1.

Request a Spelling Check

Choose Tools, Spellcheck from the menu bar to check the spelling of your current document. Writer begins checking the spelling of your document, starting at the current location of the insertion point and continuing to the end of the document. If the insertion point was not at the beginning of the document, Writer prompts you to continue the spelling check from the beginning of the document before it completes the check to make sure that nothing was missed. If Writer finds a misspelled word, Writer displays the Spellcheck dialog box, which shows the misspelled word and the sentence in which that word occurs. Writer also suggests alternate spellings if they are available.

8. Check a Document's Spelling

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If you cannot see the highlighted misspelled word and you want to view it in the context of your document, you may have to drag the Spellcheck dialog box up or down to see the highlighted word that Writer considers to be misspelled.

2.

Ignore a Misspelling

If Writer finds a word that is not really misspelled (perhaps it's an abbreviation that you don't want to add to the Writer's spelling dictionary), click the Ignore Once button. Writer will ignore the word and continue checking the rest of your document.

3.

Ignore Subsequent Misspellings

If you often type the abbreviation or other word found to be misspelled but really isn't, click the Ignore All button and Writer will ignore that word in all subsequent spelling check sessions.

4.

Add a Word to the Dictionary

If Writer finds a properly spelled word that it thinks isn't, such as a strange last name , you can add that word to Writer's spelling dictionary by clicking the Add button. Not only will Writer not flag the word as misspelled in the future, but Writer will offer the word as a possible correction for subsequent words found to be misspelled that are close to that one.

5.

Review Suggested Replacements

If Writer finds a word that truly is misspelled, Writer tries to offer one or more suggestions in the Suggestions list box. Usually, the top word that is highlighted is the correct spelling for the misspelled word, but you may have to scroll down to locate the proper correction, depending on how many close matches Writer finds in its spelling dictionary.

6.

Replace with Suggestion

If the top highlighted word is the word to replace the misspelled word with, click the Change button and Writer will replace the misspelled word with the selected correction. If the correction is not the top word in the Suggestions list box but appears farther down the list, click the correct replacement word and then click the Change button to make the replacement.

Click OK to close the Thesaurus dialog box. When you're done checking the spelling, click the Close button to close the Spellcheck dialog box.

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If Writer does not suggest a correct spelling for the current misspelled word, you can correct the spelling yourself by clicking the text in the Not in Dictionary box and making edits there.

If you want Writer to replace all instances of the misspelled word with the suggested word, click the Change All button instead of the Change button.

7.

Find a Synonym

If you want to see synonyms of any word, select that word and then choose Tools, Language, Thesaurus from the menu bar to display the Thesaurus dialog box. Review the suggested synonyms for the each meaning of the word (if multiple meanings are listed). If you find a better word than the one you selected, click that word in the Synonym list in the Thesaurus dialog box.

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The Thesaurus dialog box is also available via the Tools, Thesaurus menu or the Ctrl+F7 keyboard shortcut.

8.

Turn on AutoSpellcheck

To turn on the automatic spelling checker so that Writer checks your spelling as you type words into your document, select the AutoSpellcheck button on the Standard toolbar. The highlighted button indicates that Writer turned on the automatic spelling checker.

NOTE

You can turn off Writer's automatic spelling checker by clicking the AutoSpellcheck button on the Standard toolbar. The button will no longer appear highlighted, indicating that Writer has turned off the automatic spelling check feature.

9.

Display Options

As you type, misspelled words appear with a red wavy line beneath them. Right-click over the misspelled word to see several options (including suggested replacement words) from which you can choose.

One of the options, Spellcheck , opens the Spellcheck dialog box, so just because you've turned on AutoSpellcheck doesn't mean you can't work within that dialog box as you did in step 1. You may also elect to add the word that Writer thinks is misspelled to the dictionary so future spelling checks of that word won't be flagged as incorrect. If you select the Ignore All option, Writer will not flag the word as incorrect for the rest of this session, but subsequent editing sessions will still view the word as incorrect because you didn't add it to the dictionary.

The AutoCorrect option tells Writer that if this word ever appears in the future, instead of marking it as misspelled, automatically correct the word with one of the options you suggest. If you find yourself mistyping the same word frequently, such as typing mispell for misspell , you could request that Writer automatically change mispell to misspell if and when you make that mistake in the future. Writer corrects that misspelling as you type, and often you'll not notice the correction took place, but you will have a more accurate document. For more information on Writer's AutoCorrect feature, see 32 Use AutoCorrect to Improve Your Typing .

10.

Select an Option

From the right-click menu, select the option you want to choose to handle the misspelled word. Although the Spellcheck dialog box offers more suggestions than this right-click menu, the right-click menu often brings up as many options as you will routinely need to ensure spelling accuracy when you type.