Forum Discussion
New spell check highlight--how to disable
I've noticed a new red highlight (not the red squiggly underline) connected to spell check in Word. It only appears when you mouse over a word that has been flagged by spell check. When you click on it, you get a pop up of suggested "did you mean?" words. Screenshot below.
I would like to turn this red highlight off WITHOUT turning off spell check, the red squiggly underline, or the ability to right click and get a list of spelling suggestions. The highlight is incredibly annoying and gets in the way of other functionality (like clicking though a hyperlink).
I found one post about this on another forum (here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/419624/how-to-turn-off-new-popup-for-spell-checking-in-word-for-mac-on-macos-11-3), which suggested un-checking "Automatically use suggestions from the spell checker." I have un-checked this and restarted Word, but it makes no difference.
What can I do to get rid of this thing?
In case it is relevant I am using Word 16:50 on Mac OS Catalina 10:15:7.
- Hello, I am having this exact same issue. While I understand the need to have it on tablets, on laptops and desktops there has to be a way to disable this feature. Its intently more cumbersome and annoying to deal with the popup box every time I want to edit a word. While google has yielded zero results, as I don't know what the feature is called beyond "editing card" (which only comes up with tips about how to make and edit greeting cards), hopefully somebody does and or has a solution beyond turning off spellcheck entirely. Figures crossed this issue is resolved soon, I don't want to switch back to pages on mac.
When you create a document in Word, Word compares all the words with the dictionaries stored in Word as you write. If you use a word that is not entered there, it will be underlined as an error with a red wavy line. This is helpful in the case of typing errors. Unfortunately, these lines also appear in technical terms and proper names that are not found in dictionaries. So if you have to deal with technical terms frequently, you can either add these to the user dictionary or switch off the automatic checking function without further ado.
To switch off the display of the red wavy lines, go to the “File” tab and select the “Options” entry.
In the "Document Checker" category, deselect the "Check Spelling As You Type" option.
You can still have Word check the spelling of your document by calling up the spelling checker in the "Check" tab with the "Spelling and grammar" button.
* Machine translated with Google Translator from the German text of the upper link.
I would be happy to know if I could help.
Nikolino
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)
* Kindly Mark and Vote this reply if it helps please, as it will be beneficial to more Community members reading here.
Hi NikolinoDE
The problem is not the wavy red lines, these are useful and function as they always have by allowing you to right-click and choose to correct or ignore etc.
The problem is the red highlight that opens a popup as in the image attached when you left-click on the word. This is frustrating as anoneditor mentioned in their 29 July post, because there are many more reasons to left-click a word, and for laptop or desktop users that have the ability to right-click, the spell-check option is available there and has been working fine for ages. We don't need another way to correct a spelling mistake.For further info see: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/419624/how-to-turn-off-new-popup-for-spell-checking-in-word-for-mac-on-macos-11-3
The solution in this post worked for me - it allows you to turn off the highlighting of misspelled words using Group Policy or Registry: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/autocorrect-and-highlight-misspelled-words-settings
dharmachic
- dharmachic Thanks for posting! I don't think this will work for me, though, since I am running Word on a Mac using OS Catalina 10:15:7.
- I have no solution, but I want to add my voice to those who want a way to turn this off. It's killing me. I have to tap three times to select a word. How is this helpful? Grr.
Also subscribing to the thread in the hopes that someone finds a solution. - This is driving me absolutely crazy. I can't stand all of this intrusive BS that Microsoft keeps cramming into their software. The new spell check situation is extremely clunky and annoying. I hate that the spell check options pop up when you click on a word, without being requested, and I really hate that I, the USER, don't have any way to disable this extremely unnecessary feature.
I'm not the most suitable for this topic, my knowledge is very limited when it comes to Mac, but I can try to help you:)).
To turn off auto-correcting for a specific app,
open the app and choose Edit -> Spelling & Grammar -> Auto-Correct Spelling
(it's disabled if it's unchecked).
If an app's Edit menu doesn't have a spell check or grammar check command, check the settings or menus to see if the app has its own spell check component/setup.
I would be happy to know if I could help.
