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How can I eliminate the pink screen highlighting when mouse-over for spelling errors while retaining the squiggly red underlines?

Charles Kenyon 166.7K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2025-11-15T05:06:52.5766667+00:00

Question is really for all current desktop versions of Word.

  • I am on Windows 11 Professional.
  • Microsoft 365 Family Subscription - primary user
  • Version 2510 Current Channel

For a number of years I've been using up-to-date Word. I remember when the first pink highlighting of spelling errors upon mouse-over started. I'm not sure how, but I did turn it off.

It just started again recently, and has added the same thing for grammar except blue.

I want to keep the squiggly underlines. I do not want the shading on mouse-over, though.

Here is a link to my feedback about this: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/f0bb2158-3cc2-f011-aa43-7c1e5299c337

Left-click on shaded marked word:

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Right-click on marked word:

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I use the classic spell-check dialog in response to the F7 function key.

User's image

Here is a link to my feedback: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/f0bb2158-3cc2-f011-aa43-7c1e5299c337

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/classic-spell-check-dialog-macro-to-use-to-get/a53fff0c-f15d-4150-95d6-1724c6ddca91

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows
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Answer accepted by question author

  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 322.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-11-16T03:16:31.1633333+00:00

    Hi Charles,

    Almost certainly the response from the Product Team will be that the shading is "by design" and it is unlikely that anything would be done about it as it does not impair the use of Word. Or, does it?

    2 people found this answer helpful.

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  2. Jade Ng 11,330 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-11-15T08:17:27.5166667+00:00

    Dear @Charles Kenyon,

    Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum!

    I understand you're looking to eliminate the pink and blue mouse-over highlighting in Microsoft Word while keeping the squiggly red underlines for spelling errors.

    Autocorrect and Highlight misspelled words features are helpful when you need to complete a big writing project quickly and don’t want to spend time proofreading every word. Your Windows computer highlights the misspelled words and changes them automatically so that you don’t have to spend your time on them.

    In this case, here are a few steps you can try to customize these settings and check if it works:

    Method 1: Right-click on the Start button and select Settings > go to the Time & language > click on Typing.

    Here you would find 2 options namely Autocorrect mispelled words and Highlight misspelled words. Both have switches to enable or disable them.

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    Method 2: To turn Highlight misspelled words using Registry:

    • At first, press Win+R, type regedit, press the Enter button, and choose the Yes option to open Registry Editor on your computer. After that, navigate to this path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft
    • Right-click on the Microsoft key, select New > Key and name it as Control Panel. Next, right-click on the Control Panel key, select New > Key, and name it International.
    • Then, you have to create a REG_DOWRD value in the International key.
    • For that, right-click on it, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it as TurnOffAutocorrectMisspelledWords.
    • Follow the same steps to create another REG_DWORD value named TurnOffHighlightMisspelledWords.
    • Now, double-click on each of them to set the Value data as 1.

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    • Click on the OK button to save the change.
    • If you want to turn them on again, open the same REG_DWORD values, enter the Value data as 0, and click the OK button to save the change.

    I’ve noticed that several users have encountered similar issues. The above are some suggested workarounds for you. If the issue still persists, I recommend providing feedback to Microsoft Ideas · Community. Our product team is in charge of that feedback site, and they constantly check customer reviews and feedback. The higher votes, the more attention the related team will pay on. And a lot of the features are developed and improved based on customer feedback. 

    I hope this helps. Please feel free to reply below if you have any update or further concern. I am looking forward to your response!

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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