
10 Minute Guide to Word for Windows 95


- 21 -
Proofing Your Document
In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the Word for Windows Speller and Thesaurus
utilities to help proof your document.
Using the Spelling Checker
The spelling checker lets you verify and correct the spelling of words in your
document. Word for Windows checks words against a standard dictionary and lets you
know when it encounters an unknown word. You then can ignore it, change it, or add
it to the dictionary.
To check spelling in a portion of a document, select the text to check. To check
the entire document, first move the insertion point to the start of the document
by pressing Ctrl+Home. Then:
- 1. Select Tools Spelling,
press F7, or click the Spelling button on the toolbar.
Word for Windows starts checking words beginning at the insertion point.
- 2. If a word found in the document is not
in the dictionary, it becomes highlighted in the text and the Spelling dialog box
displays (see Figure 19.1).
Figure 21.1
The Spelling dialog box.
- 3. In the Spelling dialog box, the Not in
Dictionary box displays the word that was not found in the dictionary. If the spelling
checker has found any likely replacements, they are listed in the Suggestions list
box. In the dialog box, you have the following options:
- To ignore the highlighted word and continue, select Ignore.
- To ignore the highlighted word and any other instances of it in the document,
select Ignore All.
- To change the highlighted word, type the new spelling in the Change
To
box or highlight the desired replacement word in the Suggestions list box. Then select Change
(to change the current instance of the word) or Change All
(to change all instances of the word in the document).
- To add the word to the dictionary, select Add.
-
- 4. The spelling checker proceeds to check
the rest of the document. When it finishes checking, it displays a message to that
effect. To cancel spell checking at any time, select Cancel
in the Spelling dialog box.
Timesaver Tip: Fast Check! To check the spelling
of a single word, double-click the word to select it, then press F7.
Checking Spelling as You Type
In addition to checking your document's spelling as described above, you can instruct
Word to check each word as you type it in. Any word not found in the dictionary will
be underlined with a wavy red line, and you can deal with it whenever you choose.
To turn automatic spelling checker on or off:
- 1. Select Tools Options
to display the Options dialog box.
- 2. If necessary, click the Spelling
tab.
- 3. Turn the Automatic
Spell Checking option on or off.
- 4. Click OK.
To deal with a word that has been underlined by Automatic Spell Checking, click
the word with the right mouse button. Word displays a pop-up menu containing suggested
replacements for the word (if any are found) as well as several commands. Your choices
are:
- To replace the word with one of the suggestions, click the replacement word.
- To ignore all occurrences of the word in the document, click Ignore
All.
- To add the word to the dictionary, click Add.
- To start a regular spelling check, click Spelling.
Timesaver Tip: Hide misspelling marks If your
document contains words underlined by the automatic spelling checker and you want
to hide the underlines, select Tools Options, click
the Spelling tab, and turn on the Hide
Spelling Errors in Current Document option. Turn this option off to redisplay
the underlines.
The Thesaurus
A thesaurus provides you with synonyms and antonyms for words in your document.
Using the thesaurus can help you avoid repetition in your writing (and also improve
your vocabulary). To use the thesaurus:
- 1. Place the insertion point on the word
of interest in your document.
- 2. Press Shift+F7,
or select Tools Thesaurus.
- 3. The Thesaurus dialog box opens (Figure
21.2). This dialog box has several components:
- Looked Up displays the word of interest.
- The Meanings box lists alternative meanings for the word. If the word is not
found, Word displays an Alphabetical List box instead; this list contains a list
of words with spellings similar to the selected word.
- If the Thesaurus finds one or more meanings for the word, the dialog box displays
the Replace with Synonym list showing synonyms for the currently high-lighted meaning
of the word. If meanings are not found, the dialog box displays a Replace with Related
Word list
Figure 21.2
The Thesaurus dialog box.
- 4. While the Thesaurus dialog box is displayed,
there are several actions you can take:
- To find synonyms for the highlighted word in the Replace with Synonym list or
the Replace with Related Words list (depending on which one is displayed), select
Look Up.
- To find synonyms for a word in the Meanings list, select the word and then select
Look Up.
- For some words, the thesaurus displays the term Antonyms in the Meanings list.
To display antonyms for the selected word, highlight the term Antonyms and then select
Look Up.
-
- 5. To replace the word in the document with
the highlighted word in the Replace with Synonym list or the Replace with
Related Word list, select Replace.
6. To close the thesaurus without making any
changes to the document, select Cancel.
Timesaver Tip: What does it mean? You can use
the thesaurus like a dictionary to find the meaning of words you are not familiar
with.
In this lesson, you learned how to use the Speller and Thesaurus to proof your
document. The next lesson shows you how to create numbered and bulleted lists.


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