If you regularly use Wordpad, then you need an excellent Wordpad spell checker. Here’s how to enable Wordpad spell checker in Windows 10 & 11.
No matter how fluent in English you are, it is pretty standard that there will be spelling errors in your typing. There are two significant reasons for spelling errors. i.e., you either don’t know the spelling of a word, or you typed incorrectly.
Generally, most programs like Word and even Browsers have their own spell checkers to deal with this problem.
However, even though Wordpad is a pretty powerful rich text editor, it has no built-in spell checker. If you use the Wordpad application regularly and need a decent spell checker, then the good thing is that you can add that capability.
If you are wondering, follow the below steps to enable spell check in Wordpad (and Notepad too).
Enable Spell Check in Wordpad
To add spell check capabilities to the Wordpad program, we will use a free and lightweight application called tinySpell. This application works not only with Wordpad but with the entire Windows system. i.e., on any application. Simply put, tinySpell works as a system-wide spell checker.
Note: The free version of tinySpell only supports the English (US) language. You need to purchase the Plus version for other languages, which costs $15.
To start, download tinySpell from the official site and install it like any other Windows application. If you don’t want to install the application, the developer also provides a portable version that works just the same. Download that instead.
After installing, launch the application using the desktop shortcut or by searching for it in the start menu.
Once you launch, the tinySpell application will sit silently in the taskbar until it is needed. In the background, it actively looks for any spelling errors.
Now, launch Wordpad and start typing. When there is a spelling error, you will hear a beep sound, and tinySpell will show a red text on top of the wrong word.
To correct the spelling error, click on the red text or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + ;. You will see a list of correct words. Select the correct spelling, and the wrong spelling will be replaced with the selected correct one.
Wordpad Spell Check Customization
Though tinySpell is a lightweight and straightforward application, it has various settings to properly configure it to meet your needs. For instance, you can change the shortcut which shows the list of correct spellings, change the alert when you mistype, etc.
To access the tinySpell settings window, right-click on the tinySpell application icon and select the “Settings” option.
The above action will open the settings window. The good thing about this settings window is that all the configurable options are on one page, and you can change them with just a few clicks. Just go through each setting and change the ones you need.
For example, if you don’t want tinySpell to beep every time there is an error, uncheck the “Beep on error” checkbox. If needed, you can even change the beep sound to a custom one. Select the “From file” option, click the “Open” button, and choose the appropriate sound file.
As with any good spell checker, sometimes the application will highlight correct words as spelling errors. There may be any number of reasons like regional variations, industry-specific terms, lesser-known abbreviations, etc. If you have a list of those words, you can add them to the tinySpell dictionary.
To do that, right-click on the tinySpell icon and select the “Dictionary” option.
Enter the word in the top field and click on the “Add” button to add the word to the dictionary.
If needed, you can configure tinySpell to work only in specific applications or ignore particular applications. That is, you can add applications to allow or disallow the list. To do that, right-click on the tinySpell icon and select the “Applications” option.
Here, to block tinySpell from working in specific applications, select “Enabled.” To make tinySpell work only in selected applications, select “Disabled.” Next, use the “Add” button to add the applications.
That is all. As you can see, it is relatively easy to enable Wordpad spell check, albeit with a third-party application.