Most of the time when you are working with Excel, one thing you ignore is the spelling mistakes. Excel users often ignore spelling, because they usually work with numbers and figures mainly. However, it is highly important to check spelling mistakes in Excel to make your file mistake-free.
In Excel, you cannot find spelling mistakes as highlighted as you can see in MS Word or PowerPoint. The idea behind spell check in Excel is to produce an error-free workbook that can provide ultimate results.
Let’s dive in to understand how to check spelling mistakes in Excel:
Manually Activating the Grammar Checker:
Most of the time, users tend to prefer working automatically functioning because it saves time and effort. However, there are some users who prefer manually working and in this case, you can press F7 to activate the spelling and grammar checker.
If this function is not working properly on your system, you may follow the steps given below to activate the grammar checker:
- Click on the Review tab when you are on the Excel file.
- Press the Spelling option.
- Now, you will see a dialog box appears with the first misspelled word, in combination with the option to change, ignore, or add it to the custom dictionary.
- Now, you have misspelled words in front of you so that you can correct the spelling mistakes. Once the mistake is resolved, the dialog box will display the next error by default.
Perform Spell Check in Excel – Example:
In the following image, you can see the worksheet data in which the spelling errors are highlighted. Here you can spell check with the help of shortcut key F7.
Suppose that your beginning point is A1.
- Choose cell A1 and press F7.
- Now, the “Spelling” dialog box will open up. You will see that the spelling “mosttt” is “not in the dictionary.” However, the recommended spelling is “most.”
- If you really want to choose the suggestion, click on “Change.” If you don’t want to change it, press “ignore once.”
Keep in mind that if you choose the “ignore once” option, the spelling “mosttt” will remain as it is in the worksheet.
- Right after you click on a button in the earlier step, you will see the next error appear in front of you. You know the spelling “minuuute” is not in the dictionary, and the recommended word is “minute.”
You can click on the “Change” option to accept the recommended spelling. If you click on the “ignore once” option the word will remain as it is in the worksheet.
In the same way, you will see the spell check performed until the last data cell is present in the worksheet.
How to Check Spelling on Multiple Sheets?
You need to follow the steps given below to check spelling in multiple sheets:
- Choose the sheet tabs that needed to be checked. Press and hold the CTRL + these tabs.
- Click on the spell check shortcut F7 or you may choose the Spelling button given on the Review tab.
Now, you will see that Excel will check spelling mistakes in all the selected worksheets:
Once the spell check is completed, you will have to right-click on the selected tabs and choose Ungroup sheets option.
How to Spell Check Text in Formulas:
Usually, if you ever had noticed before, you must have an idea that Excel never checks formula-driven text. Excel trusts a formula, it does not matter what is in it because it is the formula, not a text only.
Nevertheless, if you perform the edit mode once spell check is done, it will work:
Remember that you will have to check each cell individually and it is obviously not easy. However, doing this procedure can save you from a worksheet containing errors in formulas. You may have to be extra vigilant in multi-level nested IF formulas.
Keyboard Shortcut for Spell Checking:
Other than the above methods, you can simply follow a shortcut. We have already explained this shortcut, but here you will see it as a separate approach that lets you learn how to check spelling mistakes in Excel.
Pressing the F7 key from your keyboard helps you run the spell check in Excel. You will find this shortcut effective because it works the same way as the above-mentioned methods. The whole procedure will run smoothly and you will not find any difficulty.
The Characteristics of the Spell Check in Excel:
Below you will see some features of the Excel spell check:
- The uppercase content is often ignored while performing the spell-check function. For instance, if you have the word “BAKRY” in your workbook, the Excel spell check function will not consider it as an error.
- The spell check in Excel never corrects grammatical errors just the way MS Word does.
- You can modify the spell check settings by selecting “Proofing” from the “options” given under the File tab.
- Text strings with a number as an error will not be considered an error in the Excel spell check. For instance, if the word is “BAKRY1,” it will not be an error.
- The repeated words might be considered as an error in the spell check. For instance, in the string, “this is not not my fault,” the extra “not” will be considered as an error.
