How to Conduct a Spell Check in Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Word automatically highlights grammar or spelling errors. Surprisingly, Microsoft Excel does not. This may be due to the fact that Excel, as a spreadsheet app, is primarily focused on numbers. Consequently, many Excel users may be unaware of the app’s spell-check features. However, it is still important to conduct spell checks on Excel to ensure quality work.

In a standard Excel workbook, there are worksheets with cells and formulas. To conduct a spell check on the entire workbook, a single worksheet, a specific cell, or formulas, you need to follow specific approaches. Below, we explain how to conduct a spell check in Excel using these approaches.

How to Conduct a Spell Check of an Excel Worksheet

In Microsoft Excel, a worksheet is a single spreadsheet. To spell check a worksheet, be on it. Here’s how:

Step 1: Click Start on the Taskbar and search for the Excel app.

Step 2: From the results, click Microsoft Excel and open the Excel document.

Step 3: At the bottom of the Excel app, click the worksheet name tab.

Step 4: On the Excel Ribbon, click Review.

Step 5: In the Proofing group, click the Spelling button to launch the Spelling dialog window. You can also press the F7 key on your keyboard to open the Spelling dialog window.

Step 6: Once the Spelling dialog window appears, it will display any spelling errors in the document and provide suggestions for the correct spelling. You can choose from the following options for highlighted errors:

– Ignore Once: use this option to ignore a single instance of a spelling error.

– Ignore All: use this option to ignore all instances of a spelling error.

To make the content more concise and impactful, I would eliminate redundant words or phrases and simplify the phrasing. Here’s the revised text:

Add to Dictionary: If Excel has flagged a word as an error, it may be because it’s not in the language dictionary. You can add the word to your dictionary.

Change: If there are multiple instances of a spelling error, choosing this option means you want to change only one occurrence.

Change All: If there are multiple instances of a spelling error, choosing this option means you want to change all occurrences.

AutoCorrect: If you want Excel to automatically correct a certain spelling error.

After running through all errors in the worksheet, the spell check dialog window should close, and you should see the following message.

How to Conduct a Spell Check for Multiple Worksheets

If you have multiple worksheets in your Excel file and want to run a spell check on specific ones, follow these steps:

1. Open an Excel document on your computer.

2. At the bottom of the Excel app, Ctrl-click on the tabs of the worksheets you want to spell check.

Step 2: Select the tabs and press F7 on your keyboard to launch the Spelling dialog window. Excel will run a spell check on the selected worksheets.

How to Conduct a Spell Check for an Excel Workbook

To conduct a spell check for an entire workbook, follow these steps:

1. Open an Excel document on your computer.

2. At the bottom of the Excel app, right-click on any tab and select “Select all Sheets.”

Step 2: Select all sheets and tap F7 to launch the Spelling dialog window. Excel will run a spell check on all worksheets.

How to Conduct a Spell Check for Texts in Formulas

It is common for text to appear in formulas in an Excel worksheet. To spell check the text in a formula, you need to manually highlight the text. Here’s how: Step 1: Click on the cell with the formula. The formula will be displayed in the formula bar.

Step 2: Within the formula bar, highlight the text.

By following these steps, you can highlight text in the formula bar.

Tap the F7 key on your keyboard to launch the Spelling dialog window. Excel will run a spell check on the selected text. This approach means you will have to check each formula individually, which isn’t efficient. However, Excel does not offer an easier approach to checking text in formulas.

Breaking External Link References in Microsoft Excel

You can refer to external worksheets or documents when working with formulas in Excel. However, these references may not work if the Excel files are moved or shared. This can cause error messages. To remove broken links, use the find and replace feature in Excel.