Chapter 5: Taking Advantage of the Proofing Tools

In This Chapter :
✓ Fixing spelling errors and customizing the spelling dictionary
✓ Repairing grammatical errors in documents
✓ Looking up a word definition
✓ Finding text — and replacing it if you want
✓ Conducting outside research while you work in Word
✓ Looking for a better word in the thesaurus
✓ Working with and translating foreign language text
I was going to call this chapter “Foolproofing Your Work,” but that seemed
kind of presumptuous because keeping every error from slipping into your work is
well-nigh impossible. Still, you can do a good job of proofing your work and
eliminating errors by using the tools that Word provides for that purpose. This
chapter describes how to proof your work for spelling and grammatical errors. It
shows how to find text, find and replace text, and how to conduct research in
reference books and on the Internet without leaving Word. You also find out how
to translate text and proof foreign language text. The proofing tools are not
foolproof, but they’re close to it. The F7 key is the key to the kingdom when it
comes to proofing Word documents. Here is the magic of pressing F7 and various
key combinations:
✦ F7: Run a spell-check.
✦ Alt+F7: Scroll to the next misspelling.
✦ Ctrl+F7: Get a word definition.
✦ Shift+F7: Open the Thesaurus.

Correcting Your Spelling Errors

Word keeps a dictionary in its hip pocket, which is a good thing for you.
Who wants to be embarrassed by a spelling error? Word consults its dictionary
when you enter text in a document. To correct misspellings, you can either address
them one at a time or start the spell checker and proof many pages simultaneously.
Don’t trust the smell checker to be accurate all the time. It doesn’t really locate
misspelled words — it locates words that aren’t in its dictionary. For example, if
you write “Nero diddled while Rome burned,” the spell checker doesn’t catch the
error. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but because diddle is a legitimate word in
the spelling dictionary, the spell checker overlooks the error. The moral: Proofread
your documents carefully and don’t rely on the spell checker to catch all your
smelling errors.

Correcting misspellings one at a time

One way to handle misspelled words is to use the one-at-a-time method of
spell-checking. As shown in Figure 5-1, you can right-click each word that is
underlined in red and choose a correct spelling from the shortcut menu. After you
choose a word from the shortcut menu, it replaces the misspelling that you right-
clicked.
Words entered twice are also flagged in red, In which case the shortcut
menu offers the Delete Repeated Word option so that you can delete the second
word (see Figure 5-1). You can also click Ignore All to tell Word when a word is
correctly spelled and shouldn’t be flagged, or click Add to Dictionary, which adds
the word to the Office spelling dictionary and declares it a correctly spelled word.

Running a spell-check
Instead of correcting misspellings one at a time, you can run a spell-check
on your work. Start your spell-check with one of these methods:
✦ Press F7.
✦ Go to the Review tab and click the Spelling & Grammar button.
✦ On the status bar, click the Proofing Errors button. (Move the
pointer over this button to see a pop-up message that tells you
whether Word has found proofing errors in your document.)
You see the Spelling task pane, as shown in Figure 5-2. As I explain
shortly, Word offers all sorts of amenities for handling misspelled words, but here
are options for correcting known misspellings in the Spelling task pane:
✦ Select the correct spelling and click the Change button.
✦ Click in the page you’re working on and correct the misspelling
there; then click the Resume button.
 If the word in question isn’t a misspelling, tell your program how to
handle the word by clicking one of these buttons:
✦ Ignore: Ignores this instance of the misspelling but stops on it
again if the same misspelling appears later.
✦ Ignore All: Ignores the misspelling throughout the document
you’re working on and in all other open documents as well.
✦ Change/Delete: Enters the selected word in the document where
the misspelling used to be. When the same word appears twice in a row,
the Delete button appears. Click the Delete button to delete the second
word in the pair.
✦ Change All: Replaces all instances of the misspelled word with
the word that you select. Click the Change All button to correct a
misspelling that occurs throughout a document.
✦ Add: Adds the misspelling to the Office spelling dictionary.
Bclicking the Add button, you tell Word that the misspelling is a legitimate
word or name.
Office programs share the same spelling dictionary. For example, words
you add to the spelling dictionary in Word are deemed correct spellings in
PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, Publisher publications, Access
databases, and Outlook e-mails.

