Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. 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: Hiding Grammar Errors.

Hiding Grammar Errors

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 1, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021

Word includes a feature that checks up on the spelling and grammar in your document as you type. You've seen the results—the red and green squiggly underlines that mark spelling and grammar errors that you may want to correct as you are typing.

The error marking can be bothersome to some people. These people would rather differentiate between the creative phase of writing and the more manual phase of editing and polishing the document. To these people the squiggly underlines are distracting. If you want to turn off the green squiggly underlines, you can follow these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In later versions of Word display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
At the left side of the dialog box click Proofing. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Proofing options of the Word Options dialog box.

Make sure the Mark Grammar Errors As You Type check box is cleared.
Click on OK.

Any existing green squiggly underlines should disappear. In order to use Word's grammar checking feature you will now explicitly need to explicitly start the process by choosing the proper option from the Proofing group on the Review tab of the ribbon.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12377) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Hiding Grammar Errors.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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