Mind Your Ps and Qs

Creating a well written, well laid out document is essential if you want to make an impression - and it couldn't be easier with Word 2007. But sometimes spelling errors and bad grammar can really let you down. If you are responsible for inputting and checking text in a Word document, it's sometimes simply a case of minding your Ps and Qs - especially when following the rules of the apostrophe.

There has always been great debate on the derivation of the Ps and Qs phrase: it could be a reference to tallying up how many pints and quarts had been consumed; or it might originate in the world of print when a lower case metal type p and lower case q looked very similar. Whatever the origin, it's clear that there is even more debate about how to spell the plural forms of letters - many use upper case, some lower - but, for most, the use of the apostrophe is always a grey area. It could be argued, therefore, that the correct spelling is P's and Q's - with the apostrophe indicating the missing letters in the shortened form. I would argue that this is not correct, and I never use an apostrophe in a plural format, whatever the case.

The grocers' apostrophe - or inserting the punctuation mark incorrectly to a plural noun - is a common mistake. A good way to remember when not to insert an apostrophe is to think of the grocers' misuse - how many times have we seen 'apple's and pear's' for sale? It's the same rules for Ps and Qs or any other capital acronym or abbreviation.

And watch out for those capital letters used in other circumstances. While they are needed to break up text and indicate important information within copy and headings, it's easy to misspell when using capitals. Proofing text in capitals in more difficult as it takes longer for our brains to process the information in this format. Reading text in capital letters means that errors easily slip through when we speed read. To make sure words in capitals are checked, use the Office Button to select Word Options and ensure that the Proofing section displays an unchecked box in the 'Ignore words in UPPERCASE' selection.

Within a Word 2007 document, the three different coloured lines flag attention to a potential error the program has picked up in your document. A wavy red line indicates a possible spelling error; and wavy green line highlights a grammatical error. Now Word 2007 has introduced a blue line for contextual spelling errors. A contextual spelling error is an error which Word has alerted us to due to the inappropriate context of the word. For example, you may have typed the phrase 'apples and pairs' instead of the 'apples and pears'. This is automatically identified as a contextual spelling error.

On the ribbon, Spelling & Grammar functions are located in the Review tab, as checking spelling is usually done as part of a review of your work. In Word 2007, spelling, grammar and punctuation can all be checked as you work on your document. The spelling checker operates in the background, saving you time and avoiding retyping - this allows you to concentrate on the script, and speeds up the time taken to create your text.

The best example of this can be seen when you select the 'Use contextual spelling' and 'Check spelling as you type' check boxes; the spelling checker flags the mistake and offers a suggestion when you right-click the flagged word.

Spell checker now has the facility to marry up with other Microsoft Office 2007 programs. For example, if you change a spelling option in Word, your customised set up can be transferred to Outlook. It's easy to set up in the Proofing section. There's a handy option to recheck a document here, too, so that you can review spellings and grammar which may have been previously amended before updates to text.

There's a whole range of options and customisation tools that allow you more flexibility on how you use the Spelling & Grammar function. If you want to learn more about how to maximise the options available, such as spelling in other languages, it's a good idea to have a professional training session - once you've mastered how to use all of the Spelling & Grammar functions, it'll be as easy as ABC.