Preventing text from being spell checked

Spell-checking address lists, lines of computer code, and foreign
languages such as Spanglish for which Microsoft doesn’t offer foreign language
dictionaries is a thorough waste of time. Follow these steps to tell the spell
checker to ignore text:
1. Select the text.
2. In the Review tab, click the Language button and choose Set Proofing
Language on the drop-down list. You see the Language dialog box.
3. Select the Do Not Check Spelling or Grammar check box.
4. Click OK.
 Checking for Grammatical Errors
in Word Much of what constitutes good grammar is, like beauty, in the eye
of the beholder. Still, you can do your best to repair grammatical errors in Word
documents by getting the assistance of the grammar checker. The grammar
checker identifies grammatical errors, explains what the errors are, and gives you
the opportunity to correct the errors. Figure 5-3 shows the grammar checker in
action. To correct grammatical errors:
✦ Correct errors one at a time: Right-click and choose an option
on the shortcut menu, as shown in Figure 5-3. Grammatical errors are
underlined in blue.
✦ Open the Grammar task pane: Press F7, click the Spelling &
Grammar button on the Review tab, or click the Proofing Errors button on
the status bar. The Grammar task pane opens. Select a correction and click
Change or click the Ignore button to disregard the grammar error.

If you want to fine-tune how Word runs its grammar checker, go to the File
tab and choose Options, and in the Word Options dialog box, go to the Proofing
category. Under When Correcting Spelling and Grammar in Word, choose
whether to mark grammatical errors with blue lines, check for grammatical as well
as spelling errors, and in the Writing Style drop-down list, how stringent you want
the rules of grammar to be. Choose Grammar & Style, not Grammar Only, if you
want Word to enforce style rules as well as the rules of grammar.

Getting a Word Definition

Rather than reach for a large, unwieldy dictionary, you can get a word
definition in the Dictionary task pane, as shown in Figure 5-4. Click the word that
needs defining and use one of these techniques to get its definition:
✦ On the Review tab, click the Define button.
✦ Press Ctrl+F7.
The first time you seek a word definition, the Definition task pane gives
you the opportunity to download a dictionary to your computer. Downloading a
dictionary costs nothing and takes but a moment.
 Finding and Replacing Text
Use the Find command to locate a name or text passage. Use its twin, the
powerful Replace command, to find and replace a name or text passage
throughout a document. For an idea of how useful the Replace command is,
imagine that the company you work for just changed its name and the old
company name is in many different places. By using the Replace command, you
can replace the old company name with the new name throughout a long
document in a matter of seconds.

The basics: Finding stray words and phrases

To locate stray words, names, text passages, and formats, follow these
basic steps:
1. Press Ctrl+F or go to the Home tab and click the Find button.
The Navigation pane appears so that you can enter search criteria in the Results
tab, as shown in Figure 5-5.
2. Enter the word or phrase in the search text box.
After you enter the word or phrase, the Navigation pane lists each instance of the
term you’re looking for and the term is highlighted in your document wherever it
is found (see Figure 5-5).
3. If you want to conduct a narrow search, click the Find Options button
located to the right of the Search text box in the Navigation pane — and make a
choice on the drop-down list. Later in this chapter, “Narrowing your search”
explains how to make searches more efficient by choosing options on this drop-
down list.
4. Click an instance of the search term in the Navigation pane to scroll to
a location in your document where the search term is located. To go from search
term to search term, you can also scroll in the Navigation pane, click the Previous
button or Next button (located below the Search text box), or press Ctrl+Page Up
or Ctrl+Page Down.

Narrowing your search

 To narrow your search, click the Find Options button in the Navigation
pane, as shown in Figure 5-6. Then choose an option on the drop-down list:
✦ Options: Opens the Find Options dialog box so that you can
select options to narrow your search. Table 5-1 explains these options.
✦ Advanced Find: Opens the Find tab of the Find and Replace
dialog box so that you can select options to narrow the search. Table 5-1
explains these options. Go this route if you want to search using font,
paragraph, and other formats as well as advanced search criteria. By
clicking the Format button and Special button, you can search for text that
was formatted a certain way, as well as for special characters such as
paragraph marks and page breaks.
✦ Find (Graphics, Tables, Equations, Footnotes/Endnotes,
Comments): Search for a particular object type. For example, choose
Tables to search for tables.

