Checking style in proofing in Word 2016

Anonymous
2015-09-25T02:30:46+00:00

What happened to being able to check style in Word 2016 when proofing (number of spaces after a sentence, contractions, hyphenated words, etc.)??

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2017-03-15T13:09:13+00:00

Those Style Options in Editor which were also part of earlier Office versions (e.g. Passive Voice) are now available for Office 2016 Click-to-Run perpetual users in Office build 16.0.7870.2020 and newer builds. New Grammar and Style options and other ongoing enhancements to the experience, will continue to be exclusively offered through an Office 365 subscription. 

The "Grammar & More" Writing Style is not available in the drop down yet. To enable the Style Options in Word, go to File -> Options -> Proofing and click on the "Settings…" button next to the Writing Style drop down "Grammar". The Grammar Settings window will pop up where you can customize the checks. You will first see the available Grammar Options and when you scroll down, you will see the Style Options starting with Options for "Clarity & Conciseness".

Just check the checkbox next to the Options you'd like to enable.

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Anonymous
2016-10-05T10:36:32+00:00

Hi

I can finally announce that the update is now available to all Office for Windows subscription users.

Apologies for the delay. The monthly updates always contain several new features or improvements and delays can unfortunately occur for many different reasons.

The English Style options are now available to all Windows Word and Outlook subscription users with Office build 16.0.7369.2024 or newer.

Office for Mac subscription Insiders Fast users are scheduled to receive the update with build 15.28.0.161004 or newer.

We appreciate your feedback. Please let us know if you see false flags (= incorrect flags/unexpected flags), missed flags or incorrect suggestions.

The Writing Style “Grammar & more” is now on by default. All Grammar Options and the two new Options “Wordiness” and “Nominalizations” are enabled. If you like to enable more Style Options, follow these steps:

In Word 2016:

  1. Go to "File" -> "Options" -> "Proofing"
  2. If the Writing Style is not "Grammar & more", please change to "Grammar & more" using the drop down.
  3. Click on “Settings”

  1. Only two Options ("Wordiness, Nominalizations") are enabled by default. You can enable more Options by ticking the checkbox next to them:

 

To enable the feature in Outlook, please do the following:

In Outlook 2016:

  1. From a popped-out mail window, go to "File" -> "Options" -> "Mail". (Don't do this from the main Outlook window.)
  2. Click on "Spelling and Autocorrect…" in the section "Compose messages". You'll be taken to the "Proofing" tab of the "Editor Options" dialog.
  3. If the Writing Style is not "Grammar & more", please change to "Grammar & more" using the drop down.
  4. Check the checkbox next to "Mark grammar errors as you type" in the "When correcting spelling in Outlook" section.

  1. To enable more Style Options, please follow steps 3.) and 4.) described for Word above.

We've also included many bug fixes in this update.

We're working on improving the Grammar Checker further and will release more Options in the coming months.

Thanks, Nicole

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-09-30T17:38:11+00:00

    Yes, Nicole's silence is deafening.  Beta-testing by Insiders is supposed to have been running for a while now, but she won't extend this to licence purchasers or commit to a general release date.  Her posts are marked as answers, although I'm not sure that the OP did this, so MSFT isn't bothering to contribute to the discussion at all.

    I know it's expensive to write and test good quality software, but MSFT clearly isn't prepared to spend its customers' subscriptions and licence fees on re-writing the relevant software in a timely manner.  Too much emphasis on endlessly repackaging the product, IMHO.

    I've completely lost confidence in MSFT's ability to fix anything, so I'm sitting on my hands over various much more minor, but nevertheless annoying, issues that I'd like it to fix in Office.

    C'mon, Nicole, speak to us!

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-30T17:06:53+00:00

    Well, it's nearly a year since Nicole provided the initial status.  FYI, I spoke with MS this morning and the agent said they were still working on it and that they would let us know when the grammar and style checking will be restored.  When I pressed for a more definitive timeline, the agent replied by the end of the year.  Given the lack of transparency from MS and their refusal to communicate their plans to fix this, I don't have one bit of confidence that we'll see the fix by the end of the year.  A definitive and authoritative reply from MS would go a long ways in restoring a huge loss of customer confidence.

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  3. Charles Kenyon 170.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-09-30T12:31:42+00:00

    I don't know what Windows Word is and I have installed software urchased with a new PC, not Office for Windows subscription.  Is the update release available to software licensed as mine is?

    Windows Word is Word for Windows (not for Mac nor IPad nor Android). If you have Microsoft Word purchased recently (this thread is about Word 2016) you have either a 365 subscription or a regular fixed installation. My understanding is that the update has not yet been released for those who do not have subscriptions.

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