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Windows Live Mail

Spell Check Before Sending

SUMMARY: Configure Windows Live Mail to force you to deal with suspected spelling errors before sending messages.

Windows Live Mail automatically checks messages such as e-mail as you type, underlining suspected problem words with the now familiar red squiggles. This way you can see while composing your message if any words need to be examined for correctness.

By default, although Windows Live Mail performs this automatic spell check, you can completely ignore it and send your message anyway. Sometimes you may do this intentionally; other times you may be sending batches of e-mail and not even notice the squiggles. By making the following small configuration change you can have Windows Live Mail force you to deal with the problem words before sending your messages.

Windows Live Mail showing the "Spelling" dialog box to alert the user that "financil" is not a known word

1. Access the Windows Live Mail menu by clicking the menu button (see the screenshot to the right) or press Alt + M.

2. Select "Options".

3. Click the "Spelling" tab.

4. Check "Always check spelling before sending".

Configure Windows Live Mail to always spell check messages before sending

5. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

You can stop the spell check before it completes. However, Windows Live Mail will prompt you if you still want to send the message.

EXPERT USERS: The Registry Entry for this configuration item can be found here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\SpellCheckOnSeend

1 - Spell Check
0 - Do Not Spell Check

This tip was written for Windows Live Mail Version 2009 running on a netbook running Windows XP Home. Features, instructions, and screenshots for other versions / operating systems may vary.