Spell Check

As you type Word puts a wavy red line under words which are not in its dictionary. Some of these may be misspelled by you but they may also be names which are not in the dictionary or words which it does not 'know'. You may choose to correct spelling mistakes as you go along or to save them up for later. To correct a word either delete the offending letters and type in what you know to be the correct spelling or point at the word and click with the right mouse button to bring up a list of possible words to replace it. You may find that some spelling mistakes are corrected for you automatically (which some English teachers deplore) but many of these are typing errors such as ‘i’, ‘teh’ or ‘adn ’ - it can be annoying if you want a lower case ‘i’. Switch off spell check with Tools/Options.

AutoCorrect J

Word includes a list of words that will correct themselves if you type them wrongly, for example 'teh' will be replaced automatically with 'the' (too bad if you really want 'teh'!). The AutoCorrect list also includes common misspellings such as 'recieve' and popular characters such as smiley symbols, for example ':)' produces J.

This tool can also be used to create your own shorthand, for example a 2 or 3 letter code for a long word or phrase, for example 'ha' for 'hydrochloric acid' or some complex equation with subscripts and superscripts. To achieve this choose Tools/AutoCorrect and enter the letters that you want to replace on the left of the table and the words that you want to appear on the right. The change to the AutoCorrect list will be saved in your Normal.DOT template so it will be there next time you want to use it. This could save you quite a lot of time when typing up documents with lots of technical terms or abbreviations that you want to expand.

Grammar and Thesaurus

Word also has a grammar check facility which runs from the ‘ABC’ button on the Standard toolbar or from the Tools menu. This can be useful in some circumstances but some people find it annoying. Switch off the wavy green lines with Tools/Options. Select Tools/Language/Thesaurus to consult the Thesaurus which provides synonyms (words with similar meaning) or antonyms (opposite meaning).

Deleting and Other Edits

When you have been typing for a while you may find you want to edit the text, deleting words and inserting new ones or moving paragraphs or correcting spelling mistakes. To delete a few characters position the cursor and use the backspace or delete keys. To delete larger amounts of text and to move text you will first need to select it. Use the mouse as follows to select text:

• To select a word point at it with the cursor and double click the left mouse button.
• To select a paragraph double click in the left margin next to the words you want.
• To select a line of text click once in the left margin next to the text.
• To select a sentence hold down the Control key and point and click once anywhere inside it.
• To select the entire document hold down the Control key and click once in the left margin.
• For close control of selection, e.g. a single character, use Shift/Left Arrow or Shift/Right arrow on the keyboard.

Once text is selected you can delete it or use the Edit menu to Cut, Copy and Paste it. You can also use ‘drag and drop’ to move text, something which is probably most effective over a short distance such as moving a word along a line. You always select text before formatting it - bold, italic, etc.