The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Microsoft Word’s Check and Recheck Functions
When Spell Checks ain’t Spell Checks  
Brett Lockwood
 brett@melbpc.org.au

Often we selectively spell check a document. When you run a spelling check in Microsoft Word, the Ignore and Ignore All buttons in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box can be used with a variety of purposes in mind. As an editor, during a preliminary spelling check of a document I am sometimes looking for one particular type of term to "hive off" into one or more custom dictionaries, eg. for author query purposes. The Spelling and Grammar dialog box Add button copies those items into an open custom dictionary. I might choose to temporarily ignore (leave unedited) certain terms or classes of terms, because of their large numbers or their technical or specialist nature. Web addresses, IT terms etc. could fall into that category.
 
Sometimes I just want to clear up standard recognisable spelling errors during an initial "pass" through the document, and leave the rest of the document alone. In all these cases I might frequently use the Ignore and Ignore All buttons. If the document is large I might use them several hundred times. You might do some of these things in your own work. But, even if you intend to fully spell check a document, you will probably use these buttons on certain items, because you intend to return to skipped items later, or because you are considering skipping certain items entirely.

The Ignore and Ignore All Buttons
The button names in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box seem pretty self-explanatory, but two of them do a lot more than they imply. When Word stops at a possible spelling error (or grammar error, if grammar checking is turned on), use of the Ignore button results in that single instance of the possible error being skipped, and use of the Ignore All button results in all instances of the possible error being skipped. Right? Well, yes, and the hypertext help box for the Ignore All button says just that! (see Figure 1.)

However, a lot more happens in the background. When items are skipped by clicking Ignore or Ignore All, Word doesn't really "ignore" them. Instead, it:
  • keeps a listing of these items (the "ignore" listing)
  • stores that listing as part of the document
  • skips (ignores) all listed items in
subsequent spell checks of that document, regardless of when the spell checks are undertaken.


Figure 1. The Spelling and Grammar dialog box for Word 2000. 
The Help button (the question mark in the top right hand corner) 
has been clicked and then applied to the Ignore All button to 
invoke the hypertext help box for this button. In Word 97, 
right-click on a button to bring up the “What’s This?” 
hypertext help.

Implications Of a Document's Internal "Ignore" Listing

This means that even if the document is closed and opened a year later, these items will still be skipped (ignored) by default in a spell check; meaning that items which probably require checking will not be queried by Word. Also, because the listing generated via use of these buttons is stored as part of the document, it is quite likely that if the document originated elsewhere, when you receive it there may already be a listing of skipped items/words stored inside it. Of course this means that even if you only perform one subsequent spell check on the document, many incorrect spellings or other items can easily be missed.

I use Word for hours every day, and not one colleague or user of Word to whom I have mentioned this "feature", has been aware that it happens. However, I have heard people say that they consider Word faulty because document items that were previously identified by Word as possible spelling errors are no longer being queried by Word in spell checks. I have also heard comments that equate to people saying that they have lost some confidence in themselves vis-…-vis spell checking, because they know something is going wrong, but they think it's their own fault for not understanding Word well enough.
 
Perhaps everybody would be happier if the Check/Recheck Document button was located in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box, instead of being buried deep inside the Options dialog box, where its "less than informative" name doesn't advertise its purpose very well.

The Solution

So, the Word help information displayed in Figure 1 is incomplete. However, the solution to this issue is simple. At any time, items that have been skipped using Ignore or Ignore All can be reset (reactivated) for spell checking and grammar checking:

  1. Choose Tools|Options. (Edit| Preferences. or Tools|Preferences. on the Mac) on the menu bar.
  2. Click the Spelling & Grammar tab.
  3. Click the Check/Recheck Document button.
  4. The check/recheck document query box opens (Figure 2, below).
  5. If you choose Yes, the "ignore" listing in the current document is deleted.


Figure 2. The check/recheck document query box.


When a document is first opened for a working session, the Check/Recheck Document button name (the button's "caption") will be "Check Document". If Ignore or Ignore All have been used at all during a Word session, the button's name will change to "Recheck Document". The fact that the button name changes is not important and has no practical implications. In either case, clicking the button generates a message from Word informing you that the spelling (and grammar) checker can be reset. Choosing Yes means that items previously ignored will be queried again in the next spell check.

If you use spell checking, you should know how this function works or you will not be presented with "skipped" items in subsequent spelling checks. You might be completely unaware that items requiring checking are not being queried.

Activate The Check/Recheck Document Button Regularly

It can be a good habit to activate the Check/Recheck Document button every time you open a document for working purposes. This may well be documented somewhere, but in writing this article I couldn't find it in online help for either Word 97 or Word 2000.
 
Ever since I stumbled across the Check/Recheck Document button about a year ago, I also make a habit of:
  • activating Check/Recheck Document as one of the first things I do upon receipt of a document (because that document's "ignore" listing, if one exists, has travelled with it)
  • activating Check/Recheck Document as one of the last things I do when I'm finished with a document and about to pass it on (again, because the document's "ignore" listing, if one exists, will travel with it, and by doing this I ensure that the recipient will at least get the benefit of one complete spell check before they, too, become an Ignore button victim).
Check/Recheck Document And Custom Dictionaries

The Check/Recheck Document button also has implications for custom dictionary use. How do I know this? Word's hypertext help told me so! Figure 3 shows the hypertext help box for the Check/Recheck Document button. In fact, this help box is where I first learnt about the existence of a document's "ignore" listing. Did I believe Word immediately when I read this hypertext about the "ignore" listing being reset? Well, no. I tested the procedure inside out, and it worked, and then I believed.

The hypertext help box in Figure 3 also says that the Check/Recheck Document button should be used after general spelling options have been changed (set via Tools|Options. |Spelling & Grammar tab). I haven't tested the accuracy of this advice, partly because you can go nuts testing software procedures, partly because the first sentence in the help box doesn't make sense whatsoever to me (clicking the button doesn't result in any type of checking activity; it simply appears to change an internal Word setting). If you have experiences of your own in relation to these "features" of the Check/Recheck Document button, I'd appreciate hearing from you about them.


Figure 3. Options dialog box, Spelling & Grammar tab for Word 2000. The Help button (question mark) has been clicked and then the 
Check Document button clicked to invoke the hypertext help for 
this button. In Word 97, right-click on a button to bring up the 
“What’s This?” hypertext help.

These help box comments about custom dictionary use and general spelling options are further reasons why it can be good practice to activate the Check/Recheck Document button regularly, to ensure that you get "clean" spelling checks (and grammar checks - if you have that feature activated).

Remember: The internal ignore list created by the use of Ignore and Ignore All is specific to the document concerned. If you apply the Ignore and Ignore All buttons to a series of items in a document and then close that document and open another, the "ignore" list for the first document is no longer in operation. Spell checks performed on a document use that document's own "ignore" list (if one exists).

About The Author
Brett Lockwood, brett@melbpc.org.au, teaches on-screen editing as Training Officer for the Society of Editors (Vic.), and together with the Society is publishing a number of handbooks on on-screen editing.

Reprinted from the August 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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