Set ‘do not check spelling’ for some text in document

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I’m spell checking a long academic document, and want to avoid clicking ignore every time an author’s name is flagged up as not recognised.
How can I set the bibliography so that “Text marked do not check spelling or grammer is ignored”?
I think I should be able to select text, then mark it somehow as not to be spell checked – I’ve looked in Word help but no joy.
Any help gratefully accepted. Frank

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In Word 2003 and earlier, it was under Tools > Language > Set Language > “No Proofing” checkbox. I’m not sure where that is now in 2007-2010.

It might be easier to write a macro and associate a keystroke with it. For example:

Code:

Sub MarkSelectionNoProofing()
If Selection.Type  wdSelectionNormal Then Exit Sub
Selection.NoProofing = True
End Sub

If you find that you need to repeat the action numerous times, maybe:

Code:

Sub MarkAllMatchesNoProofing()
If Selection.Type  wdSelectionNormal Then Exit Sub
Dim strWord As String, rngTemp As Word.Range
strWord = Selection.Text
If MsgBox(“Mark all instances of ‘” & strWord & “‘ not to be spell-checked?”, vbQuestion + vbYesNo)  vbYes Then Exit Sub
Set rngTemp = Selection.Range
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
With Selection.Find
    .ClearFormatting
    .Text = strWord
    .Replacement.Text = “”
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindStop
    .Format = False
    .MatchCase = False
    .MatchWholeWord = False
    .MatchWildcards = False
    .MatchSoundsLike = False
    .MatchAllWordForms = False
    While .Execute
        Selection.NoProofing = True
        Selection.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
    Wend
End With
rngTemp.Select
Set rngTemp = Nothing
End Sub

I didn’t test that code thoroughly, but hopefully it will get you started.

P.S. That code might not reach into all headers and footers, I didn’t check.

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I have a character style for citations that is Italics and set to not check spelling or grammar. I have another without the Italics for proper names. I apply the citation style to case names in briefs and the names style to proper names that aren’t part of citations. I can’t figure out how to create one in Word 2010, though. It works fine on new docx documents based on old templates that have the style, though. The templates were created in Word 2003 (or earlier).

Found how to apply the direct formatting in Word 2010:

Review > Language > Proofing Language

This was found at http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/MasterSpellCheck.htm#NothingMisspelled.

Now to try creating a character style, by example.

That worked. Once I had a word with the no proofing format, I created a new character style, based on the default character style with that word selected. It pulled the no-proofing characteristic into the style. When that was applied to other text, that text also became no-proofing.

You may need to create a couple of these to match any special formatting in the words you need to skip.

I still don’t know how to create the style directly but may figure it out.

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I take it there are too many names for you to just add each one to the dictionary on first encounter? A surprisingly large number of common-in-the-US names are already there.

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I take it there are too many names for you to just add each one to the dictionary on first encounter? A surprisingly large number of common-in-the-US names are already there.

The thing is, if I send the document to someone else, I don’t want these items showing up as an error on their systems, either. This is the same problem faced by the original poster; you can’t make a dictionary of exceptions a part of a document.

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This puzzled me too Charles. However, it is possible — albeit a bit non-intuitive. With the new interface, using words to describe the procedure makes it seem more complicated than it really is. That being said, here’s how to do it:

To create a character style in Word 2010, click the small arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Styles panel of the Home ribbon to bring up the Styles dialog. Click the leftmost button at the bottom to create a new style. In the dialog, enter a name for the style and set the style type to Character. From the Format button (lower left), choose “Language…” and choose a different language to what is proposed. Before leaving the dialog, turn on the “Do not check spelling or grammar” option. Note that you must change the language for the no proofing option to take effect; any language will do. Click OK to return to the Modify Style dialog. You can redo Format Language to reset it to your preference, but that isn’t necessary since you have turned off the checking.

Is this a bug? Perhaps. Word 2010 does accept character styles from earlier versions without any problem, so I assume having to change the language to get the no proofing to take is just an interface glitch.

BTW, character styles are often overlooked in Word, but they can be very useful. I have a number of different character styles defined to differentiate other languages and elements I don’t need to spell check. During my editing phases, I have these defined with a color attribute: green for Spanish; blue for French; purple for URLs; dark grey for Latin; brown for citations, etc. This way I can spot the otherwise invisible language attribute — and make corrections if it is accidentally applied beyond its intended range. As well, I can use Find All to extract all instances by the style name: very handy for checking URLs and emails, but also for use in macros to help check references for citations or build acronym lists. When editing is complete, I switch to a parallel template that has the colors turned off.

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This puzzled me too Charles. …

To create a character style in Word 2010, click the small arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Styles panel of the Home ribbon to bring up the Styles dialog. Click the leftmost button at the bottom to create a new style. In the dialog, enter a name for the style and set the style type to Character. From the Format button (lower left), choose “Language…” and choose a different language to what is proposed. Before leaving the dialog, turn on the “Do not check spelling or grammar” option. Note that you must change the language for the no proofing option to take effect; any language will do. Click OK to return to the Modify Style dialog. You can redo Format Language to reset it to your preference, but that isn’t necessary since you have turned off the checking.

Is this a bug? Perhaps. Word 2010 does accept character styles from earlier versions without any problem, so I assume having to change the language to get the no proofing to take is just an interface glitch.

I picked this up as well from http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/MasterSpellCheck.htm#ExemptingText. A style created this way will specify a language. In Word 2003, or creating one by example, no language is specified.

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I found I could set a selection to not spell check using the set language dialog box, which has a do not check spelling tick box.

I’m using 2007 – Review tab > Proofing group > Set language

All I need do is select the bibliography and set it appropriately.
Thanks
Frank

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