Using wildcard operators to refine searches

Word permits you to use wildcard operators in searches. A wildcard
operator is a character that represents characters in a search expression. Wildcards
aren’t for everybody. Using them requires a certain amount of expertise, but after
you know how to use them, wildcards can be invaluable in searches and macros.
Table 5-2 explains the wildcard operators that you can use in searches. Click the
Use Wildcards check box if you want to search using wildcards.

Searching for special characters

Describes the special characters you can look for in Word documents. To
look for the special characters listed in the table, enter the character directly in the
text box or click the Special button in the Find and Replace dialog box, and then
choose a special character from the pop-up list. Be sure to enter lowercase letters.
For example, you must enter ^n, not ^N, to look for a column break. Note: A caret
(^) precedes special characters.
Before searching for special characters, go to the Home tab and click the
Show/Hide button. That way, you see special characters also known as hidden
format symbols — on-screen when Word finds them. Creative people find many
uses for special characters in searches. The easiest way to find section breaks,
column breaks, and manual line breaks in a document is to enter ^b, ^n, or ^l,
respectively, and start searching. By combining special characters with text, you
can make find-and-replace operations more productive. For example, to replace
all double hyphens (--) in a document with em dashes (—), enter -- in the Find
What text box and ^m in the Replace With text box. This kind of find-and-replace
operation is especially useful for cleaning documents that were created in another
program and then imported into Word.

Conducting a find-and-replace operation

Conducting a find-and-replace operation is the spitting image of
conducting a find operation. Figure 5-7 shows the Replace dialog box, the place
where you declare what you want to find and what to replace it with. Do the
options and buttons in the dialog box look familiar? They do if you read the
previous handful of pages about searching because the Replace options are the
same as the Find options.
The key to a successful find-and-replace operation is making sure you find
exactly what you want to find and replace. One way to make sure that you find the
right text is to start by running a Find operation. If the program finds precisely the
text you want, you’re in business. Click the Replace tab in the Find and Replace
dialog box and then enter the replacement text. To locate and replace words,
names, or text passages with the Find command, follow these steps:
1. Press Ctrl+H or go to the Home tab and click the Replace button. The
Find and Replace dialog box appears (see Figure 5-7).
2. Describe the text that needs replacing. Earlier in this chapter, “The
basics: Finding stray words and phrases” explains how to construct a search. Try
to narrow your search so you find only the text you’re looking for.
3. Click the Find Next button. Did your program find what you’re looking
for? If it didn’t, describe the search again.
4. Enter the replacement text in the Replace With text box. You can select
replacement text from the drop-down list.
 5. Either replace everything simultaneously or do it one at a time.
Click one of these buttons:
• Click Replace All to make all replacements in an instant.
• Click Find Next and then either click Replace to make the replacement or
Find Next to bypass it.
• Click the Replace All button only if you are very, very confident that the
thing your program found is the thing you want to replace.
Be sure to examine your document after you conduct a find-and-replace
operation. You never know what the powerful Replace command will do. If the
command makes a hash of your document, click the Undo button.

Researching a Topic Inside Word

Thanks to the Research task pane, your desk needn’t be as crowded as
before. The Research task pane offers dictionaries, foreign language dictionaries,
a thesaurus, language translators, and encyclopedias, as well as Internet searching,
all available from inside Word (and the other Office programs too). As shown in
Figure 5-8, the Research task pane can save you a trip to the library.
The task pane offers menus and buttons for steering a search in different
directions, but no matter what you want to research in the Research task pane,
start your search the same way:
1. Either click in a word or select the words that you want to research. For
example, if you want to translate a word, click it. Clicking a word or selecting
words saves you the trouble of entering words in the Search For text box, but if no
word in your document describes what you want to research, don’t worry about it.
You can enter the subject of your search later.
2. Alt+click the word or words you want to research. (In Excel and
PowerPoint, you can also click the Research button on the Review tab.) The
Research task pane appears (refer to Figure 5-8). If you’ve researched since you
started running Word, the options you chose for researching last time appear in the
task pane.
3. Enter a research term in the Search For text box (if one isn’t there
already).
 4. Open the Search For drop-down list and tell Word where to steer your
search. Choose a reference book or research website.
5. Click the Start Searching button (or press Enter). The results of your
search appear in the Research task pane.

If your search yields nothing worthwhile or nothing at all, scroll to the

bottom of the task pane and try the All Reference Books or All Research Sites
link. The first link searches all reference books the dictionaries, thesauruses, and
translation service. The second searches research sites Bing, Factiva iWorks, and
HighBeam Research.
You can retrace a search by clicking the Back button or Forward button in
the Research task pane. These buttons work like the Back and Forward buttons in
a web browser.

