Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Spell Checking Your Document.

Spell Checking Your Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 2, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Word provides a built-in spelling checker you can use to proof (double-check) your document. This tool doesn't check just spelling, but it also checks for proper capitalization and duplicate words. To run the spelling checker, follow these steps:

  1. Move the insertion point to the beginning of the document. (This is not entirely necessary but makes the spelling check take less time.)
  2. Choose Spelling and Grammar from the Tools menu or press F7. Word begins to check the spelling of your document, displaying the Spelling and Grammar dialog box as it discovers potential errors.
  3. Respond to the suggestions, as appropriate.

You don't have to spell check an entire document; you can run the spelling checker on a selection of text, as well. To run the spelling checker on a selection of text, do the following:

  1. Select the text to be checked.
  2. Choose Spelling and Grammar from the Tools menu or press F7.
  3. Respond to the suggestions, as appropriate.

When the spelling check of the selection is complete, Word displays a dialog box asking if you want to check the rest of the document. Click on No to end the spelling check.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1023) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Spell Checking Your Document.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Word Freezes When Working with Lots of Clip Art

Don't you hate it when Word freezes? Laurie has that problem when she works with clip art in her documents. There are any ...

Discover More

Getting Rid of All Hyperlinks

Need to get rid of all the hyperlinks in a worksheet? It's easy when you use this single-line macro.

Discover More

Automatically Moving from Cell to Cell when Entering Data

As you enter data in a worksheet, you may want to have Excel automatically move from cell to cell based on the length of ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Separating Grammar-Checking from Spell-Checking

Most of the time Word will check both grammar and spelling at the same time. You can, however, instruct the program to ...

Discover More

Allowing Sentence Fragments

Grammar, particularly in English, has a perplexing array of rules and exceptions to those rules. Word does a fairly good ...

Discover More

Checking for Incorrect Numbers in Text

One of the grammar rules you can check for in a document is the incorrect use of numbers. If you are unsure when to use ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is six less than 6?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.