Why I turn off Word’s grammar checking
Apr 22nd, 2009 by handolio
I got given a new laptop at work, and had to go through the usual rigmarole of correcting the dictionary language, turning off AutoFormat, and fixing the default paragraph spacing.
I forgot to disable the grammar checker, but fortunately it’s set to nag you by being no bloody use whatsoever. In this case, by taking exception to a perfectly legitimate comma.
Unless you doubt your mastery of English against a set of rules put together by Microsoft, you’ll probably want to turn it off, too. Here’s how in Word 2007:
1 Click the stupid, round, nameless button in the top left of Word.
2 Click Word Options, hidden irritatingly in the last place you’d expect to find it; at the bottom of the drop down menu that appears.
3 Click Proofing in the left-hand pane of the pointlessly over-styled and graphics-heavy window that appears.
4 Under When correcting spelling and grammar in Word uncheck Mark grammar errors as you type and Check grammar with spelling.
5 Click OK to get back to Word.
And if the developers at Microsoft had to put up with the resultant explosion of potty-mouthing from Handolio, they’d fix this quick-smart.
I thought I was very restrained, in fact.
I should also point out that I’m grateful to Dave The IT for sorting me out with a new PC.
*twitch* We hates the ribbon menu! I fear for the day that Microsoft forces it on Visual Studio users.
AARRGH! This also drives me nuts. Why DO a bunch of Microsoft programmers think they know more about grammar than me!? One bug I can never fix is language selection. I keep resetting it to UK English… and within a day or so it reverts to US. I am SURE they did this on purpose. Do you know how to do it? If so… please add another post!
I hypothesize that Word has a serial comma rule which your “perfectly legitimate comma” is triggering. I suspect this probably wouldn’t be bothersome if you were using the US English setting.
What you need is a word processor that exposes grammar rules and allows you to pick and define which rules you want to apply.
@Jeremy – as it happens I did waffle on about changing your PC’s localisation a while ago.
At a guess, you’re setting it correctly on a document-by-document basis, but either your template or the documents you’re editing are set incorrectly. Start a new blank document and see which language it’s localised for. If it’s correct, tell all your freelancers they won’t be getting any more work until they each fix it on their PCs
@Elbeno – hello Ben! I think you’re right, and you might be right about the US English setting, but then everything else would be bothersome
There have to be better word processors out there than Word. I’ve found a couple that are close, but don’t handle things like tracked changes, word counts or hyperlinks as well. Sadly I keep coming back to Word, despite its frustrations. And, as Tom pointed out in answer to my next post, what frustrates me doesn’t frustrate everyone else.
And if the developers at Microsoft had to put up with the resultant explosion of potty-mouthing from Handolio, they’d fix this quick-smart.
Is there an echo?
So that’s where they hid the bastard. Thank whatever it’s gone now. I normally use OpenOffice and it was driving me crazy by trying to change “Only then would Woman be able to flourish.” to “Only then would Woman are able to flourish.”
Stupid MS Word.
You are awesome, still laughing.