The thin blue line...

scarletpeaches · Mar 16, 2009

...is really ripping my nips.

I'm using MS Word 2007, which I love, dearly. I love it so much because I've written 102k of my WIP on it. I'm going somewhere with this, I feel it in my water.

Except.

Sections of my text are underlined in blue. What MS Word is trying to tell me, I don't know. Frankly, a shit I give not. Possible sentence fragments or failing to write in the Queen's English or some other nonsense.

Anyway; I've switched off all formatting options that I can find. Take that, stinky spellchecker! Ka-POW, grammar gremlins!

Anyone know how to get rid of the blue underlines, though, 'cause I'm about to explode? And not in a good way.

It's srsly chagrinning my formatting dazzle, man.

Snowstorm · Mar 16, 2009

Those lines drive me up the wall too. Try clicking on the spell check icon or Tools then click spell check. Under Options, you should have several choices to make. Click the "hide grammatical errors" and "hide spelling errors." That should clear your document of all lines.

You can make your Word software stop that for all your documents under "File" and "preferences."

benbradley · Mar 16, 2009

Word needs a "hide all bullshit" option.

scarletpeaches · Mar 16, 2009

Then my manuscript would disappear.

maestrowork · Mar 16, 2009

It's just Microsoft's way of saying, "Your grammar sucks. Ours is better."

Go to Spelling/Grammar check and turn off both. You'll be happier that way (and yes, Microsoft hates sentence fragments).

scarletpeaches · Mar 16, 2009

Snowstorm said:
Those lines drive me up the wall too. Try clicking on the spell check icon or Tools then click spell check. Under Options, you should have several choices to make. Click the "hide grammatical errors" and "hide spelling errors." That should clear your document of all lines.

You can make your Word software stop that for all your documents under "File" and "preferences."

There's no tools/options/file/whatever menu in Word 2007; the layout's totally different.

scarletpeaches · Mar 16, 2009

Hmm. I've switched off all options I can find and those damn blue lines are still there. :rant:

ARGH!

Scuse I, while I tear my lovely blonde hair out.

Roger J Carlson · Mar 16, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
There's no tools/options/file/whatever menu in Word 2007; the layout's totally different.

Click the "Office" button (round one in the upper left) and choose the "Word Options" button at the botton of the form. Choose "Proofing" on the left side to find all the spellin/grammar options.

Roger J Carlson · Mar 16, 2009

Are the blue lines wavy?

CaoPaux · Mar 16, 2009

The blue underlines is the "contextual spelling" checker at work. It's suggesting you have a homophone or something otherwise spelled correctly but possibly misplaced (e.g., vary instead of very).

You can toggle the function under Word Options -->Proofing:
http://beyondteck.blogspot.com/2006/06/enable-contextual-spelling-in.html

ETA: Agh, beat to it!

scarletpeaches · Mar 16, 2009

Roger J Carlson said:
Click the "Office" button (round one in the upper left) and choose the "Word Options" button at the botton of the form. Choose "Proofing" on the left side to find all the spellin/grammar options.

Tried that. The persistent beggars are still there.

Roger J Carlson said:
Are the blue lines wavy?

Only when I lean a bit heavy on the Smirnoff.

CaoPaux said:
The blue underlines is the "contextual spelling" checker at work. It's suggesting you have a homophone or something otherwise spelled correctly but possibly misplaced (e.g., vary instead of very).

You can toggle the function under Word Options -->Proofing:
http://beyondteck.blogspot.com/2006/06/enable-contextual-spelling-in.html

ETA: Agh, beat to it!

Thanks anyway.

I shall now set my computer on fire.

RobJ · Mar 16, 2009

Isn't there a new feature in Word 2007 that underlines tell? Have you tried replacing those lines with show?

Cheers,
Rob

maestrowork · Mar 16, 2009

It's not a blue line. It's a period.

/ba da boom!/

stormie · Mar 16, 2009

^ groan ^

Anyway, SP, I get those small blue lines too and have not a clue how to get rid of them. I really, really don't like Word 2007. But that's me.

Clair Dickson · Mar 16, 2009

Is track changes on? (Track changes will underline any text added while the track changes function is turned on. If the function is turned off, it will retain the previously tracked changes, but not mark new ones.)

Go to the Review Ribbon, look for the Tracking group. Look for a drop box that may say Final Showing Markup. Switch to Final and the underlines may go away. (To get rid of any tracked changes you don't want marked anymore, you can go to Accept--> All Changes, it's just to the right of the Tracking Group.)

That's my guess.

Matera the Mad · Mar 16, 2009

maestrowork said:
It's just Microsoft's way of saying, "Your grammar sucks. Ours is better."

Ner, it's their way of saying "You are too dumb to blow your nose without a default hanky tied to your face, and we want to keep you that way."

What Word (any version) needs is better hackability. If I could rip out chunks....

According to reliable sauces (underline THAT, damn you) the blueline blues is the contextual spelling feature. About as reliable as the old junk, I'm sure.

Ms Hollands · Mar 17, 2009

Sounds to me like it's a hyperlink style. If you move your mouse over the underlined text, does the mouse pointer change to the little hand icon, like it does for hyperlinks in other programs?

scarletpeaches · Mar 17, 2009

I think it's a formatting issue. I highlight the blue-underlined text and it sometimes offers to let me 'ignore the rule', or 'change to header style #1'.

It might be because it's a previously-MS Word 97-2003 document I'm now reading in Office 2007, and the formatting's been rejigged a thousand times. Maybe Office 2007 is picking up on that.

Ah well. Thanks for your suggestions, everyone.

benbradley · Mar 17, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
I think it's a formatting issue. I highlight the blue-underlined text and it sometimes offers to let me 'ignore the rule', or 'change to header style #1'.

It might be because it's a previously-MS Word 97-2003 document I'm now reading in Office 2007, and the formatting's been rejigged a thousand times. Maybe Office 2007 is picking up on that.

Ah well. Thanks for your suggestions, everyone.

You can fix that file, or at least find out of that's the problem - save as text with w new name, and just to be save quit Word, run it again, load the saved text file. If it STILL complains about the text then it's not formatting from the file being from a previous version, it really is something it doesn't like about the sequence of words. But you now have a fresh text-only file whose formatting you can rejig to your heart's content, and be sure to save it as a 2007 or whatever the latest 'default' type is.

scarletpeaches · Mar 17, 2009

It'll mean going through it all and reformatting all my underlines, but...*sigh*

It's a first draft. I'll be rewriting it soon anyway.

FennelGiraffe · Mar 17, 2009

Is there any chance someone might describe the color as purple rather than blue?

Purple underlines apparently indicate Smart Tags, whatever those are. I found these instructions for turning them off:

In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, click Word Options, click Proofing, and then click AutoCorrect Options under AutoCorrect options. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, click Smart Tags. On the Smart Tags tab, click Remove Smart Tags.

Clair Dickson · Mar 17, 2009

If it is contextual spell check, in the Word Options (Office Symbol--> Word Options--> Proofing has a check box for the contextual spell check. I went poking around and found out mine has always been turned off.)

(Word Options is alll the way at the bottom of the Office Symbol menu.)

ETA: I have Office 2007 Professional

scarletpeaches · Mar 17, 2009

Nothing works. I hate my computer.

LaurieD · Mar 17, 2009

benbradley said:
Word needs a "hide all bullshit" option.

I second that :Soapbox:

Roger J Carlson · Mar 17, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
Nothing works. I hate my computer.

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