New spell check highlight--how to disable

[anoneditor]

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-wor...), 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.

 

[#2]

@anoneditor 

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.

[#3]

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!

[#4]

@anoneditor

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)

[#5]

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

[#6]

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!

[#7]

Hi @NikolinoDE, thanks for this response. Again, I am not looking to add words to the dictionary or to change anything about the red squiggly underline. I am looking to disable the highlight and the left click spellcheck menu.

[#8]

Hello @anoneditor ,

now this IS interesting.

I hoped my answer would nudge you in a correct direction, but because you shared your findings, I learnt something new too! 

This thread may have not bear fruits when it came to fixing, but it brought new information, which is always a welcome bonus.

Thank you.

[#9]

Like i already write...
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.

[#10]

It annoys me even more to know this thing that has been driving me nuts working on my laptop, was designed for tablets. Wow Microsoft. Be better!

[#11]

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.

[#12]

@KennethLever 

Switch off red wavy lines

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.

[#13]

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-wor...

 

[#14]

@Geldmar @KennethLever Unfortunately I haven't learned anything more about this since my last post. And I can't switch to Pages because I need Word's functionality and files that can go straight to a typesetter (I love Word other than this issue). But if it makes you feel any better know that I am still mad about it every. single. day.

I'll post here if I ever figure this out or if Microsoft makes a change (fingers crossed). And I hope other people will post even if they don't know the answer, just to show Microsoft that it is a problem!

[#15]

My main reason for posting was to hopefully draw more attention (including Microsoft's) to it 🙂
I agree, Word is so good, but this has been driving me nuts... though it does make me feel better that someone else is as bothered as me.
* Please anyone who reads this and is also annoyed: add your voice, and/or if you know how to reach out to Microsoft to complain directly, please tell me how?

[#16]

@anoneditor 

Submit Product Feedback or Feature Requests to Microsoft's Virtual Suggestion Boxes

The best way to make voice heard and your vote count is to visit one of them and provide your feedback there.

Thank you for your understanding and patience

NikolinoDE

I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

[#17]

Thank you @NikolinoDE this is useful info to have. I've lodged my feedback form my application. 👍👍👍

[#18]

This is literally the bane of my existence. Microsoft has gone to crap. Have you had any luck fixing this?

[#19]

@jdrisc1680 No fix yet, but I sent Microsoft my feedback on it via my Word application, as directed by @NikolinoDE yesterday.
If you and others do the same it could draw their attention to it.

[#20]

@anoneditor 

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