This article is for people who use a screen reader program such as Windows Narrator, JAWS, or NVDA with Windows tools or features and Microsoft 365 products. This article is part of the Accessibility help & learning content set where you can find more accessibility information on our apps. For general help, visit Microsoft Support.
Note: Outlook-for-Mac information on this topic is available here.
Use the new Outlook with your keyboard and a screen reader to automatically check for potential spelling and grammatical errors and to go through the errors and fix them. We have tested it with Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques.
Important: New Outlook for Windows supports Exchange-backed Microsoft 365 work or school accounts. Currently, the new Outlook for Windows does not support other account types like Gmail, Yahoo!, iCloud, or other account types connecting through POP/IMAP protocols. New Outlook for Windows also does not currently support On-Premises, Hybrid, or Sovereign Exchange deployments.
Notes:
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New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
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To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft 365.
Check the spelling and grammar in an email
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In a draft email, press F6 until you hear: "Ribbon tabs."
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Press P to open the Options menu, and then press P, R to open the Editor submenu.
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Press the Down arrow key until you hear "Open editor," and then press Enter. The Editor window opens.
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Press the Tab key until you hear a brief description of the Spelling button, and then "Spelling." Press Enter. The spell checker moves to the first misspelled word and opens the Spelling suggestions window. The focus is on the first item in the spelling suggestions list.
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In the spelling suggestions list, do one of the following:
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Press the Up or Down arrow key until you hear the spelling or alternative phrase you want, and then press Enter to replace the word.
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If you want to ignore the error or add the error to the dictionary, press the Tab key until you hear the option you want, and then press Enter.
After you correct or ignore an error, the focus moves to the next error.
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Repeat step 5 for each error.
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When Outlook finishes reviewing the spellings, the focus automatically moves to the Grammar suggestions window. The focus is on the grammar suggestion and you hear the suggestion. Press Enter to accept the suggestion or press the Tab key to select another option, for example, ignore the suggestion, and then press Enter. After you correct or ignore a suggestion, the focus moves to the next suggestion.
Note: If there is a grammatical error, the screen reader reads the suggestion and the reason why the section was marked as incorrect, for example, "A helping verb or main verb may be needed here" or "Remove extra space between words."
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When the spelling and grammar check is done, press the Tab key until you hear "Close pane," and then press Enter to close the editor.
See also
Use a screen reader to migrate your settings to new Outlook
Use a screen reader to organize your inbox in new Outlook
Keyboard shortcuts for Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook
Set up your device to work with accessibility in Microsoft 365
Use a screen reader to explore and navigate Outlook Mail
Basic tasks using a screen reader with the calendar in Outlook
Use Outlook with your keyboard and a screen reader to automatically check for potential spelling and grammatical errors as you type and to go through the errors and fix them. We have tested it with Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques.
Notes:
-
New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
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To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft 365.
In this topic
Check the spelling and grammar in an email
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In the email you want to check for spelling or grammar mistakes, press F7. To use a ribbon command, press Alt+V, Q, G. The Spelling and Grammar window opens.
Note: If the spell checker finds no issues, you hear: "Spelling and grammar check is complete." Press Spacebar to return to the email.
The spell checker moves to the first misspelled word and suggested spellings, or the first possible grammatical error and suggested revisions. If there's a grammatical error, you hear the reason why the section was tagged as incorrect, for example, "Consider using concise language" or "Remove extra space between words."
Tip: To check the spelling and grammar in just a sentence or paragraph of your email, select the text you want to check and then press F7.
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To move to the first item in the Suggestions list, press the Tab key.
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To listen to the suggestions, in the Suggestions list, press the Up or Down arrow key until you hear the spelling or alternative phrase you want.
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To respond to a detected error, press the Tab key until you hear the option you want, for example, "Change," and then press Enter.
For information on which keyboard shortcuts to use, refer to Keyboard shortcuts for the Spelling and Grammar window.
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After you correct or ignore an error, the focus moves to the next error. Repeat the process for each error.
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When Outlook finishes reviewing the email, you hear: "Spelling and grammar check is complete." To return to your email, press Spacebar.
If you checked only a selected part of text and want to return to the email, press the Tab key until you hear "No button," and then press Spacebar. To check the rest of the email, press the Tab key until you hear "Yes button," and then press Enter.
Keyboard shortcuts in the Spelling and Grammar window
The following table summarizes the keyboard shortcuts in the Spelling and Grammar window.
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To do this |
Press |
|---|---|
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Ignore the detected word once, but check it again. |
Alt+I |
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Ignore the detected word throughout the email. |
Alt+G |
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Add the detected word in the program's dictionary. |
Alt+A |
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Change the detected word to the suggested word in the Suggestions list. |
Alt+C |
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Change all detected instances of a word to the suggested. |
Alt+L |
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Open the Options dialog box to select how the program corrects spelling and grammar for all emails. |
Alt+O |
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Turn on AutoCorrect. |
Alt+R |
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Select or unselect the Check grammar checkbox. |
Alt+K |
Recheck the spelling and grammar in an email
To recheck words and grammar that you previously chose to ignore, you need to reset the spelling and grammar checker.
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In the email you want to check, press Alt+F, T. The focus moves to the Mail tab in the Outlook Options window.
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Press the Tab key until you hear "Spelling and autocorrect button," and then press Spacebar. You hear: "Editor options window, Proofing."
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Press the Tab key until you hear "Recheck E-mail button," and then press Spacebar.
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A confirmation dialog box opens, and the focus is on the Yes button. To reset the spelling and grammar checker, press Enter.
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To exit the Editor Options window, press the Tab key until you hear "OK button," and then press Enter. The focus returns to the Outlook Options window.
