"Offering free computer help, hints, and tips to the Internet populace." Now with over 3,820 tips!

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007

Stop Ignoring M8stak3s L8ke 5hese...

SUMMARY: Prevent PowerPoint 2007's spell checker from ignoring mistakes when typing a number instead of a letter in a word.

Like other Office applications, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 has a spell checker that adds red squiggles underneath misspelled words. However, words containing numbers are not checked, meaning that if you accidentally press a number instead of a letter at the top row of letters on the keyboard, PowerPoint will not mark the mistypes as errors. For example, this would not be considered misspelled, even though the user clearly is moving their fingers too high to type certain letters when touch typing:

F0r 3xam0l3, 5h8s 297ld n95 b3 c9ns8d343d m8ss03ll3d

This PowerPoint 2007 slide clearly contains spelling errors, but PowerPoint doesn't think so

1. Click the "Office" button.

2. When the popup appears, click "PowerPoint Options".

3. The "PowerPoint Options" dialog box appears. Select "Proofing" in the left pane.

4. Underneath "When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office programs", uncheck "Ignore words that contain numbers". As noted, this should affect all Microsoft Office applications installed on the system.

5. Click "Ok" to save your settings.