An online spell checker does more than underline typos. Besides the check itself, the Spell Checker lets you choose the language variant, add style suggestions, filter the results by kind, teach it your own words, edit and check the result again, and download a corrected document that keeps its formatting.
Most people paste a text, press Check spelling, and fix the marked words. That works, but it leaves several useful functions unused. Here are 8 that make checking a text, and working with the result, easier. The AI Spell Checker is used the same way, so they help there too.
1. Open a document instead of copying it
You do not have to copy a text out of a file to check it. The page opens on a text box, but you can also open a document: Word (DOCX and DOC), OpenDocument (ODT), RTF, PDF, TXT, HTML, Markdown, or EPUB. The file can come from your computer, from a link (choose Paste URL), or from cloud storage.
Even a page that is only a picture of text can be checked. A scanned PDF, or a photo or scan of a page (JPG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, BMP, or GIF), is read with text recognition (OCR) first. A document can have up to 100 pages. How to spell check a Word document online shows the steps for Word files.
2. Choose the language variant
Spelling depends on the variant, not only on the language. Color is right in American English and wrong in British English, and colour is the other way round. So pick the variant together with the language: English as American, British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, or South African English; German for Germany, Austria, or Switzerland; Portuguese for Portugal, Brazil, and more. There are more than 30 languages in all.
The app can also detect the language for you, but detected English is checked as American English. If you write British English, choose it yourself. British or American English? explains how to keep one variant from the first line to the last.
3. Turn on Picky mode for style
A text can be free of errors and still read badly. Picky mode adds style suggestions to the check: wordy phrases, words you repeat, and wording that could be simpler. They are suggestions, not mistakes, so take the ones that make your text clearer and leave the rest. Picky mode is worth turning on for a cover letter, a report, or anything else that should read well.
4. Filter the suggestions by kind
After the check, each issue is underlined in the text and listed beside it, sorted by kind: Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, and, in Picky mode, Style. Each kind is also a filter. In a long text with many marks, show only the spelling issues first and fix them, then go on to grammar and punctuation, and leave style for last. That way you do not lose track, and you deal with one kind of problem at a time.
5. Click a mark to see why
Every mark comes with an explanation. Click an underline in the text, or a card in the list, to see what the problem is and which fix the app suggests, then pick the fix to apply it. The explanation is worth a quick read: once you know why something was marked, you are less likely to make the same mistake again. If a suggestion is wrong for your text, ignore it.
6. Add your own words to the dictionary
Names, brand names, and the terms of your trade are often marked because they are not in a general dictionary. Choose Add to dictionary for a word like that, and it is not flagged again. The word is kept in this browser only, so on another computer, or in another browser, you add it again.
7. Edit the result and check it again
While you read through the result, you may want to change more than the marked words: add a sentence, cut a paragraph, or correct a fact. You do not have to go back to your original file for that. Edit the text right in the result, then press Check again, because new sentences can bring new mistakes.
With a document, you can even start before the check is finished. A document is checked page by page: page 1 is checked and shows its suggestions before page 2, so you can correct the first pages while the next ones are still being read.
8. Download the document in its own format
When you are done, press Copy text to take the corrected text back to your email or editor, or choose Download for a document. The formats are PDF, DOCX, ODT, RTF, TXT, HTML, and Markdown.
A Word or OpenDocument file that you download in its own format keeps its formatting: you get the original file with each fix written into it. A DOC or EPUB file comes back as a new file in one of the formats above. To check something else, press Check another text.
A second opinion from the AI Spell Checker
The Spell Checker works with dictionaries and grammar rules, which makes it fast and predictable. Rules find it hard, though, to spot a real word in the wrong place, such as form where you meant from. The AI Spell Checker has an AI model read whole sentences, so it also catches those, and clumsy wording too. It costs more to run, so its free use is limited: keep it for the texts that matter most. Spell checker or AI spell checker compares the two apps in detail.
Whichever app you use, read the result once more before you send it. The proofreading checklist lists what to look at.