Finding the Right Word with the Thesaurus

If you can’t find the right word or if the word is on the tip of your tongue
but you can’t quite remember it, you can always give the Thesaurus a shot. To find
synonyms for a word, start by right-clicking the word and choosing Synonyms on
the shortcut menu, as shown in Figure 5-9. With luck, the synonym you’re looking
for appears on the submenu, and all you have to do is click to enter the synonym.
Usually, however, finding a good synonym is a journey, not a Sunday stroll.
To search for a good synonym, click the word in question and open the
Thesaurus task pane with one of these techniques:
✦ Press Shift+F7.
✦ Right-click the word and choose Synonyms➪Thesaurus.
✦ Go to the Review tab and click the Thesaurus button.
The Thesaurus task pane opens. It offers a list of synonyms and sometimes
includes an antonym or two at the bottom. Now you’re getting somewhere:
✦ Choosing a synonym: Move the pointer over the synonym you
want, open its drop-down list, and choose Insert.
✦ Finding a synonym for a synonym: If a synonym intrigues you,
click it. The task pane displays a new list of synonyms.
 ✦ Searching for antonyms: If you can’t think of the right word,
type its antonym in the text box and then look for an “antonym of an
antonym” in the task pane.

Proofing Text Written in a Foreign Language

In the interest of cosmopolitanism, Word gives you the opportunity to
make foreign languages a part of documents. To enter and edit text in a foreign
language, start by installing proofing tools for the language. With the tools
installed, you tell Word where in your document a foreign language is used. After
that, you can spell check text written in the language.
To spell check text written in Uzbek, Estonian, Afrikaans, and other
languages apart from English, French, and Spanish, you have to obtain additional
proofing tools from Microsoft. These can be obtained at the Microsoft Download
Center at [Link]/en-us/download (enter proofing tools in the Search
box). Proofing tools include a spell checker, grammar checker, thesaurus,
hyphenator, AutoCorrect list, and translation dictionary, but not all these tools are
available for every language.
The status bar along the bottom of the screen lists which language the
cursor is in. Glance at the status bar if you aren’t sure which language Word is
whispering in your ear.

Telling Office which languages you will use

Follow these steps to inform Word that you will use a language or
languages besides English in your documents:
1. On the Review tab, click the Language button and choose Language
Preferences. The Options dialog box opens to the Language category.
2. Open the Add Additional Editing Languages drop-down list, select a
language, and click the Add button to make that language a part of your
documents.
 3. Click OK. Marking text as foreign language text The next step is to tell
Office where in your document you’re using a foreign language. After you mark
the text as foreign language text, Office can spell check it with the proper
dictionaries.
Follow these steps to mark text so that Office knows in which language it was
written:
1. Select the text that you wrote in a foreign language.
2. Go to the Review tab.
3. Click the Language button and choose Set Proofing Language on the
drop-down list. You see the Language dialog box, as shown in Figure 5-10.
4. Select a language and click OK. Click in the words you selected and
glance at the status bar. It tells you that the words were written in the language
you selected in the Language dialog box.

Translating Foreign Language Text

Office offers a gizmo for translating words and phrases from one language
to another. The translation gizmo gives you the opportunity to translate single
words and phrases as well as entire documents, although, in my experience, it is
only good for translating words and phrases. To translate an entire document, you
have to seek the help of a real, native speaker.
Follow these steps to translate foreign language text:
1. Select the word or phrase that needs translating.
2. On the Review tab, click the Translate button and choose a Translate
option on the drop-down list.
Office offers these ways to translate words:
• Translate Document: Word sends the text to a translation service, and the
translated text appears on a web page. Copy the text and do what you will with it.
(If the wrong translation languages are listed, choose correct languages from the
drop-down lists).
• Translate Selected Text: The Research task pane opens, as shown in
Figure 5-11. Choose a From and To option to translate the word from one
language to another.
 • Mini Translator: After you choose this option, move the pointer over the
word you need translated. A little toolbar appears with the translation. You can
click the Play button on the toolbar to hear the translation. (If the Mini Translator
command doesn’t list the correct language, click the Translate button, select the
Choose Translation Language option, and select a language in the Translation
Language Options dialog box).