Why You Should Never Skip Text While Spell-checking Your Documents
Have you ever been so focused on writing an important document that you had no idea what you were actually writing? If so, then you might want to consider breaking your workflow to spell-check your document every so often. But do it right! You shouldn’t skip the text itself when spell-checking your document; this can have consequences, ranging from embarrassing typos to formatting issues and even security holes, depending on what kind of document you are working with. Here are four ways to skip text while spell-checking your documents.
Skipping the word entirely
Some of the most frustrating moments I have with Word are when I misspell a word and the program automatically skips over it, not recognizing it as a misspelled word. It’s enough to make me want to throw my computer out the window!
If you find yourself in this situation, don’t give up hope just yet. There are actually several ways you can correct your error without having to start from scratch or retype your document entirely.
Skipping the word partially
Spell-checkers are great for catching misspelled words and the occasional typing mistake. However, if you don’t completely type out the word, spell-checkers won’t know that you meant to type a different word. For example, if you typed throught instead of through, a spell-checker would not catch this error because they only see one word at a time and can’t tell that throught is an incorrect spelling of through.
Ignoring the word
Spell checking is a helpful tool for writers, but if you’re proofreading your document and you see a word that isn’t spelled correctly, don’t ignore it! Ignoring the word will only make it more difficult to find later on when you might not remember what the word was in the first place. Plus, spell checking tools are programmed to take into account common mistakes like their versus they’re. So when you catch these mistakes early on, they won’t be an issue later on.
Proofreading by hand
It’s always a good idea to proofread your document by hand before you send it off, but this is especially important if you’re working on something sensitive. Even the most sophisticated technology can make mistakes, which is why it’s best to read over your work yourself.
The first way to do this is by going line by line and reading every word.
