Objective 7. Use the Spelling and Grammar Checker

As you type, Word compares your words to those in the Word dictionary and compares your phrases and punctuation to a list of grammar rules. Words that are not in the Word dictionary are marked with a wavy red underline. Phrases and punctuation that differ from the grammar rules are marked with a wavy green underline. Because a list of grammar rules applied by a computer program can never be exact, and because a computer dictionary cannot contain all known words and proper names, you will need to check any words flagged by Word as misspellings or grammar errors.

Word does not check for usage. For example, Word will not flag the word sign as misspelled, even though you intended to type sing a song rather than sign a song, because both are legitimate words contained within Word's dictionary.

Activity 1.19. Checking Individual Spelling and Grammar Errors

One way to check spelling and grammar errors flagged by Word is to right-click the flagged word or phrase and, from the displayed shortcut menu, select a suitable correction or instruction.

1.	Press to move the insertion point to the top of the document. Scroll down the first page and scan the text on the screen to locate green and red wavy underlines.   NoteActivating Spelling and Grammar Checking If you do not see any wavy red or green lines under words, the automatic spelling and/or grammar checking has been turned off on your system. To activate the spelling and grammar checking, display the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Spelling & Grammar tab. Under Spelling, click the Check spelling as you type check box. Under Grammar, click the Check grammar as you type check box. This tab also includes check boxes for hiding spelling and grammar errors. They should not be checked. Close the dialog box.
2.	In the first line of the paragraph that begins A theme can help make, locate the word and with the wavy red underline. Point to the word and right-click, and then compare your screen with Figure 1.41.   Figure 1.41. Word identifies a duplicate word and provides two suggestionsDelete Repeated Word or Ignore. The second option is included because sometimes the same word will be correctly used two times in succession.
3.	On the shortcut menu, click Delete Repeated Word to delete the duplicate word.
4.	Scroll down slightly, if necessary, to display the bulleted point under Decorating. In the first bulleted point on the page, locate and right-click the misspelled word Cuet, and then compare your screen to Figure 1.42.   Figure 1.42. In this instance, Word has identified a misspelled word. Suggested replacements are shown at the top of the shortcut menu.
5.	At the top of the shortcut menu, click Cute to replace the misspelled word.
6.	In the same bulleted point, locate and right-click the word To that has a wavy green underline. The wavy green underline indicates a grammar error; in this case, an incorrectly capitalized word in the middle of a sentence.
7.	From the shortcut menu, click to to correct the incorrectly capitalized word. Then, Save the changes you have made to your document.

Activity 1.20. Checking Spelling and Grammar in an Entire Document

Initiating the spelling and grammar checking feature from the menu or toolbar displays the Spelling and Grammar dialog box, which provides more options than the shortcut menus.

1.

Scan the text on the screen to locate green and red wavy underlines.
 

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2.

Press to move the insertion point to the top of the document. On the Standard toolbar, click the Spelling and Grammar button to begin a check of the document. If your program identifies Cute or sophisticated? as a sentence fragment, click the Ignore Once button. If necessary, point to the blue title bar of the dialog box and drag the dialog box out of the way so you can see the misspelled word sculptur. Compare your screen with Figure 1.43.
 

Figure 1.43.

 

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3.

Take a moment to study the spelling and grammar options available in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box, as shown in the table in Figure 1.44.
 

Figure 1.44. Spelling and Grammar Dialog Box Buttons

Button	Action
Ignore Once	Ignores the identified word one time, but flags it in other locations in the document.
Ignore All	Discontinues flagging any instance of the word anywhere in the document.
Add to Dictionary	Adds the word to a custom dictionary, which can be edited. This option does not change the built-in Office dictionary.
Change	Changes the identified word to the word highlighted under Suggestions.
Change All	Changes every instance of the word in the document to the word highlighted under Suggestions.
AutoCorrect	Adds the flagged word to the AutoCorrect list, which will subsequently correct the word automatically if misspelled in any documents typed in the future.
Ignore Rule (Grammar)	Ignores the specific rule used to determine a grammar error and removes the green wavy line.
Next Sentence (Grammar)	Moves to the next identified error.
Explain (Grammar)	Displays the rule used to identify a grammar error.
Options	Displays the Spelling and Grammar tab of the Options dialog box.

 

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4.

Under Suggestions, click sculpture, click the Change button, and then compare your screen with Figure 1.45.
 

Figure 1.45.

The correction is made and the next identified error is highlighted, which is a grammar error. Under Subject-Verb agreement, the entire sentence displays, with the incorrect verb displayed in green. The suggested replacementknowsdisplays in the Suggestions box.
 

5.

Under Suggestions, be sure knows is selected, and then click the Change button.

The error is corrected, and the next marked word displays. The wordKaluais spelled correctly, but is not in the dictionary.
 

6.

Click the Ignore Once button to ignore the word and move to the next marked wordlomi.
 

7.

Click the Ignore Once button to ignore the word and move to the next marked wordhaupia.
 

8.

Click the Add to Dictionary button to add the word to the dictionaryunless another student has added this word, in which case the check is complete.

A dialog box displays indicating that the spelling and grammar check is complete. If your computer is configured to display readability statistics, a Readability Statistics dialog box displays instead.
 

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9.

Click OK to close the dialog box, and then Save your changes.
 

Alert!: If You Are Unable to Add Words to the Dictionary

Many college computer labs restrict access to the dictionary, in which case you will be unable to add a word. If this is the case, move to the next step.

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Objective 8 Preview and Print Documents, Close a Document, and Close Word