In Word 2010 display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.) (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. If you don't have access to a second machine or if you think both machines may be using the same custom dictionary, then try these steps: Unless both systems share a common custom dictionary or have the same misspelled word in their individual custom dictionaries, you should note that on the second system the misspelled word is properly flagged as misspelled. One quick way to check if this is the problem is to take the document and spell-check it on a different system. This action means that the misspelled word is never again flagged as wrong since it is now added to the custom dictionary on the system. In this case, the most likely scenario is that someone was previously doing a spell check on the document and, when the misspelled word was presented for review, clicked the "Add" button. If you've checked the proofing setting in the Language dialog box and found no problem there, or if the problem of missing misspelled words occurs in more than one document, then the problem is likely with the spelling checker itself. If you are sure that you want the entire document to be proofed, then you should simply select the entire document (press Ctrl+A), display the Language dialog box again, and clear the Do Not Check Spelling or Grammar check box.
![microsoft word 2016 spell check microsoft word 2016 spell check](https://www.computerhope.com/issues/pictures/word2016-autocorrect.jpg)
While you can explicitly change it for this particular instance of the word, you might need to change it a lot of other places in the document, as well. If the setting is not made in the style, then that means that someone specifically turned off the proofing for the particular text. The solution, in that case, is to either use a different style that allows the proofing or change the style so that the style permits proofing. (How you check style settings has been covered in other issues of WordTips.) If the setting is made in the style, then any other text formatted with that style in the document is also skipped during a spelling check.
![microsoft word 2016 spell check microsoft word 2016 spell check](https://erinwrightwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Word-2016-Word-Options-Dialog-Box-Proofing_v2.jpg)
First check to see if this setting is related to whatever style is used to format the selected text. You now need to figure out how pervasive the "no proofing" or "do not check" setting is within the document. Go ahead and dismiss the Language dialog box for now.
![microsoft word 2016 spell check microsoft word 2016 spell check](https://support.content.office.net/en-us/media/b6013535-082c-409e-aee3-e7940b74d08d.png)
Don't change the setting yet you still have some detective work to figure out the actual problem. If the setting is turned on, then Word ignores the selected text when checking either spelling or grammar. Look at the Do Not Check Spelling or Grammar check box to see if it contains a check mark.
![microsoft word 2016 spell check microsoft word 2016 spell check](https://i0.wp.com/www.edcottrell.com/images/word-spellcheck-evil.gif)
Then display the Review tab of the ribbon and, in the Proofing group, click on Set Language. You can find out if this is the case by first selecting the word that was missed during the spell check. The most common reason is that the text has somehow been formatted so that Word ignores it when checking spelling or grammar. If the problem occurs in only one document or with some occurrences of misspelled words in a particular document, then that means that the problem is with the document itself. There are several reasons why this situation could occur, which means that you need to do some analysis of the problem document (and Word itself) to figure out what is going on. Barbara is wondering why this would happen. Barbara related a problem that she ran into with a Word document: She ran a spell check and Word did not detect several misspelled words.