Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 24, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016
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:
Figure 1. The Proofing options of the Word Options dialog box.
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, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Hiding Grammar Errors.
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2021-10-08 15:49:10
Goddess
I have Word 2016. I do not see the options to "Add" or "Add to dictionary" when I right click on a word nor when I do a manual spelling and grammar check. All I see with a spelling and grammar check are the options to Ignore or Change. So I can't add things to my dictionary, not can I "Ignore All." Is there a way to turn this on so I get these options in 2016?
2016-12-03 08:23:03
crafty.grandma
With all the messages that people send, this should not be an option. Too many people make so many errors and don't check their work. At times, it is even difficult to understand what they are trying to say due to so many errors.
I worked in the translation dept of a major corporation. Many times I was proofreading other translators work so that I could see the errors. This feature made it so much easier to see after reading 20,000 words! We didn't have the feature to correct the grammar but there were many times I wish we had. I lost my job to a translator machine which produce inefficient and poorly translated documents. Our society is becoming a society of poor spellers and even poorer writers. So turning off these features in no help to anyone.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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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