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English has many ways and many words with which to express the same thought. That's why English is so poetic. And that's why Word comes with a grammar checker and does, at times, underline suspicious words or phrases in an angry green zigzag. That's your clue that you've somehow offended Word's sense of grammatical justice. Figure 1 shows an example. Right-clicking on the green-underlined text displays a pop-up menu, similar to the spell checker's menu.
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Figure 1: An evil preposition lurks at the end of this sentence! |
The pop-up menu either lists some alternatives, such as the one offered in Figure 1, or simply tells you that the sentence is too long or a fragment and offers no suggestions or poor grades for your efforts. Just choose a correct sentence and Word replaces the foul sentence in your document, or try again until you please the Grammar Gods.
- If you select About This Sentence from the pop-up menu, the Office Assistant dog explains which part of the English Language Book of Rules you offended. (Well, more or less. Sometimes the dog is way off in his explanation.)
 | - Sometimes the grammar checker seems to be wrong. But don't give up! Always check your entire sentence for a potential error. For example, it may suggest had in place of have. Chances are, have is correct but some other word in the sentence has an unwanted s.
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- If you detest on-the-fly grammar checking, you can turn it off. Choose Tools-->Options from the menu. Click the Spelling & Grammar tab. Near the bottom of the dialog box, in the Grammar area is the Check grammar as you type check box. Click in the check box to deselect the option and click OK. Grammar is off.
- You can also use the Spelling & Grammar tab in the Options dialog box to customize what types of offending grammar you want Word to flag for you. Click the Settings button and you can pick and choose from various subtle or overtly offensive types of English grammar to have Word sniff for.
Checking grammar as you write
As you type, Word acts like a grammar-school teacher and immediately underlines possible problems to call them to your attention. A green, wavy line appears under possible grammar errors, and a red, wavy line highlights possible spelling mistakes.
To address grammatical problems that Word underlines:
1. Place the mouse pointer over the word underlined by a green wavy line.
2. Click the right mouse button.
A pop-up menu appears, as shown in Figure 2.
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Figure 2: When Word finds a grammatical error, it displays a pop-up menu of possible suggestions. |
3. Choose one of the boldface suggestions Word provides, or click Grammar for more information.
If you click Grammar, the Grammar dialog box appears (as shown in Figure 3), offering suggestions and giving you the option of choosing whether to ignore a particular grammar rule.
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Figure 3: The Grammar dialog box. |
4. Choose one of the following options, depending on your opinion of the matter in question:
Click Resume.
Click Ignore Rule.
Click a suggestion displayed in the Suggestions list box and click change.
5. Click Cancel, click the close box in the upper-right corner of the window, or press Esc to dismiss the Grammar dialog box.
 | If having Word automatically check your grammar as you type gets on your nerves, you can turn it off by following these steps: |
1. Choose Tools-->Options.
The Options dialog box appears.
2. Click the Spelling & Grammar tab.
3. Click the Check Spelling as You Type or Check Grammar as You Type check box so that the check mark disappears.
When the check box is empty, the feature is turned off.
4. Click OK.
Checking your entire document for spelling and grammar
Rather than correcting spelling and grammatical mistakes while you type, you may want to finish writing and then check your spelling and grammar. To check the spelling and grammar of your entire document, do the following:
1. Choose one of the following:
Choose Tools-->Spelling and Grammar.
Press F7.
Click the Spelling and Grammar button on the Standard toolbar (the one with the check mark and the letters ABC on it).
Each time Word finds a possible problem, it stops and displays the Spelling and Grammar dialog box, as shown in Figure 2.
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Figure 2: The Spelling and Grammar dialog box can help correct mistakes in your document. |
2. Choose one of the following, depending on your opinion of the matter at hand:
Click Ignore Once.
Click Ignore All (if spell-checking) or Ignore Rule (if grammar checking).
Click Add to Dictionary to add the underlined word to the dictionary so it won't be flagged as an error ever again. (The Add to Dictionary button only appears when spell-checking.)
Click a suggestion displayed in the Suggestions list box and click Change or Change All.
After Word finishes checking your document, it displays the message, "The spelling and grammar check is complete."
3. Click OK to return to your document.
Instead of highlighting a suggested word from the Suggestions list box and clicking Change, you can accept a suggested word by double-clicking that word. As another alternative, just type your own correction directly in the top window of the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.
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