Share via

How do I turn off all spelling and grammar checking (especially capitalization) for ONE Word document?

Anonymous
2023-09-17T06:21:59+00:00

For context, I am working on a document that's basically a reference list and comparison of commands used in cmd, bash, etc. They need to be entered precisely and are often case-sensitive. Most "corrections", including automatically capitalizing the first letter, will reliably make them wrong.

How do I turn off spelling and grammar checking in a way that

  • Only affects this document, not any other existing or future ones,
  • Applies to all of this document, forever, including future additions that don't exist yet,
  • And includes turning off all forms of automatic capitalization?

Regarding the middle bullet point, I have tried turning off these checks by using Ctrl-A then going through Review -> Language -> Language -> Set Proofing Language and checking "Do not check spelling or grammar". The problem with this is that spell checking, at least for capitalization, turns back on whenever I add anything new! This is a terrible default - what else would anyone ever want to apply that option to besides new material that has yet to be added? But no, that solution only seems to be applied to the stuff that already exists. And sometimes not even all of that - when I go back and revise something it sometimes starts "fixing" (i.e. screwing up) my capitalization even on material I already explicitly applied this setting to.

As you can tell I am quite frustrated with this. I'm tired of wrestling with this. All I want it to do is nothing. This seems like it should be a simple matter of ticking a box somewhere, but it just isn't.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

3 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Charles Kenyon 166.7K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-09-17T06:35:53+00:00

    You can't. But, you can come close.

    1. Select the entire document (Ctrl+A) and click on the proofing language in the Status Bar.
    2. Check the box to not check spelling and grammar.

    If you do not have the proofing language in the Status Bar, right click on it and add that to the Status Bar.

    If you simply type in the document, the "do not check" setting will apply to what you type. If you paste text into it, repeat steps 1 & 2.

    If you want it to also apply to the headers and footers, open one for editing and repeat steps 1 & 2 before closing the Headers/Footers.

    See Mastering the Spelling Checker by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP.

    The check for capitalization is not a spelling option but AutoCorrect.

    You can turn off AutoCorrect, but that applies to all documents.

    That is what controls the checking for Capitalization of sentences. You can turn off just the capitalization control, but again, this applies to all documents, not just the current one. You would uncheck the options shown.

    Image

    Capitalizing the first letter applies to anything that Word thinks is a sentence or the start of a table cell. For Word, when you press the Enter key, you end a sentence and start a new one.

    If you notice a correction as it happens, Ctrl+Z will undo it.

    If you would like, I can supply you with macros to turn these on and off, but not automatically. You would have to call the macros, perhaps with a keyboard shortcut.

    This is a user-to-user support forum, not a place to tell Microsoft what is wrong with their products. For that, use one of the Feedback mechanisms.

    Giving Feedback on Microsoft Word or other Microsoft Products

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-09-18T01:40:22+00:00

    So it's not possible to change the capitalization autocorrect on a per-document basis?

    Well, turning off "Capitalize first letter of table cells" does 60-70% of what I need at minimal cost (in inconvenience to my other projects unrelated to the current one). It feels like there should be a better solution, but I guess that's as good as it's going to get for the moment.

    Thanks for the thorough and detailed response, even if the content was (through no fault of yours) not what I'd have ideally preferred.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Charles Kenyon 166.7K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-09-18T03:05:46+00:00

    You are welcome.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments