Checking Spelling and Grammar


Microsoft Office Specialist Circulating a document that is filled with spelling and grammatical errors creates a poor impression on your readers. You should always proofread your documents before you print them or share them with others. Proofreading involves checking the spelling of words and correcting grammatical errors. You can use Word’s Spelling and Grammar features to correct errors and maintain professional writing standards.

Tip

Although Word can help you eliminate misspellings and grammatical errors, Its tools are not infallible. You should always read through your documents to catch the problems that Word’s tools can’t detect.

As you type the text of your document, by default Word underlines spelling and grammar errors with color-coded wavy lines:

  • A red line indicates that Word does not recognize the spelling of the word; that is, the word is not included in Word’s online dictionary.

  • A green line indicates a possible grammar error.

To fix individual spelling and grammar errors quickly, you can right-click an underlined word to display a list of corrections from which you can choose.

In addition to correcting individual errors, you can check the entire document for spelling and grammar errors by clicking the Spelling and Grammar button on the Standard toolbar. When you start checking spelling and grammar, Word compares each word in the document with the words in its dictionary and analyzes sentences for breaches of grammatical rules. Word stops at each red or green wavy line and displays possible reasons for the error. For example, if a word is misspelled, the Spelling and Grammar dialog box provides a list of potential replacements. If a sentence appears to break a grammatical rule, the Spelling and Grammar dialog box identifies the rule and provides suggestions for correcting the error.

The options displayed in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box depend on the type of error Word encounters. The following table describes these options.

Button or Option

Function

Ignore Once

Leaves the highlighted error unchanged and finds the next spelling or grammar error. If you click the document to edit it, this button changes to Resume. After you finish editing, click Resume to continue checking the document.

Ignore All

Leaves all occurrences of the highlighted spelling error unchanged throughout the document and continues checking the document. Word ignores the spelling of this word in this document and in all documents whose spelling is checked during the current Word session.

Ignore Rule

Leaves all occurrences of the highlighted grammar error unchanged throughout the document and continues checking the document. Word ignores the grammar rule in this document and in all documents whose spelling and grammar is checked during the current Word session.

Next Sentence

Transfers to the document the corrections you’ve typed within the Spelling and Grammar dialog box and continues checking the document. This enables you to correct grammatical errors without having to switch between the Spelling and Grammar dialog box and the document window.

Add to Dictionary

Adds the selected word in the “Not in dictionary” text box to the custom dictionary. The custom dictionary contains the words you specify.

Change

Changes the highlighted error to the word you select in the Suggestions box.

Change All

Changes all occurrences of the highlighted error to the word you select in the Suggestions box and continues checking the document.

Explain

Provides more information about the grammar error.

AutoCorrect

Adds the spelling error and its correction to the AutoCorrect list so that Word corrects it automatically the next time you type it.

Undo

Undoes the last spelling or grammar action you performed.

Options

Opens the Spelling and Grammar options dialog box. Use this dialog box to open a different custom dictionary or to change the rules that Word uses to check spelling and grammar.

In this exercise, you’ll check the spelling in the document and add common terms that are not already in the online dictionary. Then you will find, review, and correct a grammar error.

USE

the SpellCheck document in the practice file folder for this topic. This practice file is located in the My Documents\Microsoft Press\Word 2003 SBS\EditingProof\CheckingSpell folder and can also be accessed by clicking Start/All Programs/Microsoft Press/Word 2003 Step by Step.

OPEN

the SpellCheck document.

  1. Right-click bot, the first word with a red wavy underline.

    The shortcut menu lists possible correct spellings for this word, as well as actions you might want to carry out.

    click to expand

  2. On the shortcut menu, click both.

    Word removes the red wavy underline and inserts the correction.

    Spelling and Grammar

  3. Press [CONTROL]+[HOME] to move to the beginning of the document, and on the Standard toolbar, click the Spelling and Grammar button.

    The Spelling and Grammar dialog box appears, highlighting environmentally , the first word that Word does not recognize.

    Troubleshooting

    If the spelling and grammar checker doesn’t find the errors in this document, you need to reset the spelling and grammar checker. On the Tools menu, click Options, click the Spelling & Grammar tab, click Recheck Document, and then click Yes to recheck words and grammar that were previously checked or that you chose to ignore.

    click to expand

  4. With environmentally selected in the Suggestions box, click AutoCorrect.

    Word adds the misspelling and its correction to the AutoCorrect list, so the next time you type envrionmentally by mistake, the spelling will be corrected for you as you type. Word then flags harty as the next possible misspelling.

  5. With the word hearty selected in the Suggestions box, click Change All.

    Word changes this and a subsequent occurrence of harty to hearty. It then flags crassula as a word that it doesn’t recognize. Crassula, a type of plant, is spelled correctly. By adding words like this one to the custom dictionary, you can prevent Word from continuing to flag them.

  6. Click Add to Dictionary.

  7. Click Ignore All for each of the three Latin plant names.

    Word then flags a possible grammar error and indicates that this text could be a sentence fragment, meaning, in this case, that the sentence is missing a verb.

    click to expand

  8. In the Fragment box, click before the word available, type are, press [SPACE], and then click Change.

    Word displays a message, indicating that it has finished checking the spelling and grammar of the document.

  9. Click OK to close the message box.

    Save

  10. On the Standard toolbar, click the Save button.

    Word saves your changes to the document.

    CLOSE

    the SpellCheck document, and if you are not continuing on to the next chapter, quit Word.




Microsoft Office Word 2003 Step by Step
MicrosoftВ® Office Word 2003 Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft))
ISBN: 0735615233
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 156

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