Note: Many applications have some, but not all, of the spelling and grammar options. For example, in some applications the Edit menu has a “Spelling” option instead of a “Spelling and Grammar” option.
If you don’t see either “Spelling” or “Spelling and Grammar” in the Edit menu, the application doesn’t provide the Mac OS X spell-checking feature. Check the application’s preferences or menus to see if it has its own spelling checker.
Accept or ignore suggested words
Mac OS X uses “text prediction” to assist you as you type, by showing you suggested words below the word you are typing.
- To accept a suggested word, press the Space bar and continue typing. If multiple suggestions are shown, click the one you want to accept.
- To ignore the suggested word, continue typing as usual.
Check the spelling of a single word
Select the word, and then choose Edit > “Spelling and Grammar” > “Show Spelling and Grammar.”
Check spelling in an entire document
- With the document open, choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Check Document Now. The first error in your document is highlighted.
- Either correct the word or leave it as is, and then press Command-semicolon (;) to see the next error.
- To see suggested alternate spellings for a word, and get easy access to other spelling and grammar commands, hold down the Control key as you click an error.
Check spelling and make corrections as you type
- Open the application you want to use and choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Check Spelling While Typing. When you mistype or misspell a word, it’s underlined in red.
- If you want to correct misspellings as you type, choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Correct Spelling Automatically. Misspelled words are corrected if they don’t begin with a capital letter and don’t appear on a line of their own.
Check grammar along with spelling
With the document you want to check open, choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Check Grammar With Spelling, so there’s a checkmark next to it.
Misspelled words are underlined in red and grammar errors in green.
Use advanced spelling and grammar options
- With a document open, choose Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar.
- To change the language, choose it from the pop-up menu. If you want to see more language options, choose Open Text Preferences.
- To check grammar along with spelling, select the “Check grammar” checkbox.
- If an error is found, do one of the following:
- If one of the suggested alternatives is correct, select it and click Change.
- If none of the alternatives is correct, retype the word or words and click Change.
- If you don’t want to make a correction, click Ignore. The error is ignored if it occurs again in the current window, but is highlighted if it’s found in other windows.
- If you don’t want the word to be treated as an error, click Learn to add it to your personal dictionary. (In some applications, you can Control-click the word and choose Learn Spelling from the shortcut menu.)
- To review a definition of a suggested alternative, select it and click Define.
- If no alternatives are listed, click Guess to see whether any possibilities appear.
- To continue checking without making any changes, click Find Next.
Check for errors missed by the spell checker
It’s a good idea to read through your document yourself, even if you use the spell checker. If you type “fine” instead of “find,” for example, it won’t show up as a misspelled word.
To easily identify such errors, highlight the text you want to check and choose Edit > Speech > Start Speaking.
