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How to Use the Editor in Word for Microsoft 365 (Updated)

By Erin Wright

Items on desk with text overlay "How to Use the Editor in Word for Microsoft 365This tutorial shows how to use the Editor in Word for Microsoft 365. The Editor is an update to the spelling and grammar check available in older versions of Word.

If you are using an older version of Word that doesn’t have an Editor button, please see my other tutorial “How to Use the Spelling and Grammar Check in Microsoft Word.”

This tutorial covers five topics:

  1. How to Select Grammar Issues and Refinements
  2. How to Run the Editor
  3. How to Review the Suggested Edits
  4. How to Finish the Edit
  5. How to Run a Fresh Edit

Attention Mac Users: The Editor is available in Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac. The basic steps are similar to those shown here. However, the process of selecting grammar issues and refinements is different, so we will cover the Editor in Word for Mac in a separate tutorial.

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 150 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.

Are you looking for information about editing in Word with Track Changes instead of using the Editor? If so, visit “How to Use Track Changes in Microsoft Word” for a step-by-step tutorial covering ten editing tasks.

How to Select Grammar Issues and Refinements

The Editor can check for over 150 grammar issues and refinements beyond spelling, including the following:

  • hyphenation
  • passive voice
  • Oxford comma
  • clichés

All the grammar and refinement options are available in the Word Options dialog box. You should select from these options before running the Editor.

  1. Select the File tab in the ribbon.
File tab in Word 365
Figure 1. File tab
  1. Select the Options tab in the Backstage view.
Options tab in the Backstage view in Word 365
Figure 2. Options tab
  1. Select the Proofing tab in the Word Options dialog box.
Proofing tab in the Word Options dialog box in Word 365
Figure 3. Proofing tab
  1. Review the spelling and grammar options that affect how the Editor interacts with your document:

A. Ensure that Check spelling as you type and Mark grammar errors as you type are selected if you want issues to be marked in the text as you type.

B. Ensure that Check grammar and refinements in the Editor Pane is selected to include grammar and refinements.

C. (Optional) Ensure that Show readability statistics is selected to show your readability statistics after running the Editor.

D. Ensure that Hide spelling errors in this document only and Hide grammar errors in this document only are not selected.

Spelling and grammar options in the Word Options dialog box in Word 365
Figure 4. Spelling and grammar options
Pro Tip: Always run the Editor, even if you have spelling and grammar issues marked as you type, because you may not notice all the in-text edits. Plus, the Editor seems to be more thorough than the check provided as you type.
  1. Select Grammar & Refinements or Grammar in the Writing Style menu. (Most users will want to choose Grammar & Refinements because it offers more options.)
Writing Style menu in the Word Options dialog box in Word 365
Figure 5. Writing Style menu
  1. Select the Settings button.
Settings button in the Word Options dialog box in Word 365
Figure 6. Settings button
  1. Select or deselect options from the Grammar Settings dialog box.
Options in the Grammar Settings dialog box in Word 365
Figure 7. Grammar and Refinement options

Defining each grammar option is beyond the scope of this tutorial. However, the Microsoft Office Support website provides a detailed explanation for many of the options sorted by language.

  1. Select the OK button to close the Grammar Settings dialog box.
OK button in the Grammar Settings dialog box in Word 365
Figure 8. OK button
  1. Select the OK button to close the Word Options dialog box.
OK button in the Word Options dialog box in Word 365
Figure 9. OK button

Now that you have decided how you want Word to proof your document, you can run the Editor.

How to Run the Editor

  1. Select the Home tab in the ribbon.
Home tab in Word 365
Figure 10. Home tab
  1. Select the Editor button. (The Editor button is also available in the Proofing group on the left end of the Review tab.)
Editor button in Word 365
Figure 11. Editor button

The Editor Pane will appear on the right side of your screen.

How to Review the Suggested Edits

  1. Review your Editor Score. This score will change based on choices you make within the Editor Pane. Therefore, you may choose to disregard this number while working with the Editor.
Editor Score in the Editor Pane in Word 365
Figure 12. Editor score
  1. (Optional) Select a level of formality from the drop-down menu.
  • Formal—The Editor will apply all the grammar and refinement rules, resulting in the most recommendations.
  • Professional—The Editor will apply most of the grammar and refinement rules, resulting in fewer recommendations than the Formal option.
  • Casual—The Editor will apply the fewest number of grammar and refinement rules, resulting in the fewest recommendations.

