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: Checking for Sentences Beginning with Conjunctions.

Checking for Sentences Beginning with Conjunctions

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 21, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

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:

Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays 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 Settings button. Word displays the Grammar Settings dialog box.
Scroll through the Grammar and Style Options list until you find the Sentences Beginning with And, But, and Hopefully option. Make sure it is checked.
Click on OK to close the Grammar Settings dialog box.
Click on OK to close the Options 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 (1467) 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: Checking for Sentences Beginning with Conjunctions.

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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