Words underlined in blue in word

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

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Asked by: Monique Fahey

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Wavy blue lines that appear under text in a Word document indicate that the Format Consistency Checker is turned on and is functioning in the background as you type. The lines indicate that the Format Consistency Checker has detected an inconsistency that you may want to look at and to correct.

How do I get rid of the blue underline in Word?

Getting Rid of Blue Squiggly Underlines

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
  2. Make sure the Edit tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Clear the Mark Formatting Inconsistencies check box.
  4. Click OK.

Why are my words underlined in blue?

Blue squiggly underlines in Word indicate formatting inconsistencies. For example, some text in a paragraph might be formatted in a different font size than the rest of the paragraph (as shown in the image above).

How do I get rid of blue formatting in Word?

Have you ever opened up a Word document to find it full of paragraph marks and other symbols?

  1. From the File tab, select Options.
  2. Click the Display tab.
  3. In the section Always show these formatting marks on the screen, un-check everything except Object Anchors.
  4. Press OK.

What does two blue lines mean in Word?

Most commonly the double blue underline appears where there are two spaces between words instead of one. There are some other grammar «errors» that may also be underlined that way. Right-click the underlined words to see what Word objects to.

42 related questions found

What do the underlines in Word mean?

An underline is a section of text in a document where the words have a line running beneath them. For example, this text should be underlined. Underlined text is commonly used to help draw attention to text. Today, underlines are commonly used to represent a hyperlink on a web page.

What are the blue things on my Word document?

Located in Microsoft Word’s toolbar is a Show/Hide paragraph symbols button which can be used to have Word display or hide not only paragraph symbols but also most other formatting symbols used by Word (from symbols used for spaces and lines to those used for page breaks and Tab breaks).

How do you clear the formatting in Word?

Clear formatting from text

  1. Select the text that you want to return to its default formatting.
  2. In Word: On the Edit menu, click Clear and then select Clear Formatting. In PowerPoint: On the Home tab, in the Font group, click Clear All Formatting .

What are the blue things in Microsoft Word?

In a Word 2016 document, when show hidden formatting symbols is turned on, sometimes the paragraph markers are blue, and sometimes they’re black.

Which types of page breaks Cannot be deleted?

There are two types of page breaks in Word: breaks that Word automatically adds to mark the end of each page, and manual page breaks that you can add. You can delete manual page breaks. You can’t remove automatic page breaks, but you can adjust where they occur.

How do I fix a messed up Word document?

The Open and Repair command might be able to recover your file.

  1. Click File > Open > Browse and then go to the location or folder where the document (Word), workbook (Excel), or presentation (PowerPoint) is stored. …
  2. Click the file you want, and then click the arrow next to Open, and click Open and Repair.

Why is word formatting so bad?

And Microsoft Word is an atrocious tool for Web writing. Its document-formatting mission means that every piece of text it creates is thickly wrapped in metadata, layer on layer of invisible, unnecessary instructions about how the words should look on paper.

Where is the clear all formatting button?

If you want to select everything in your document, press Ctrl + A on your keyboard. With your text selected, click the Clear All Formatting button, located in the Home tab of the ribbon bar. Pressing this will remove all of the formatting from your selected text.

How do I eliminate a blank page in Word?

Delete a page in Word

  1. Click or tap anywhere in the page you want to delete, press Ctrl+G.
  2. In the Enter page number box, type page.
  3. Press Enter on your keyboard, and then select Close.
  4. Verify that a page of content is selected, and then press Delete on your keyboard.

How do I get the paragraph symbols off of Word?

Step 1. Head to File > Options > Display. Step 2. Under Always show these formatting marks on the screen, uncheck the box next to Paragraph marks.

Why does my Word document look weird?

You need to turn on the view of white space between pages. It is easy to accidentally toggle this setting by double-clicking at the top or bottom of a page in Print View. You can also manage it by Word Options > Display and turn on the checkbox for “Show white space between pages in Print Layout view”.

What does the purple underline mean in Word?

Purple wavy underlines (wavy vertical lines may also appear in the margin) In an XML document, Word uses purple wavy vertical lines and underlines to indicate XML structure that does not adhere to the XML schema that is attached to the document.

Why is my Word document black?

