A reader had a problem with their signature:
Sometimes Outlook thinks part of my message is part of my signature and no spelling check is done. How can I tell Outlook to change a section from signature to normal? Right clicking always shows me all my possible signatures and never the spelling mistakes. If I copy and paste, Outlook still thinks it is the signature. I have found my only option is to retype everything!
If Outlook is not correcting misspelled words and spell check is enabled, you are typing in the signature area. You can confirm it by right clicking on the misspelled words - if the signature selector comes up you're typing in the signature block, not the message body.
Edit your signatures to include two dashes and a space ("-- ") above the actual signature. This will help you to see where the signature begins and prevent typing in the signature area. (To see the pilco and other formatting marks, press Ctrl+Shift+8 to toggle them on. Repeat to turn the formatting characters off.)
If you have accounts that you do not want to use a signature on, create a blank signature that contains just the dashes & space to use when you don't want to use a signature.
Why two dashes? The RFC’s recommend using it to separate the message from the signature. Note: the RFC specifies two dashes followed by a space: "-- " as the signature separator.
Fix the current message
Adding the dashes to the signature won’t help you with the current message though – to fix spell check in the message, you can select all and cut the message body (including the signature) then use Paste Special, As Text to paste it back into the message in plain text format. Note: this will remove formatting, images, and hyperlinks from the message.
You can select just the text you typed and Cut it (Ctrl+X), then use Paste Special, as text to paste it in the message body area above the signature, if you know where the signature begins.
Or press F7 to run spell check manually on the entire message.
If F7 doesn't check the signature, you will need to change the style so that it doesn't skip text when checking the spelling.
In Outlook 2010 and above, select the entire message body (Ctrl+A to select all) switch to the Review tab, Language button, Set Proofing Language command and remove the check from Do not check spelling or grammar.
In Outlook 2007, expand the Spelling button and choose Set Language.
The Set Language dialog is identical to the one in Outlook 2010: Deselect the Do not checking spelling and grammar option near the bottom of the dialog.
Outlook for Mac Signature Spell check
A Mac user had a question about spellchecking email:
We use signatures to add prepared text to a message. When I edit the text, spell checking doesn’t work. How can we fix this?
The best solution would be to use stationery or another method to inset the text, not signatures… if only the Mac version supported stationery or autotext. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
You'll need to change the check spelling option manually for each message. Select the entire message then switch on the Options tab and click on Language. Click Do not check selling or grammar twice to remove the tick and spell check the entire email.
Henry Winokur says
The real question is "why isn't Outlook smart enough to just check the spelling no matter where it is?" And yes, that's for the tip!
Mina says
Awesome tip about f7. Worked like a charm and thanks!
Trevor Appleton says
If I put 2 dashes in (Outlook 2010) then when I put the space in the 2 dashes turn to a small solid black square.
Shervin says
Turn off the auto converting (small lightning bolt). This fixed it for me.
Gel says
I have spent much time researching my spell check problem, in that the body text in Outlook 2019 messages is not checked;
& it's not in signature area either!
It checks Subject line and flags the mistake, BUT not in body.
If I paste the same mis spelt word into a blank Word document,
it's highlighted as an error. My default language is UK English, as screenshots.
Anyone else have issue?
I've done quick & on line repair to my Office 2019 programme, but doesn't sort.
Any advice appreciated. :)
Steve C says
Big thanks to Dave McCulloch. That fixed my O365 issue!!
Aviva Buck-Yael says
THANK YOU!!!!
Dave McCulloch says
I discovered a very convenient solution, at least in Office 2016. By deleting the hidden "_MailAutoSig" bookmark (Insert / Links / Bookmark / check "Hidden Bookmarks" / select "_MailAutoSig" / click "Delete" button / click "Close" button), all signature text becomes part of the message's body.
Ron says
Thank you! I've had several lines between the body text and signature, but it diddn't matter. However for decades have used Word with the formatting visiable and Outlook has driven me nuts since '95, I learned how to correct my signature "AND" turn on the formatting!
