Use Alt+Enter in Microsoft Word for spell checking quick-fixes

Alex Berezoutsky

Sometimes we receive feedback on the most popular ReSharper keyboard shortcut, Alt+Enter, not being available outside of Visual Studio. This is a bit confusing for ReSharper users working in Microsoft Word where spell-checking comes with a curly underline for grammar and spelling errors in document — similar to how ReSharper highlights errors and warnings in Visual Studio. Proofing suggestions in Word are by default applied with a right mouse click or an unfamiliar shortcut, which kind of slows down document editing for ReSharper (or IntelliJ IDEA) users.

Here are some easy steps to make the renowned Alt+Enter shortcut to apply “quick-fixes” as well as navigate between errors in Microsoft Word documents. The following guide is based on Microsoft Word 2010; however, the steps are very similar in previous versions (for example, Word 2007 or 2003).

1. Open the Word Options dialog box by choosing File | Options (Word 2007: Office button | Word Options.)
2. Click Customize Ribbon (Word 2007: Customize.)
3. Click Customize in the Keyboard shortcuts area (in Word 2003, the button can be reached by selecting Tools | Customize | Commands.)
   
4. In All Commands category, find a command called NextMisspelling. It is mapped to Alt+F7 by default.
5. In the Press new shortcut key field, press Alt+Enter (it will be displayed as Alt+Return in the dialog):
   
6. Click Assign, and you’re done!

Now gently close all dialogs and enjoy Alt+Enter displaying the spelling correction menu in Microsoft Word! Note that you can even press it anywhere in a Word document (not necessarily directly on a curly underline) to navigate to the next spelling or grammar error, and open the correction menu upon it: