Locked lesson.
About this lesson
We will learn how to customize our proofing tools in PowerPoint Options and then run a spelling and grammar check prior to sharing the presentation with others.
Exercise files
Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
6.01-checking-spelling-and-grammar Exercise.docx585.5 KB 6.01-checking-spelling-and-grammar Exercise Solution.docx
647 KB
Quick reference
Checking Spelling and Grammar
Nothing makes a presentation look unprofessional quite like spelling and grammar errors. It's important to spell check your slides prior to sending to a customer, client or your boss.
In PowerPoint, we can check our spelling as we type and make corrections as we work or we can check the whole presentation at the end.
When to use
Always run a spell check on presentations prior to finalising and sending to others.
Instructions
Check Spelling As You Type
You can check and correct spelling errors as you type. PowerPoint will flag misspelt words with a red squiggly underline.
- Right-click on the spelling error.
- Choose a suggestion from the menu to correct.
We do not have to make a selection from the words suggested by PowerPoint. PowerPoint will flag any words it doesn't recognise in its internal dictionary. This means that occasionally, some words like peoples names, company names etc, will flag as misspelt when they are not. If this is the case, you have 3 options: Ignore, Ignore All or Add to Dictionary.
To stop the word from flagging in the future, click Add to Dictionary. To simply ignore this occurence and move on to the next work, click Ignore. To ignore every occurence of this word in the presentation, click Ignore All.
Proofing Options
Customise proofing options in the backstage area.
- From the File tab, click Options.
- Click on the Proofing page.
- Scroll down to the section When correcting spelling and grammar in PowerPoint.
- Place a tick in the box next to Check spelling as you type and Mark grammar errors as you type.
- Click OK.
If we have uppercase, misspelt words in our presentation and PowerPoint is not flagging them as errors, review the Proofing options page.
- From the section When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office programs untick the box next to Ignore words in UPPERCASE.
Spell Check At The End
We could correct errors as we type or run a spell check at the end as part of our finalising process. Spell Check can be invoked at any time.
- Press the F7 keyboard shortcut.
- Or, from the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click Spelling.
- The Spellling Pane will open.
- Go through the document.
- To make a correction choose the correct spelling from the list and click Change.
- Alternatively, Ignore, Ignore All or Add to Dictionary.
Hints & tips
- Grammar errors will flag in blue or green depending on your version of PowerPoint.
- Grammar errors relate to conciseness and poorly structured sentences and can be corrected from a list of suggestions much like spelling errors.
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