Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

The TileWorld Spelling Checker

You might have noticed that as you type, Windows quietly and instantly corrects your obvious typos. Or maybe you haven’t noticed, which is even more awesome.

In other words, if you type “prolbem,” for example, it changes to “problem” the instant you press the space bar at the end of the word. There’s no beep, no underline, no error message; the correction just happens.

Tip

You can turn off this feature if you don’t find it so helpful—for example, if you’re writing a novel starring a character with really bad spelling. In the Charms bar, choose Settings, then “Change PC settings,” then “PC and devices,” then Typing. Then turn off “Autocorrect misspelled words.”

You can also teach Windows to stop correcting some word that you know is correct. Right-click a word it just corrected and, from the shortcut menu, choose “Stop correcting [the word].”

That’s all well and good if Windows is sure of the word you meant to type. But what about a word like “corse”? Did you mean corset or course? Windows can’t read your mind. (That’s coming in Windows 9.)

In that case, Windows doesn’t correct the error—it just flags it by displaying a wavy underline beneath the questionable word. Either you can edit it manually, or you can inspect Windows’ proposed corrected spellings, like this:

• Touchscreen: Tap the word.

• Mouse: Right-click the word.

• Keyboard: Press the Menu key (), if your ...