Do you know what is going on? This is the new Dark Mode in Office. If you have enabled the Black Office theme, you will have a Switch Modes button on the View tab of the Ribbon. For more, see https://insider.office.com/it-it/blog/try-dark-mode-in-word.

What is an alternative to Microsoft Word?

The best alternative is LibreOffice — Writer, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Microsoft Word are Google Docs (Free), WPS Writer (Freemium), Apache OpenOffice Writer (Free, Open Source) and ONLYOFFICE (Freemium, Open Source).

What can I use instead of Word?

5 free alternatives to Microsoft Word

  • Google Docs. Google.
  • Apache OpenOffice Writer. Apache.
  • LibreOffice Writer. The Document Foundation.
  • WPS Office Writer. WPS Software.
  • Microsoft Office Word Online. Microsoft.

How do I fix a corrupted Word document online?

How to recover a Word file online

  1. select a text file by clicking the Select file button.
  2. enter your email address.
  3. enter the characters from the captcha image.
  4. click Next.
  5. wait for file recovery to be completed.
  6. download the recovered Word file.

Why I can’t open my Microsoft Word?

You can access this by opening Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> locate Microsoft Office and select Change from the top menu. In the window that appears, choose Repair and follow the wizard. If this does not fix your issue, then you should uninstall Microsoft Office and perform a fresh install.

Why are my Word documents not opening?

Whether networked or stand-alone, documents may also fail to open because the data file itself is corrupted or because the file is being loaded from a damaged floppy disk. The key to getting data out of Word documents that won’t load is to not panic.

What is the biggest difference between section breaks and regular page breaks?

The page breaks partition only the body text of the document, whereas the section breaks partition both the body text of the document, as well as partition page margins, headers and footers, page numbers, and the like.

If you have just found your Word 2016 document littered with words that are underlined with two horizontal blue lines, then you have just stumbled upon a new feature of Word: Editor. Microsoft claim that

Editor is like your personal writing assistant, helping you write better documents and emails, bringing out the best writer in you. Along with spelling and grammar suggestions, editor gives you better proofing and editing services than before.

Note that the Editor feature is available only to users who have an Office 365 subscription, and that the only language currently supported is English.

In a nutshell, Editor purports to give you better proofing and editing services together with spelling and grammar suggestions. The goal is to make it easier for you to choose the right suggestions in the right context for your document by enhancing the way spelling, grammar and style suggestions are made. Call it arrogant and egotistical if you want, but Microsoft claim that the machine learning and natural language processing technologies now present in Word 2016 will educate you, and improve your writing style. Yeah, right. English lessons from a machine… You are free to take such claims with a pinch of salt.

Here is an example of the double blue underline in Word:

Double Blue Underline

When you right click on the phrase in error, you get the following suggestion:

Right Click Options

In this case, the suggestion is actually helpful. The author clearly meant “another” and not “an other”. Afer right clicking on the word, you can select “Another” (see the description of its meaning), Ignore the “error” or See More suggestions.

But lets put the machine learning and natural language processing technologies in Word 2016 through their paces. Let’s think of a phrase that sounds right, but is grammatically wrong. For example:

Fare vs Fair

Oh dear. The fare should be fair and have a double blue underline as punishment, but Word 2016 hasn’t spotted it. Fail!

What about another simple test:

Hymn vs Him

Hymn should obviously be him. No double blue underline, and another fail. I think that’s two to me and one to Word. We’d better stop there…

If you want to be reckless, turn off Word’s suggestions and go it alone, click the File tab > Options > Proofing and uncheck the box labeled Mark grammar errors as you type.

Mark grammar errors as you type

Change the underline style and color Select the text that you want to underline. Tip: You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D. Use the Underline style drop-down list to select an underline style. Use the Underline color drop-down list to change the color of the line.

Contents

  • 1 How do you change the color of the underline in Word on a Mac?
  • 2 How do I change the color of the underline in Word blue?
  • 3 Can you change the underline color in pages?
  • 4 How do you underline red in Word Mac?
  • 5 How do I get rid of the red Underline in Word?
  • 6 How do I get rid of the red Underline in Word 2016?
  • 7 How do I change the color of my underline?
  • 8 How do you change the color of the underline in Keynote?
  • 9 Why is pages underlining in red?
  • 10 What does a green underline mean in Word?
  • 11 How do I get rid of the red underline in notes?
  • 12 How do I get rid of the red underline in Notes on Mac?
  • 13 What is blue underline in Word?
  • 14 Why are all my words underlined in red on word?
  • 15 How do I fix the blue underline in Word Mac?
  • 16 How do I change the color of a hyperlink underline?
  • 17 How do you style an underline tag?
  • 18 What is the shortcut key for underline?
  • 19 How do you underline text on a Macbook?
  • 20 How do I change the strikethrough color in Keynote?

