Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Checking for Sentences Beginning with Conjunctions.
The grammar checker included with Word is quite powerful when it comes to checking matters of style in your writing. One of the things you can have Word check for is whether any of your sentences begin with certain conjunctions, such as "and," "but," or "hopefully." If you want Word to flag sentences that begin this way, follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Proofing options of the Word Options dialog box.
Figure 2. The Grammar Settings dialog box.
If you enable this grammar-checking option, Word will also flag sentences that use the word "plus" as a conjunction between independent clauses in a sentence.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7547) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Checking for Sentences Beginning with Conjunctions.
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2022-01-17 07:18:16
David Allen
Strangely, in Office 365, despite having a lot more proofing options, the particular check for a sentence beginning with a conjunction seems to have been removed.
And a good job too!
2016-02-11 12:43:23
Peter Kirkpatrick
That's a bit unfair, given that all Word features evolve through different versions and Wyatt has specifically stated at the head of this tip which versions it applies to.
2016-02-11 08:14:15
peter compo
Kind of misleading tip since this no longer works in Word 2016
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
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