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To exit the Outlook Options window, press the Tab key until you hear "OK button," and then press Enter. The focus returns to the email.
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To check the spelling and grammar again, follow the instructions in Check the spelling and grammar in an email.
Keyboard shortcuts for spelling and AutoCorrect settings
Use the keyboard shortcuts in the table below to access and change some of the grammar and spellchecker settings.
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To do this |
Press |
|---|---|
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From an email, open the Mail tab in the Outlook Options window. |
Alt+F, T and then the Tab key |
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In the Mail tab, move to the Spelling and AutoCorrect button. |
Alt+S |
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Select the Spelling and AutoCorrect button and open the Proofing tab in the Editor Options window. |
Spacebar, and then the Tab key |
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In the Proofing tab: |
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Move to and select or clear the Check spelling as you type checkbox. |
Alt+P |
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Move to and select or clear the Mark grammar errors as you type checkbox. |
Alt+M twice, and then the Spacebar |
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Move to the Recheck E-mail button. |
Alt+K |
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Move to the AutoCorrect Options button, and open the AutoCorrect in Email window. |
Alt+A |
Turn the automatic checking for spelling and grammar on or off
You can turn off automatic spelling and grammar checking and then check your email after it's completed. Checking all the spelling and grammar in your email at the same time is useful when you want to quickly proof your text.
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In the email, press Alt+F, T. The focus moves to the Mail tab in the Outlook Options window.
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Press the Tab key until you hear "Spelling and autocorrect, button," and then press Spacebar. You hear: "Editor options window, Proofing."
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Press Alt+P to move to the Check spelling as you type checkbox and to select or clear this option.
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Press Alt+M twice. You hear: "Mark grammar errors as you type checkbox." Press Spacebar to select or clear this option.
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To exit the Editor Options window, press the Tab key until you hear "OK button," and then press Enter. The focus returns to the Outlook Options window.
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To exit the Outlook Options window, press the Tab key until you hear "OK button," and then press Enter. The focus returns to the email.
See also
Use a screen reader to format text in your email in Outlook
Use a screen reader to insert a picture or image in an email in Outlook
Use a screen reader to set up your email account in Outlook
Keyboard shortcuts for Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook
Set up your device to work with accessibility in Microsoft 365
Use Outlook for iOS with VoiceOver, the built-in iOS screen reader, to automatically check for potential spelling and grammatical errors as you type and to go through the errors and fix them.
Notes:
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New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
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This topic assumes that you are using the built-in iOS screen reader, VoiceOver. To learn more about using VoiceOver, visit Apple accessibility.
Check spelling
Check your email for spelling mistakes and then decide if you agree with the spellchecker.
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In the email you want to check for spelling mistakes, swipe down until you hear the misspelled word, followed by "misspelled."
Tip: VoiceOver also announces spelling errors as you type. You hear the misspelled word, followed by "misspelled."
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To correct the misspelled word, use the on-screen keyboard to delete the misspelled word and type the correction.
To ignore the VoiceOver announcement about the spelling error, continue typing without any corrective actions.
See also
Use a screen reader to format text in your email in Outlook
Use a screen reader to insert a picture or image in an email in Outlook
Basic tasks using a screen reader with email in Outlook
Set up your device to work with accessibility in Microsoft 365
Use Outlook on the web with your keyboard and a screen reader to automatically check for potential spelling errors as you type and to go through the errors and fix them. We have tested it with Narrator in Microsoft Edge and JAWS and NVDA in Chrome, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques.
Notes:
-
New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
-
To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft 365.
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This topic assumes that the Reading pane is off.
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When you use Outlook on the web, we recommend that you use Microsoft Edge as your web browser. Because Outlook on the web runs in your web browser, the keyboard shortcuts are different from those in the desktop program. For example, you’ll use Ctrl+F6 instead of F6 for jumping in and out of the commands. Also, common shortcuts like F1 (Help) and Ctrl+O (Open) apply to the web browser – not Outlook on the web.
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We're currently updating Outlook.office.com (Outlook on the Web). Some people are already using the new Outlook, and for others the classic version will be the default experience until we complete the update. For more information, go to Get help with the new Outlook on the web. Since the instructions in this topic apply to the new experience, we recommend that you switch from the classic experience to the new Outlook. To switch to the new Outlook, press Ctrl+F6 until you hear "Command, Try the new Outlook," and then press Enter. If you hear "Command toolbar" instead of "Command, Try the new Outlook," you're already using the new Outlook.
Check spelling
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While writing the email you want to check for spelling mistakes, press Ctrl+Left or Right arrow key to read through the text one word at a time.
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When your screen reader announces a misspelled word, press Shift+F10. A context menu with a suggested spelling opens. The focus is on the suggestion and you hear the suggestion.
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If there is more than one suggested spelling, press the Down arrow key until you hear the spelling you want to use, and then press Spacebar.
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If you do not want to change the spelling, press Esc.
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To move to the next spelling error, press Ctrl+Left or Right arrow key until you hear the next misspelled word.
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Repeat the review process for each error until you've reviewed the entire email.
See also
Use a screen reader to format text in your email in Outlook
Use a screen reader to insert a picture or image in an email in Outlook
Use a screen reader to set up your email account in Outlook
Keyboard shortcuts for Outlook
Technical support for customers with disabilities
Microsoft wants to provide the best possible experience for all our customers. If you have a disability or questions related to accessibility, please contact the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk for technical assistance. The Disability Answer Desk support team is trained in using many popular assistive technologies and can offer assistance in English, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language. Please go to the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk site to find out the contact details for your region.
If you are a government, commercial, or enterprise user, please contact the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.