Your Editor Score will change based on your choice of formality.

Formality menu in the Editor Pane in Word 365
Figure 13. Formality menu
Pro Tip: Use the Formal writing option for the strictest edit even on less formal writing because you can always ignore suggestions—but you can’t ignore suggestions you never see.
  1. Select the Editor Score (see figure 12) to review each of the recommendations starting from the current placement of your cursor. Or, skip to step 4 to review by category.
  2. Select the Corrections or Refinements category you want to review. The available categories will depend on your selections in the Grammar Settings dialog box (see figure 7).

Categories with a checkmark don’t have any suggestions.

Corrections and Refinement categories in the Editor Pane in Word 365
Figure 14. Corrections and Refinements categories

Spelling

  1. Choose a suggestion to change the individual spelling error.
Spelling suggestions in the Editor Pane in Word 365
Figure 15. Spelling suggestions

Or, open the drop-down menu for the suggestion and select Change All to change every instance of the spelling error.

You can also choose (a) Ignore Once to ignore that spelling one time, (b) Ignore All to ignore that spelling every time it appears in the document, or (c) Add to Dictionary to add the word with its current spelling to your custom dictionary.

Additional spelling options in the Editor Pane in Word 365
Figure 16. Additional spelling options

If the Editor is unable to provide any spelling suggestions, it will still let you add the word to your custom dictionary, ignore the word once, or ignore all instances of the word.

After you select or ignore a suggestion, the Editor will automatically move to the next issue in that category or return you to the main view to chose a new category.

Grammar and Refinement Issues

  1. Review each grammar or refinement issue. In some cases, the Editor will suggest a way to rewrite the text.

Or, select (a) Ignore Once to ignore that instance of the issue or (b) Don’t check for this issue to stop checking for that type of issue in the rest of the document.

Grammar and Refinements suggestions in the Editor Pane in Word 365
Figure 17. Grammar and Refinements suggestions

Open the drop-down menu above the text box if you want additional information about the issue.

Additional information in the Editor Pane in Word 365
Figure 18. Additional information

Pro Tip: The navigation arrows on the right side of the pane let you move forward and backward to issues you have not yet addressed. The arrow on the left side will return you to the Editor’s main view.

Navigation arrows in the Editor Pane in Word 365
Figure 19. Navigation arrows

The Editor Pane also provides options to search the web for similar text and give feedback to Microsoft about the Editor.

Similarity and Feedback options in the Editor Pane in Word 365
Figure 20. Similarity and feedback options

How to Finish the Edit

If you included readability statistics in your proofing options in the Word Options dialog box (see figure 4), the Readability Statistics dialog box will appear after you have accepted or ignored all the Editor’s suggestions.

  1. Select the OK button to close the Readability Statistics dialog box.
OK button in the Readability Statistics dialog box in Word 365
Figure 21. OK button
  1. Select the OK button in the dialog box stating that you have finished reviewing the Editor’s suggestions.
Dialog box stating that the Editor is finished in Word 365
Figure 22. OK button

How to Run a Fresh Edit

If you have updated your text since running the Editor, you may want to run a fresh check.

  1. Select the File tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
  2. Select the Options tab in the Backstage view (see figure 2).
  3. Select the Proofing tab in the Word Options dialog box (see figure 3).
  4. Select the Recheck Document button.
Recheck Document button in the Word Options dialog box in Word 365
Figure 23. Recheck Document button
  1. Select the Yes button in the dialog box stating that the new spelling and grammar check (Editor) will recheck issues that you ignored during the last check.
Recheck document dialog box in Word 365
Figure 24. Yes button
  1. Select the OK button to close the Word Options dialog box (see figure 9).

Follow the steps in the How to Run the Editor section above to recheck your document.

Important Note: Microsoft plans to continually add new features to Word for Microsoft 365. Therefore, your version of Word may have different features than those shown here.

Related Resources

How to Change the Proofing Language in Microsoft Word

How to Use the Clipboard in Microsoft Word

How to Edit Your Custom Dictionary in Microsoft Word

How to Create an Exclusion Dictionary in Microsoft Word

Updated September 25, 2022

Filed Under: Microsoft Word Tagged With: Microsoft 365, Word 365

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Hello! My name is Erin. I am a technical writer and editor who shares writing-related software tutorials on this website and on YouTube.

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