Separating Grammar-Checking from Spell-Checking

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 13, 2016)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

By default, whenever you do a grammar check, Word also checks the spelling of your documents. You may have already done a spelling check, however, so there is no need to do it again. To separate grammar and spell-checking, follow these steps:

Choose Options from the Tools menu. You will see the Options dialog box.
Make sure the Spelling & Grammar tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Spelling & Grammar tab of the Options dialog box.

Click on the Check Grammar with Spelling check box so it is not selected.
Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1025) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Excel Won't Display Different Windows in the Taskbar

If you want individual Taskbar buttons for each open Excel workbook but cannot seem to get those buttons, the culprit ...

Discover More

Understanding Default DATE Field Formatting

The DATE field is one of the most commonly used fields for placing dynamic information in your document. It is helpful to ...

Discover More

Making Columns the Same Length

Balancing the length of each column in a multi-column page layout can be a challenge. Here's a quick way to get Word to ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Spell Checking Your Document

One of the final touches that many people perform is to check the spelling of their document. This can help improve the ...

Discover More

Making Ignore All Work for a Document on All Systems

When you tell Word's spell checker to ignore all instances of a misspelling, you may expect that the misspelling will be ...

Discover More

Setting Spell-Checking Options

Like many things in Word, you can configure the way the spelling checker does its job. If you want to exercise more ...

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 5 + 3?

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.