How to Get Outlook Express to Use the MS Word Spell Checker

If you have Microsoft Word on your computer, it is easy to get Outlook Express to use the spell checker that is included with Word on your emails. Once you have the spell checker enabled in Outlook Express, you will be able to send emails free of spelling errors. You will also be able to choose between American or United Kingdom dictionaries for those words that differ in spelling between the two countries.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Make sure you have Microsoft Word installed on your computer. Open the program, type a few words and then run the spell check in Word to make sure the dictionary is loaded with the program.

2. Open Outlook Express on your computer.

3. Click on "Tools" from the top menu bar. Scroll down the list of tools until you find the text link "Options," then click on it.

4. Click on the "Spelling" tab in the window that pops up. A new page will be displayed on your screen.

5. Click on the box beside "Always check spelling before sending." If desired, click the box beside "Suggest replacements for misspelled words."

6. Decide in the next section which of the options you want the spell checker to ignore when checking the spelling in your emails.

7. Decide whether you want to use United State English or United Kingdom English in the drop-down box in the next section.

8. Click "Apply" at the bottom of the screen. Outlook Express will now use the Word dictionary to check the spelling in every email you send.

Tips & Warnings

• Spell checking goes a lot faster if you tell the program to ignore uppercase, numbers, original text in a reply and Internet addresses. For words not found in the Word program's dictionary, a custom dictionary is created. On the Options Spelling tab, you can add or delete words from this dictionary by clicking on the button "Edit custom dictionary."