Need to Know IT
Spellcheck, Auto Correct and Dictionaries
The Spellcheck options are on the ‘Review’ ribbon.
Word automatically checks documents for errors. Spelling errors are
underlined with a red wavy line, grammatical errors are underlined with a
green wavy line.
Choosing a Dictionary
Word contains a number of different dictionaries. It is important to ensure that
the British English dictionary is used to spellcheck your documents.
1. Select the ‘Review’ ribbon
2. Click the ‘Set Language’ icon
to open the ‘Language
’dialogue box
3. Select the required language from the drop
down list.
4. To make the selected language the default
language, click the ‘Default’ button to open the
‘Change Default’ dialogue box.
5. Click ‘Yes’ to change the
default language to English.
Correcting Spelling Errors
Spelling errors are indicated by a red wavy line.
Simply right mouse click the word to open the
spellcheck drop down menu.
Select the required spelling from the drop down
list.
Adding Words to the Dictionary
Sometimes a word may not be shown as being misspelt but it is in fact correct.
This happens because the word does not exist in Word’s dictionary. The word
can be added to the dictionary, but it is very important to ensure that the word
is spelt correctly before it is added to the dictionary.
1. Right mouse click the word to open the spellcheck
box.
2. Click the ‘Add to Dictionary’ option.
Auto Correct
The ‘Auto Correct’ function automatically corrects misspelt words. Word has
an ‘Auto Correct’ dictionary and words in this dictionary are automatically
corrected as they are typed. For example, if the letters ‘teh’ are typed, the
‘Auto Correct’ function will automatically correct them to the word ‘the’.
Spellcheck, Auto Correct and Dictionaries
Adding Words to Auto Correct
‘Auto Correct’ is one of the options in the drop down list that is displayed
when spellchecking a word.
1. Right mouse click the misspelt word to
display the drop down options list.
2. Place the mouse over the ‘Auto Correct’
option – do not click the mouse.
3. A fly out menu will appear. This lists
possible spellings for the misspelt word.
4. Select the correct spelling.
Future identical misspellings of the word will automatically be corrected to the
associated word in the Auto Correct dictionary.
NB: It is important to ensure that the correct spelling of the word is chosen.
Undoing an Auto Correct
When Word auto corrects a word, a small blue line appears under
the first letter of the word. This line is only visible when the cursor is
hovering over the word.
When the cursor is placed underneath the blue line, a lightening
symbol is displayed and the words ‘Auto Correct Options’
Click the drop down arrow to display the auto
correct options for this word.
Accessing the Dictionaries
Sometimes it may be necessary to access the dictionaries so that a word can
be manually removed. The dictionaries are accessed via the ‘Word Options’
menu.
1. Click the ‘Office’
button in the top left
hand corner of the
screen
2. Select ‘Word
Options’.
3. Select the ‘Proofing’ Option.
This accesses the auto correct options
and custom dictionaries. It also provides
options for the way in which the
spellcheck function works.
Click the ‘Auto Correct Options’
button to open the ‘Auto Correct’
dialogue box.
Use the scroll bar to locate the
required word.
Click on the word and click ‘Delete’.
The dialogue box can also be used to add words to the auto correct list and to
change the auto correct settings.