Getting Rid of Fragment Warnings

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 17, 2026)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

As Christine is writing, Word often flags portions of her sentences with a "fragment consider revising" warning. These drive her nuts and she wonders how she can get rid of the warnings.

Some people like the suggestions made by the grammar checker; others hate them. The fact is, though, you don't need to turn the grammar checker off completely. You can configure the grammar checker so it only checks some things. Here's how to adjust the grammar checker so you don't see those annoying "fragment warnings."

Click Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
Make sure the Spelling & Grammar tab is displayed. (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. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Grammar Settings dialog box.

Look through the list of settings until you find the Fragments and Run-ons setting. (It is near the top of the settings list.) Clear its check box.
Scroll down and look for the Fragment – Stylistic Suggestions setting and clear its check box, as well.
Click OK twice to close both dialog boxes.

That should do it; you shouldn't see any more "fragment warnings" as you are writing your prose.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (5665) 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...

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