Nikolino
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)
* Kindly Mark and Vote this reply if it helps please, as it will be beneficial to more Community members reading here.
Hi NikolinoDE, I'm not looking to turn off spell check or auto-correcting. As I mentioned in my comment, "I would like to turn this red highlight off WITHOUT turning off spell check, the red squiggly underline, or the ability to right click and get a list of spelling suggestions."
Thanks for your willingness to help, anyway!I'm not sure, as I said my knowledge is very limited, but the red snake-like line is for words that are actually spelled correctly, but this is usually because they are not in the Word dictionary.
The dictionary forms the basis for correcting spelling with Word. If the spell check is activated in Word, all texts in the document are automatically compared with the words from the integrated dictionary.
For example, so that the program permanently recognizes important proper names as correctly spelled, right-click the highlighted error so that a drop-down menu opens. Here you can select the option "Add to dictionary".
In the future, Microsoft Word will automatically recognize in every new text document that you open that the word added to the dictionary is spelled correctly.
Ergo: If the spelling correction is activated in Word, the snake-like red line can also be seen. Switching off the red line, as far as I know, only by switching off the spelling correction.
Hope that this information has brought you a little further.
Thank you for your understanding and patience
Wish you a nice day.
Nikolino
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)
Hello anoneditor ,
what you are looking for is a way how to customize the rightclick or context menu.
I have never worked on Mac so I can't tell you exactly what to do, but there are many articles I saw that might be helpful to you. Although not standard, it is not an infrequent demand and I am sure you will find your answer after a few refined searches. Some require registry edit, so read all you can before you decide.
Sorry I can't be of better help, but I hope this will at least nudge you into the right direction. Lenka
- Hi Lenka_Kerumova, thanks, this is helpful! I did some Googling about context menus as you suggested, and I realized a key omission in my description above. The typical context menu that includes spellcheck options comes up with you right click a spellcheck-flagged word. You can indeed customize this menu (I had no idea). However, I have no problem with this menu and I use it all the time. The highlight that I am talking about appears when I mouse over a spellcheck-flagged word, and the menu pops up when I *left* click the highlight. This is why it is so annoying--there are a million reasons to left click a word (like, I dunno, editing it) that a popup gets in the way of.
Making this distinction allowed me to find many other forum posts complaining of this issue. Apparently it was introduced so that those using words on tablets or other devices without a right click function still have access to spelling corrections. Which makes sense, but it should be possible to disable this feature if you are not on one of those devices. I did not find any solutions, except that you can get around the pop up on windows by alt+left click on or mac by command+shift+left click on a mac (obviously these are far from ideal). It seems that right now there is no way to disable or edit the left click spellcheck context menu. But, please, Microsoft, create one!- You may be right about that this new "smart" feature in a long line of infuriating updates has been developed with users on tablets with touchscreens and without physical keyboards in mind. As precisely one of those users with a Windows tablet who regularly likes to work with the keyboard off, let me add my voice to those of the dissatisfied. I for one certainly do not appreciate yet another stupid pop-up jumping in my face and getting in the way of things (for the already mentioned reasons: takes time to load, gets in the way of functionality and obscures following lines, is completely redundant if I get the same thing in the context menu with a simple right-click). Curiously, despite this ingeniuity specifically implemented to supposedly help the likes of me, the exact opposite is the case. I can't simply dismiss the pop-up with a keyboard shortcut (yet another one I have to memorize), since I have no keyboard. Instead, it forces yet another step upon me, since tapping on underlined text now summons the **bleep** pop-up, which I need to first dismiss with another tap elsewhere. After this, automatically the entire word is now selected, so I need another tap to de-select (Which was annoying enough before MS added the pop-up). Then the cursor lands either at the start of the word or the end, not where I actually tap - no, I now have to tap and drag the cursor by its stupid touchscreen handle to where I want to edit. And all of this, because someone arrogantly thinks I can't be expected to do a long-press for a right-click, apparently. MS Office, which worked pretty flawlessly on Surface-like devices during the heydey of Windows 8.1 and early Win 10 has gone to utter crap.