How do you change the color of the underline in Word on a Mac?

Use keyboard shortcut Command-T or Format:Font:Show Fonts. Select the text you wish to underline and, under the first icon (an underlined T) in the Font box, choose either single or double, then under the same icon, choose color. Then select the color you wish to use for the underline and apply it.

How do I change the color of the underline in Word blue?

Change the colour or remove the underline from hyperlinks in Microsoft Word

  1. Display the Modify Style dialog.
  2. In the Modify Style dialog, Format > Font.
  3. In the Font Color box, choose the colour you would like.
  4. In the Underline Style box, choose (none).
  5. Click OK twice to get back to your document.

Can you change the underline color in pages?

Select the text that you want to change its underline color. Press the command+T keys to bring up the Font panel. The button just to the right of the gear icon on the Font panel toolbar governs underlines. Click that button, and select Color from its menu.

How do you underline red in Word Mac?

When your spelling is checked, misspelled words are underlined in red, and suggested corrections are shown. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Keyboard , then click Text. Select the “Correct spelling automatically” checkbox.

How do I get rid of the red Underline in Word?

Click on the name of the language in the status bar at the bottom of the screen. 2. Add a check mark in the Do not check spelling or grammar option and click OK. All the red and green squiggly underlines should be gone.

How do I get rid of the red Underline in Word 2016?

When that situation comes, just follow this easy guide to remove spelling and red lines in MS Word:

  1. Click on the File menu and then on Options.
  2. In the Options pop-up window, open Proofing.
  3. Untick the Check spelling as you type and Check grammar with spelling.

How do I change the color of my underline?

Change the underline style and color
Select the text that you want to underline. Tip: You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D. Use the Underline style drop-down list to select an underline style. Use the Underline color drop-down list to change the color of the line.

How do you change the color of the underline in Keynote?

Select the text, press CMD-T to open the Fonts panel (from the Format > Font menu), then change the underline color via the underline popup’s Colour menu item.

Why is pages underlining in red?

Enable “Check Spelling While Typing” again, and any misspelled words appear with the red dotted underlines. Normally, this happens in real-time as you’re typing, but if you happen to open a document that’s dozens or hundreds of pages long, it can take some time for your Mac to highlight the spelling errors.

What does a green underline mean in Word?

grammatical error
The red line indicates a misspelled word. The green line indicates a grammatical error. The blue line indicates a contextual spelling error. This feature is turned off by default. Spelling and grammar errors.

How do I get rid of the red underline in notes?

Open the “Settings” app, tap “General” and select “Keyboard.” Ensure the switch labeled “Auto-Correction” is set to “On.”

How do I get rid of the red underline in Notes on Mac?

To do this, head to Edit > Spelling and Grammar. Turn off “Check Spelling While Typing” to disable the red underlines and turn off “Correct Spelling Automatically” to disable automatic replacement.

What is blue underline in Word?

Wavy blue lines that appear under text in a Word document indicate that the Format Consistency Checker is turned on and is functioning in the background as you type. The lines indicate that the Format Consistency Checker has detected an inconsistency that you may want to look at and to correct.

Why are all my words underlined in red on word?

You have the Track Changes feature turned on – red underlining is the default markup used to identify Insertions. Go to the Review tab, turn Track Changes OFF, then Accept all changes in the document & save the file.

How do I fix the blue underline in Word Mac?

If you want to stop grammar checking go to the Spelling & Grammar option in Word > Preferences and remove the tic on Checking Grammar.

How do I change the color of a hyperlink underline?

The underline color of a link can be set through the newly introduced text-decoration-color CSS property. This makes it possible to change the underline color which can be different from the text color. By default, the color of the underline is set the same as the text color of the link.

How do you style an underline tag?