Thank you!
Mandar says
Thank you so much for suggesting a simple fix.
Rick Fillion says
My spell check doesn't respond at all with right click besides the word being highlighted, SOMETIMES. If it's the first word or last I'm typing, it correct the spelling if wrong. Most importantly everything with these computers have improved so much, why isn't spell check just activated within the windows 10 home system. It's not only a outlook issue, it's facebook, it's on everything. I get about 10 different ways to look into correcting, all for the tech savy. oh did I spell that wrong? It corrected the I.
Diane Poremsky says
Yeah, every program has its own spell check.. while it would be nice if there was one built into windows and all apps shared it, I'm not expecting it to happen. it's easier for developers to handle their own spell check rather than trying to keep up with changes in a shared spell check.
asdfadsf says
If you have set all of the settings correct and the issue continues, then this problem is created because you have a bloated temp file. Navigate to the location of your Outlook mail file (e.g. - "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook", where username is your account name). Rename your current temp file, which is safer than deleting it. Close Outlook and restart it. A new temp file will automatically be created and your spell check will automatically run for you again.
Arnold Muscat says
Hi Everyone I train MS office and this has been a pain for me.
I also use Signatures to speed up the replying process.
I have now solved my issue.
1. I created a new signature BLANK,only has (--). Make it Default.
2. I open new email and get the (--), type above it.
3. When finished I scroll to the (--) and delete and insert the required signature.
S Lange says
I figured out something that might be helpful. I did not really want the two dashes in every email that I sent. So I made it a very light color so only I can see it because I know its there but others wont even notice it.
Ron says
This is more of a Word trick, but it's the same idea. Use white text and a tiny font to place text in a style so it get's picked up for a Table of contents entry but is invisible to a reader. Like in a report where the header is different on the section 1st page, but you need the title and style picked up for the TOC.
RKS says
I want to keep "Thanks, Joe" as part of the signature. That way, I don't have to type that part in each email.
This is causing spell check to be confused, as it thinks all my message is signature.
How can I force outlook to spell check everything?
Diane Poremsky says
is that in your signature? The best fix is to not type in the signature block... try adding a period in the first line, with thanks joe in the second, then always type in the line above the period. This will help you to see where the signature begins - once you get used to typing above your name, delete the dot from the signature.
gareth says
Thank you, work for moi
bertdorf3 says
None of these suggestions fixed my problem. A misspelled word gets a red underline but right clicking STILL offers my signatures. Only with Outlook. The solution I came up with is to select a portion of the sentence that includes the red underlined word, and hit F7... shortcut to spell-check, and bang, you got it...
Diane Poremsky says
Yeah, spellcheck as you type won't work when typing in the signature block...
Ron says
Diane, I think for many of us the problem is that no matter what we do, Outlook is placing our body text in the signature block. I've had it happen in the first paragraph of a reply. And had zero problems with the line above the signature. Unless the "-- " is used, I don't think there is an indication that Outlook is considering the text as in the signature block.
Diane Poremsky says
correct, unless you add a delimiter, there is no way to know if you are typing in he signature until spell check doesn't work.
bill says
This was happening to me, and went through the above suggestions. Nothing was working. I finally figured it out. I had a font selected that spell check did not acknowledge as words. Changed that, and spellcheck was working normally again.
Tom says
Excellent article, this solved the spell check problem I was having. Thanks Diane, may God bless you for your helpfulness.
Mark says
I have added the two dashes to my signature as advised but I STILL get the signature selection box appear when I right-click an incorrectly spelled word. Any further advice? Thanks.
Diane Poremsky says
The two dashes were the first line in the signature editor? Which version of Outlook?
Mark says
Thanks for your reply. Yes the dashes are in the top line of my signature. The issue is intermittent so doesn't happen all the time. I'm using Outlook 2013. Many thanks.