The very least those arrogant clowns at MS could do is give us an option to disable imposed functionality if it simply does not work for certain use cases. I really don't care if the Devs are super proud of their newest concoctions; if it does not work for me, I need to be able to undo it. But that, quite obviously, is not MS's style these days (just for reference, look at the debacle with "modern comments", which has professional editors, writers, educators and possibly anyone else who actually uses the comment function to earn a living up in arms - after months of despair, they can now be "temporarilly" disabled). So yeah, people please vent your frustration, hopefully MS will finally learn that they can't simply push any nonsense without any option to toggle it off.
- Because somebody mentioned that the objectionable feature relates to tablet use, I am reminded how in Windows there is an option to enable or disable tablet mode on devices with touch screens, including some laptops. Since you are on a Mac, I right away wonder whether your Mac is of the 2018-2019 model era at least, and if so, if it has one of those touch-sensitive strips below the screen and just above the keyboard, by the hinge. If so, it might be that Word is being triggered by this to be in tablet-support mode. I am working on a Mac at the moment but lack sufficient familiarity with the platform to be authoritative, but I notice that when I search on "touch" in the MacOS settings app, one of the things listed as a setting related to Touch Bar is "Touch Bar typing suggestions," which it identifies as being in the keyboard settings. You can specify there not to check spelling as you type--at the OS level--with Word still doing it for itself, and still displaying the red squiggly line. My version of Word is not current enough on the Mac to display the red highlight you describe, but since it is touch related (so the thread thinks) I speculate that disabling the keyboard setting for checking text as you type, might have some effect on this, if Word is paying attention to the touch status of the OS settings. I know this is a long shot, and I apologize I lack the specific setup to test the idea out all the way, but I thought it just might pertain. Best of luck.
Obnoctocon thank you for the suggestion. My Macbook is, however, the old stock-standard 2014 Macbook Pro A1502, so no touch bar in sight. I'll root around in the settings but I remember distinctly that this feature showed up after a Word update, so I doubt changing OS settings will have much effect.
- I also wanted to voice my frustration at this feature - very inconvenient on the laptop and, as far as I can see, no way to turn it off.
Every year I get more and more disillusioned with Word - it gets bigger, harder to use and less productive. Now every time there is a word mispelt - which happens often because I'm using non-dictionary words - I have to click off it or beside it to get rid of the pop-up.
Why introduce a feature that can't be turned off? So frustrating.
Eventually these gremlins accumulate and I start to contemplate a life with out Word - it would be a big change but it just seems inevitable now. - Just adding another voice to this - I too despise this highlighting nonsense. I tried a PC variation of the MacOS fix and couldn't really find anything comparable to fix it, then tried the GPedit and Registry edit, neither worked either but I didn't really expect those to work. This terrible "helpful feature" really makes writing a headache. Boo Microsoft, boo on you.
You can post feedback for Microsoft and let them know that you want a change. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-office-2b102d44-b43f-4dd2-9ff4-23cf144cfb11#platform=Windows.
anoneditor I see I'm replying to an 18 month old post, but we only just got Office 365 at work (a jump from Word 2013!) and this red highlight issue is driving me nuts. I'm googled out about this issue. Did you find out anything? Thanks in advance.
Note, this is not the place to get any changes made in Word nor the attention of developers at Microsoft. This is an independent user-to-user support forum. MS does not see anything you post here. The way to get their attention is through the feedback mechanisms.
- How do I give feedback on Microsoft Office?
- Word Feedback Portal – allows a public feedback that can be voted on
- Microsoft applications Feedback Portal (pick an application)
- Send Feedback to MS Developers
- Bonus Reading related to MS Feedback system
My personal preference is to use the Word Feedback Portal. If you do, please get a share link and post it here so that others seeing this thread can go there and vote and comment.
- Yes I'm aware of that. My post was asking if anyone knew of any change. I have already given feedback through the proper channels.
ShazLea No new developments here either. Welcome to the thread! That highlighting is still super-frustrating but I just had to learn to deal with it. It does still really slow down my writing though. If I'm working on something very complex with lots of new words, I just have to turn off the spellcheck until I'm at a draft check stage.
And yes, I reported the problem to Microsoft through proper channels back when this thread was first active. I'm sure they don't read those comments either anyway.
