How to Open MS Office Spell & Thesaurus Checker

by Alan Sembera Google

It happens to everyone. You're writing a letter or proposal and you can't decide on the correct spelling of a word. Or maybe you want to use a different word, but you can't think of a synonym. If you are using a Microsoft Office program, help is always close at hand. You can access a spell checker and thesaurus directly from within your Office programs to polish up your spelling as well as your prose.

Spell Checker

1. Open a document in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Publisher.

2. Place your cursor at the point in the document where you want the spell checker to begin.

3. Select the "Review" tab near the top of the program window.

4. Select the "Spelling" button in the Proofing section of the toolbar; in Word, select the "Spelling & Proofing" button. The program will check your document for misspelled words and provide you with options for correcting or ignoring possible spelling errors.



2. Highlight the word you wish to check in the thesaurus. If don't want to check a specific word in the document, you can skip this step.

3. Select the "Review" tab at the top of the program, and then click the "Thesaurus" button

4. The thesaurus window will open to the right of your document, displaying a list of synonyms and antonyms for the selected word. You can choose one of the words from the list to insert into your document, or you can look up a different word.


  • Press "F7" to run the spell checker from the keyboard. Press "Shift-F7" to open the thesaurus window.
  • You can activate the spell checker from within Microsoft Access by selecting the "Home" tab and then clicking the "Spelling" button in the "Records" section of the toolbar. You cannot activate the thesaurus from within Access.



Photo Credits

  • Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images
Suggest an Article Correction