. Regardless of which program you are using to change the option, the setting that you select applies to all the programs.

The following is a list of the check box options and what they do.

Select a French mode

The other option that affects all Microsoft Office programs is the French modes menu. This option affects only text in the French language.

Explanations of the options on this menu

For example, if you click the Traditional spelling option and edit a document with the French word bruler, the word is treated as a mistake by the spelling checker because this is the post-reform spelling of this word. However, if you click either the New spelling option or the Traditional and new spellings option, the word is not treated as a mistake.

For more information about the French Academy of Language spelling reform of 1990, see Les nouveaux outils linguistiques français.

Change how the spelling checker works in the background

While you work in a document, the spelling checker can work in the background, searching for mistakes. As a result, when you finish the draft that you are working on, the check spelling process goes faster. This can save you time, especially with large documents.

Note In Microsoft Office Access, Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft Office Project, these options are not available. The spelling checker does not work in the background in these programs.

To view and change these options, you must first display the proofing options. After you do this, you can view and change the settings described in the following sections.

Select or clear the Check spelling as you type check box

In most cases, you should leave the Check spelling as you type check box selected. Some reasons you might want to clear this check box include the following:

• You want to hide spelling mistakes (the wavy red lines) in Microsoft Office Outlook items that you are editing.
• You are using a computer that runs slowly because of hardware limitations (for example, because of lack of memory or CPU speed) or software limitations (for example, because you run a lot of large programs at the same time).

Select or clear the Hide spelling errors check box (wavy red lines)

Clear the Hide spelling errors check box if you want your Microsoft Office program to flag spelling mistakes automatically while you type. Clearing this option gives you confidence that you won't have to resolve a lot of spelling mistakes when you are about to finish your document. Your Microsoft Office program flags misspelled words while you work, so that you can easily see them, as in this example.

For more information about using the automatic spelling checker, see Check spelling and grammar.

To turn the automatic spelling checker on or off, do one of the following in these Microsoft Office programs:

Word

To turn on or off automatic spelling checking for the currently opened document:

1. Under Exceptions for, click Name of currently open file.
2. Select or clear the Hide spelling errors in this document only check box.

To turn on or off automatic spelling checking for all documents that you create from now on:

1. Under Exceptions for, click All New Documents.
2. Select or clear the Hide spelling errors in this document only check box.

Important If you turn off automatic spelling checking for a file that you share with other people, you may want to notify those people that you made this change.

Outlook

Select or clear the Check spelling as you type check box.

Note The spelling checker is available for all items except Notes.

InfoPath, OneNote, PowerPoint, Publisher, SharePoint Designer, or Visio

• Select or clear the Hide spelling errors check box.

Improve the spelling checker results by using contextual spelling

To view and change this option, you must first display the proofing options.

Have you ever typed a mistake similar to the following? I will see you their. In Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word, you can select the Use contextual spelling check box to get help with finding and fixing this type of mistake.

For example, if you selected the Use contextual spelling and Check spelling as you type check boxes and cleared the Hide spelling errors check box, the spelling checker flags the mistake and offers a suggestion when you right-click the flagged word, as in the following illustration.

Notes:

• After you install Microsoft Office, the Use contextual spelling check box is cleared by default if your system has less than 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM.
• Selecting the Use contextual spelling check box on a system with low memory can cause slow performance. If you notice this type of problem while you are using this option, you may want to clear the Use contextual spelling check box to resolve the problem.

Change the grammar checking options for Outlook and Word

Outlook and Word offer you the ability to check grammar as well as spelling. To view and change the grammar checking options, you must first display the proofing options.

Turn on or off automatic grammar checking

You can choose to have Outlook and Word flag grammar mistakes automatically, as shown in the following illustration.

To turn on or off the automatic grammar checker, do one of the following in these Microsoft Office programs.

Word

To turn on or off automatic grammar checking for the currently opened document:

1. Under Exceptions for, click Name of currently open file.
2. Select or clear the Hide grammar errors in this document only check box.

To turn on or off automatic grammar checking for all documents that you create from now on:

1. Under Exceptions for, click All New Documents.
2. Select or clear the Hide grammar errors in this document only check box.

Important If you turn off automatic grammar checking for a file that you share with other people, you may want to notify those people that you made this change.

Outlook

Select or clear the Check grammar as you type check box.

Note The grammar checker is available for all items except Notes.

Turn on grammar checking all at once

Select the Check grammar with spelling check box if you want to include grammar errors when you check the spelling all at once (for example, when you press F7).

Show the readability statistics

Select the Show readability statistics check box if you want to display the readability statistics after you finish checking spelling all at once (for example, when you press F7). For more information about this feature, see Test your document's readability.

For more information about how to use the grammar checker, see Check spelling and grammar.

Control the rules that the grammar checker applies to your writing

You can select one of two options from the Writing style menu: Grammar Only or Grammar & Style. If you want to change the types of grammar and style rules that the grammar checker uses when checking your writing, click Settings. You can use the Grammar Settings dialog box to view the settings and make any changes that you want. For more information, see Select grammar and writing style options.

Why aren't the Writing style and Settings buttons available in Outlook?There is a known problem that makes this menu and button unavailable in Outlook. You can work around this problem by viewing the proofing options from an open item.

1. From any open Outlook item, such as an e-mail message but not a Note, click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Editor Options.
2. Click Proofing.

Note Any changes that you make to these settings apply to all items that you edit, not just the the one you are currently working in.

Select the Outlook spelling options

• On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Spelling tab.
• • If you want the spelling checker to run all at once when you click Send, select the Always check spelling before sending check box.
  • To specify that the original text of a message not be checked for spelling when you reply to or forward the message, select the Ignore original message text in reply or forward check box.

Turn on or off fields for the spelling checker in Project

You may have some fields in Project that you don't want the spelling checker to check.

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Spelling tab.
2. For each field, select Yes to turn on spelling checking for that field or No to turn off spelling checking for that field.

See also:

• Check spelling and grammar
• Select grammar and writing style options
• Use custom dictionaries to add words to the spelling checker