Word Processing and E-mail Composition with Microsoft Outlook

Outlook's rudimentary word processor is pale by most standards. Fortunately, there exists the ability to use Outlook's cousin, Microsoft Word, to edit e-mail messages. Enabling this feature allows e-mails to be enhanced using the full power of Microsoft Word.

1. In Outlook (not in an e-mail), from the Tools menu, select "Options..." The Options dialog box will appear.

Tools >Options... > Mail Format Tab

2. Select the "Mail Format" tab.

3. From the Mail Format tab, check the box next to "Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages."

4. Press "Apply," then "OK."

Now Outlook is set up to edit e-mail messages with Microsoft Word!

E-mail Composition

After entering text into the body of the e-mail, it is wise to first perform a spelling check in order ensure the maximum possible level of professionalism and readability.

· Note: The spell checking tool does not replace proofreading, and will not catch many grammatical errors.

Activity:

Type the following sentence into a new e-mail message:

"Teh sun sun is shinng but i cant findmy sunglasses."

Notice that some of the misspelled words may have been automatically corrected, such as "teh" being changed to "the" and "i" being changed to "I."

Some of the words that have spelling errors are underlined with a red squiggly line, while grammatical errors are underlined in green.

How to Spell and Grammar Check

There are two ways to perform a spelling and grammar check once Microsoft Word has identified an error by underlining it in red or green. The most easy way is to Right-Click anywhere on the identified word. A menu will appear offering suggested corrections:

Simply select the appropriate suggestion from the list. This will allow you to spell and grammar check your document as you write it.

However, sometimes Word may offer not offer any suggestions. In such cases more traditional tools, such as a dictionary, may be needed.

What if I want to undo the automatic changes?

Sometimes Word will make automatic changes when they are not desired. To undo an automatic change, adhere to the following steps:

1. Move your cursor over the word that the changes were made to. Notice that a blue line has appeared underneath the first letter of the word.

2. Move the cursor over the blue line. An icon will appear that resembles a lightning bolt.

3. Left-click on the icon to bring up the AutoCorrect Options menu.

4. Select "Change back to..." from the menu. Or, select "Stop Automatically Correcting..." to prevent MS Word from ever using AutoCorrect on that word in the future.

I commonly misspell the same word over and over again!

The AutoCorrect feature in Word can be easily programmed to recognize and automatically correct words that are commonly misspelled by the user.

To set a misspelled word to be AutoCorrect-ed:

1. Right-click on the misspelled word as before.

2. When the menu appears, select "AutoCorrect"

3. Select the correct spelling for the word.

4. With this feature, each time the word is spelled incorrectly the same way, MS Word will AutoCorrect it.

Outlook is wrong! It identified something that is not an error!

Occasionally, Word will identify items as errors that are correct. If it is a grammar error and underlined in green, then simply right-click and select the option "Ignore Once."

In some cases, most commonly with foreign language words and last names, MS Word will identify a word as being spelled incorrectly when it is spelled correctly. To correct this:

1. As before, right-click on the identified word.

2. Select the option "Ignore All" to tell Word to only ignore that word in the current document.

3. Or select "Add to Dictionary" to tell Word to never misidentify that word in the current document and all future documents.

Spelling and Grammar Tool

Another method of performing a spelling and grammar check is to open the Spelling and Grammar Tool. This method is preferred by those who would rather check an entire document at once after it has been completed.

Note: Using the Spelling and Grammar Tool is the only way to spell check text in the subject line.

Activity:

Type the following sentence into Word:

I cant see the blu tree in the the wods.

To perform a spelling and grammar check, first select "Tools" from the top menu. Then select "Spelling and Grammar..." or press F7 on the keyboard.

The 'Spelling and Grammar' dialog box will appear.

The Spelling and Grammar Tool has all of the same abilities that have been previously discussed.