LibreOffice Writer Tutorial #6 – Using Spelling and Grammar Checker Tool
If you are looking for a word processing program with a bunch of tools and features that is capable of satisfying all of your word processing needs, then you are in the right place because Writer is not only a versatile word processor but, most importantly, it is free and open-source and it comes bundled in the LibreOffice free office suite. In this tutorial I'm going to tell you how to use the Spelling and Grammar Checker Tool of this amazing free word processing application.
Having LibreOffice installed and ready to work in your computer is a must if you want to follow this Writer tutorial correctly. Getting LibreOffice is as simple and quick as clicking on the “Download” button above, once downloaded to the designated folder; the InstallIQTM will guide you through the entire setup process.
Assuming that you already have entered some text in a new document or that you have opened an existing document and you need to check your text for grammar errors, misspellings or typos, you have to go to Tools → Language... and from the popup dialog select the applicable language for the spell-check from the available options. In this menu you can also indicate the length or extent of text that will be affected, such as the current selection only, the selected paragraph or the entire text body.
Once you have selected the working language, you can go to Tools → Check Spelling. Alternatively, you can press F7 on your keyboard too.
All the spell-check options will appear in a popup dialog. As you can see, when Writer finds a misspelled word, this shows in red on the upper panel and the suggested corrections appear in the lower panel.
Options are: Ignore Once, Ignore All (meaning ignore this misspelled word throughout the whole document) Add (add it to the dictionary) Change (change the misspelled word for the alternative word of your choice) and Change All (meaning replace this word by the indicated word or phrase all through the document)
Once you click on any of them, you'll continue with the next misspelled word. There is an Auto-Correct option that will take care of all misspellings (not only the ones found so far). Once the whole document has been checked, a warning like this will appear. Click on 'Yes’ button if you want to continue your spell-check from the beginning of your document.
One really useful aspect of Writer's spell checking capabilities is that you can spell-check in real time as you type. To enable this, go to Tools → Options... and from the dialog's left panel, select “Language Settings” → “Writing Aids” option. There is a check-box under the “Options” section, there you must check the “Check spelling as you type” option box. You can also select to “Check grammar as you type” and a bunch of other useful writing aids.
Click on the OK button and the misspelled words will be displayed with a red zigzag underline. You can right-click on them to get the correction options.
This feature can be also enabled/disabled by clicking the AutoSpellCheck button on the standard toolbar.
Final Words
With these tools and writing aids you can compose flawless, error-free documents easily. Writer is your friend and will take care of all misspellings, typos and grammar errors along your documents in almost any language you can possibly think of. Writer is certainly an outstanding piece of freeware that will satisfy all of your word processing needs. Get your 100% free, fully-functional version of LibreOffice right now by clicking on the link below. It downloads and installs in no time.
