Disable Spell Check in Word 2019, 2016, & 365

Annoyed with Microsoft Word 2016 spell checking your documents? You can disable spell check and the squiggly lines that appear under a misspelled word with these steps.

Disabling Spell Check Setting

1. Do one of the following depending on your operating system:
   • Windows: “File” > “Options” > “Proofing“.
   • macOS: “Word” > “Preferences…” > “Spelling & Grammar“.
2. Uncheck the “Check spelling as you type” box to disable spell checking.
3. In Windows, select “OK“. In macOS, close out of the window.

Disable Red Squiggly Lines

The above steps will not prevent the red squiggly lines from appearing under misspelled words. The only way to do that is with a macro.

1. 1. Do one of the following to enable the “Develop” tab.
      • Windows: Select “File” > “Options” > “Customize Ribbon“. Choose “Main Tabs” in the “Customize Ribbon” dropdown menu. Check the “Develop” option.
      • macOS: Select “Word” > “Preferences…” > “View“. Check the “Show developer tab” box.
   2. Select the “Developer” tab.
   3. Select “Visual Basic“.
   4. In the Macros in list, select the template or document in which you want to run the macro. For all documents, select “Normal.dotm“.
   5. Windows users, select “Create” to open the Visual Basic Editor.
   6. Use the following code:
      Sub ToggleSpellCheckDisplay()
Options.CheckSpellingAsYouType = Not Options.CheckSpellingAsYouType
Application.ScreenRefresh
End Sub
   7. Run the macro by selecting the “Run Program” button.

The squiggly lines under mispelled words will no longer appear in Word.