Don't worry - we all make mistakes when we type.
Lucky for us, Word's got us covered with a host of proofing features, including the Spelling
and Grammar tool.
To run a full spelling and grammar check, all you have to do is go to Review, then Spelling
and Grammar.
Word will cycle through every error in your document, giving you the chance to select
one of their suggestions, or type the corrections yourself.
Click Change to accept the correction and move on to the next error.
The spelling and grammar check isn't perfect, though.
Sometimes it misses grammatical errors; sometimes it says something's spelled wrong when it
isn't - like people's names.
If that happens, you have a couple options.
For a spelling error, Ignore Once will skip the word one time without changing it;
Ignore All will skip the word every time it appears in the document;
and Add to Dictionary will learn the word so it never comes up as an error again.
Just make sure that it is spelled correctly before you choose this option.
Now I'd like to close this dialog box so we can take a look at the auto-check that's taking
place.
You may not even need to run a separate check because, by default, Word marks spelling and
grammar errors automatically, using these little wavy lines.
Red is a spelling error; green is a grammatical error; and blue (which is turned off at first
but can be turned on) is something called a contextual spelling error.
So, let's look at what I did wrong.
I spelled the word "no" correctly, as in "no thank you"; but I should have used the word
"know," as in "now I know my ABCs."
To correct these spelling and grammar errors, just right-click, and choose the proper spelling
or phrase here.
Looks like I also misspelled "fourteen"...
and used the word "learn" incorrectly.
Ah, I should have used "learned."
If you're curious about changing the auto-check settings, just go to the Backstage View, then
Options and Proofing.
You can uncheck the boxes here if you don't want Word to automatically check your spelling,
or use contextual spelling, or mark grammar errors as you type.
These settings only apply to your computer, though.
So, if you choose to ignore any errors and then send a document to someone else - like
in an email to a potential employer - they'll still see those little wavy lines.
The good news is that you can hide errors in just this document by checking these boxes,
"Hide spelling errors" and "Hide grammar errors in this document only."
Now click OK...
and the errors are no longer marked.
It's still a good idea to have someone look over your work before you send it off, though,
just to be safe.
Happy proofing!