Steve says
When I use "-- " as the fist line of my signature, it shows up as an ugly black square. Why is that happening?
Diane Poremsky says
What font are you using? If the character you insert is not available, it shows as a little black square. Oh... is it converting to bullets when you type it in the signature editor? Hit ctrl+Z in the signature editor to 'undo' it - if you hover over the change, you can turn that annoying option off.
Jason says
I use signatures for a number of templates i use to send to clients. With that said, i frequently need to edit or add information to the signature templates for which i need spell check to do. Is there anyway to have Outlook Spell check Signatures? I get why its not something that's spell checked, but it should be a feature MS Outlooks 2010 allows you to turn on or off.
Jeff says
Very helpful. I had same problem and couldn't figure out why. It's now fixed, thanks!
Kevin J. Brewer says
Of all of the sites that Google found regarding why spell check was "no longer working", this was the first one to indicate that Outlook intentionally does not perform spell check in the signature block. I hadn't known that before and I really wonder why not.
Recently, I had expanded my signature block to include a greeting and I didn't put "2 and 2" together that that was the moment that spell check stopped working.
All of the other sites said to check this and check that, etc. etc. which of course didn't make any difference.
Diane Poremsky says
>> Outlook intentionally does not perform spell check in the signature block
It's because it's assumed that 1) you spelled the signature correctly and 2) it contains names that are not in the dictionary by default, so everything will be marked wrong.
Joe Schmo says
What a piece of sh**. This is the most commonly used Email editor and it has a huge bug that results in people sending millions of emails that have typos as we have all grown to depend on spell check. Microsoft - fix this!
Elizabeth says
I'm trying to include my Twitter handle in my signature. Even though it's in the signature space, Outlook keeps trying to spellcheck it. How can I get it to NOT spell check that in my signature?
Diane Poremsky says
Add it to the dictionary - right click and choose Add to dictionary. Outlook should skip the signature by default, I'm not sure why it's not but adding it to the dictionary should work .
VIJAY TS says
very helpful :)
cinnamoncolbert says
I goolged outlook spellcheck not working, and this is one of several pages i looked at, all with similar info
However, yours is far and away the best; most of the other pages were either incomprehensible or poorly laid out or both
Team Internet (@TeamISolutions) says
if I understand this correctly this will leave me with two dashes and a space that would need to be deleted in every outbound email? I am missing something?
Diane Poremsky says
That is correct.
Bart Gragg | Blue Collar University says
Diane, another issue is when upon completion of the Subject line you hit the Tab key - the cursor then ends up in the signature field. Annoying.
Diane Poremsky says
I saw that a few days last week when I was on vacation, but can't repro it this week on my desktop. :( I'll keep trying...
Sue Bradshaw says
This is a really great article, thank you! Not being able to use the right mouse button for correcting typos has bugged me for ever! Now I know why the behavior occurs I can work around (even with it!). Thank you so much again.
Darrin says
Is there any way to have the spell check, check the signatures?
Diane Poremsky says
It's a style that is marked to skip spell check, so yes, its possible. The spell check is skipped because it should be checked before creating the signature. If you're using the signature to insert boilerplate text, use AutoText or QuickParts instead. https://www.slipstick.com/how-to-outlook/insert-text-quick-parts/
Saravanan says
My problem was solved.Thanks for your information
Cecelia says
Hi there. I wonder if you can help. Am outlook 2010 having recently been switched. I work in a big law firm. I have a blank telephone message as a signature (to, from etc and it automatically dates and times it). These can be quite detailed and quite often get put on a file or forwarded to a client by the boss man so he can address their points. Is there anyway to check spelling on these as the previous system was able to? I have sent phone messages with silly typos in them and life is hard enough without them thinking i'm thick.
Diane Poremsky says
Signatures are marked to skip spell checking. I recommend one of two things in place of using signatures for this: a custom template or using Quick Parts. You can create a template (save as an .oft file) then copy to a folder in Outlook for easy access. (I use a folder called .Templates.)