To underline a text, you can also use the style attribute. The style attribute specifies an inline style for an element. The attribute can be used with the HTML

tag, with the CSS property text-decoration.

What is the shortcut key for underline?

Format characters

To do this Press
Hide the selected text. Ctrl+Shift+H
Apply bold formatting. Ctrl+B
Apply underline formatting. Ctrl+U
Apply underline formatting to the words, but not the spaces. Ctrl+Shift+W

How do you underline text on a Macbook?

Mac keyboard shortcuts for text formatting

  1. Bold text: Command + B.
  2. Underline text: Command + U.
  3. Italicize text: Command + i.
  4. Add superscript: Ctrl + Shift + Command + +
  5. Add subscript: Ctrl + Command + –
  6. Make highlighted text larger or smaller: Command + Shift + > or Command + Shift + <
  7. Insert line break: Command + Return.

How do I change the strikethrough color in Keynote?

Keynote –

  1. To add a strikethrough to selected text: Choose Format > Font > Strikethrough. m.
  2. Click Fonts in the toolbar.
  3. In the Fonts window, choose the kind of strikethrough you want from the Text.
  4. To change the strikethrough color, choose Color from the Text Strikethrough. pop-up menu.

Word likes to use squiggly underlines to indicate something isn’t right in our documents. The more common ones are red (a potential spelling error) and green (a potential grammar error). However, you may have seen blue squiggly lines throughout your document as well.

RELATED: The Interface, Fonts, and Templates

Blue squiggly underlines in Word indicate formatting inconsistencies. For example, some text in a paragraph might be formatted in a different font size than the rest of the paragraph (as shown in the image above). When you right-click on text marked with a blue squiggly underline, three choices display at the top of the popup menu: “Replace direct formatting with style Normal,” “Ignore Once,” and “Ignore Rule.” The first option will change depending on the type of the formatting inconsistency. In this example, if you choose the first option, the font size of the underlined text will change to match the rest of the text in the paragraph. Choosing “Ignore Once” removes the blue squiggly line on that one occurrence but doesn’t fix that specific formatting problem for that occurrence. The “Ignore Rule” option skips all occurrences of that specific formatting problem throughout the document.

This feature may be useful at times. However, if you have a document in which you purposely use different formatting in the same paragraph or other uncommon formatting practices, you may not want to see blue squiggly underlines throughout your document. This feature can easily be disabled. To do this, click the “File” tab.

On the backstage screen, click “Options” in the list of items on the left.

On the “Word Options” dialog box, click “Advanced” in the list of items on the left.

In the “Editing options” section on the right, select the “Mark formatting inconsistencies” check box so there is NO check mark in the box.

NOTE: If the “Mark formatting inconsistencies” check box is grayed out, select the “Keep track of formatting” check box so there is a check mark in that box. Now, you can uncheck the “Mark formatting inconsistencies” check box.

Click “OK” to accept the change and close the “Word Options” dialog box.

Now you can leave the differently formatted text as it is without seeing the annoying blue squiggly underlines.

As useful as this feature tries to be, the blue squiggly underlines can be distracting, especially if you have a lot of formatting inconsistencies in your document. However, this feature can help can help you format your documents consistently, if you can get over all the squiggly underlines.

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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Getting Rid of Blue Squiggly Underlines.

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 29, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016


Ivan noted that on his PC the text he writes is frequently «marred» by squiggly underlines in blue. Right-clicking gives him options of Ignore Once, Ignore Rule, or Replace Direct Formatting with Style Normal. Ivan wants to turn off the blue squiggly underlines and is wondering how to do it.

Word likes squiggly underlines—the most commonly seen being red (a potential spelling error) and green (a potential grammar error). The latest squiggly underline introduced in Word is blue, which marks formatting inconsistencies. (This type of marking was introduced in Word 2002.) That is why you see the options you do—particularly «Replace Direct Formatting with Style Normal»—when you right-click the underlined word or phrase.

You can turn off this marking by making a configuration change in Word:

  1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and later versions display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
  2. Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The advanced options of the Word Options dialog box.

  4. In the Editing Options section, clear the Mark Formatting Inconsistencies check box.
  5. Click OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training.
(Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.)
This tip (6053) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Getting Rid of Blue Squiggly Underlines.

Author Bio

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen…

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