Yahoo Mail spell check

Yahoo Mail spell check cover image
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The Yahoo Mail spell check feature is available on All-New Mail as well as the older Mail Classic interface and examines both rich and plain text email messages for spelling mistakes. The location of the spell check button/icon, its features and usage, however, changes from version to version.

Please note that at the time of writing the Yahoo Mail spell check does not work in real time. This means the system will not point out spelling errors while the email message is being written (typed in). Ideally, the Yahoo spell check should be run (by clicking on the button / link) once the message has been fully composed.

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Spell check in the All-new Yahoo Mail version

The spell check icon in the All-new Mail interface is located in the top toolbar – the one right under the tabs. It’s the fourth from the left and has a small downward arrow. Clicking on the arrow displays a drop down of the different language dictionaries available. Needless to say, make sure you’ve selected the language in which the email has been written. English comes in three flavours – UK, US and Canadian – and there is also an auto-select option.

When you have finished writing the message, click on the “Spelling” icon. Any spelling mistakes found in the email will be highlighted with red underlines. You can either correct these mistakes manually or click over the word and get auto-suggestions from Yahoo. This functionality is quite similar to that found in word processor program like MS Word.

The Yahoo Mail spell check options and features in the new interface - All-new Mail

Yahoo Mail Classic interface spell checker

Rich Text format

The spell checker icon is the first one in the toolbar in the Rich-text format of the Mail Classic version. Clicking it once the message is fully composed will put a red line under the errors it finds one-by-one. The suggestions are displayed above the message box. Thus, all mistakes are not pointed out at one time but you need to go through these sequentially by either correcting the spelling or choosing “Ignore“.

Plain text format

In the Plain text format, the “Spell Check” button moves to the top toolbar – next to “Save as Draft“. The misspelt words are however not underlined but are rather “selected”. Suggestions are offered in quite the same way as the rich-text format and the procedure for checking the message for mistakes is again sequential.

FYI, Yahoo Mail spell check has an Ignore All feature that offers great convenience when a particular word you’ve used, such as a name, is not compliant with the chosen language dictionary and shows up as a misspell. Clicking on “Ignore All” for such a word will make all its occurrences acceptable and remove the red underline.

In the November of 2009 there was a weird Yahoo Mail spell checker problem. This affected many accounts (thankfully not mine). Though the misspelt words were identified correctly, no substitutions could be made. Read more about this in the blog.

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