No need to right-click to see spelling and grammar suggestions in Word and Outlook 365. It’s changing so only a single left click will show the suggestions, corrections and more.
On the downside, fewer options are initially displayed. Useful features are now multiple clicks away and hidden from view. It’s part of Microsoft unstated policy of dumbing down Office and ignoring the skills of their millions of long-standing customers.
Microsoft doesn’t say that, of course. They talk about ‘Simplify’ the look that’s ‘focused’ and ‘free from distractions’.
Those ‘distractions’ are a good thing for many users, showing more choices on the screen is better for novices and experienced users.
These changes are rolling out now to Word 365 and Outlook 365 for Windows.
Click or Alt + Down
The usual red squiggly or blue double lines still appear under spelling or grammar ‘issues’ but no need to right-click. Instead, just click, Alt + Down arrow or Shift + F10 to see the menu of options
As you can see, the menu has changed look to a dumbed-down simplified view. At first only the suggestions/corrections appear.
Click the ‘three dots’ to see more options like Add to Dictionary, Show context, Show Synonyms and Show all actions.
Show all actions
Show all actions is interesting – it shows the older version of the spelling/grammar menu with other Word options that are hidden in the new ‘simplified’ menus.
Read Aloud or Spell out
Microsoft’s Accessibility features are still there, click on a suggested word to see
Read Aloud – says the word aloud
Spell Out – says the letters of the word.
As well as Change all and Add to AutoCorrect.
And there’s a speaker icon on the initial display. Click on it to hear the context snippet out loud.
