If you use Microsoft Office—either the 2004 or 2008 version—you may be annoyed that there aren’t any keyboard shortcuts available in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box that’s used to, well, check the spelling and grammar in your document. It turns out, though, that there are keyboard shortcuts; they’re just not documented. For the most part, the shortcuts actually copy those from the Windows’ version of Office.
To navigate your Word or Excel—-this hint doesn’t seem to work for Entourage or PowerPoint—Spelling and Grammar dialog box using the keyboard, use these keys:
- Ignore: Command-I (or Return)
- Ignore All: Command-G
- Add: Command-A
- Change: Because there may be several possible replacements, it seems there’s no simple shortcut here. Instead, you’ll need to use this keyboard sequence: Command-E, which moves the focus to the Suggestions box. If you want the first suggested word, just press Return. Otherwise, use the Up and Down Arrow keys to select the desired word, then press Return.
- Change All: Command-L
- AutoCorrect: Command-R
- Check Grammar: Command-K (toggles checkbox on and off)
- Options: Comamnd-O. Yes, that’s the File -> Open shortcut. However, as long as the Spelling and Grammar function is active, it will trap Command-O and use it to present the Options screen.
- Undo: Command-U (and no, Command-Z won’t work).
- Cancel: Command-. (as in most any other OS X dialog).
As you can see, there are some very non-standard keyboard shortcuts there, but they do all work as described. I’ve tested them on both the 2004 and 2008 versions of Word and Excel, but not on the v.X edition of Office.