How to enable Outlook email spell checking before sending

The spell checking feature on Outlook will help users check spelling errors in emails before sending, ensuring you have a complete email without any errors, avoiding causing offense, especially when sending to partners. When we click send an Outlook email, Outlook will then check the spelling in the email and notify you of spelling errors, if any. Users just need to edit the spelling errors as suggested by Outlook. The article below will guide you how to turn on spell checking on Outlook.

Instructions for turning on spell checking on Outlook

Step 1:

At the interface on Outlook, we click File then click Options . Then the user clicks on Mail management , select Compose Messages . Continue to find the Always check spelling before sending setting and then select to enable the spell checking feature before sending mail on Outlook.

Click OK below to save the new settings.

Step 2:

Then we compose the email we want to send on Outlook as usual and press the send button. Microsoft Outlook will then perform a spell check in the email and report errors to you as shown below, if any. Below will be the correct word suggestions for you to use.

At that time, we click the Cancel button to postpone sending Outlook emails.

Outlook will then display a pop-up asking if you are sure you want to cancel sending the email. Click No to not send the email.

Note, the spell checking feature in Microsoft Outlook is for reference only and may be inaccurate or miss any words. It's best to review the email content yourself before pressing send.

The spell checker will not pick up incorrect words, just incorrectly spelled words. This means that the spell checker can only prevent spelling errors, not typographical or semantic errors. If you want to be absolutely sure that your email is written correctly, it is best to read the entire content carefully before clicking 'Send'.

How to change spell checking language in Outlook Online

Normally Outlook Online will automatically identify the browser's default language to check for spelling errors. However, you can also set the spell checking tool to switch to another language in the list of supported languages. Once you've finished sending emails in that language, you can switch your spell checker back to the original language.

To change the spell checking language, first sign in to the Outlook Online website as usual. Then, click the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen and select ' View All Outlook Settings '.

In the settings panel that opens, click Email > Compose And Reply .

Next, navigate to the bottom of the options on the right side of the settings panel, and click on ' Microsoft Editor Settings '.

A panel will open, where you click on the down arrow icon to the right of the ' Proofing Language ' menu. Select the language you want to check spelling in, then click ' OK '.

You can now close the settings panel and start composing emails in the language you've chosen to have Outlook check spelling. Once you're done and ready to go back to your original language, open the Settings menu, follow the same steps, and change the ' Proofing Language ' menu back to your original language.

David Pac

Update 19 October 2023