Use proofing and document tools, including spell and grammar check, find and replace, word count, and saving and exporting in suitable file formats

What this dot point is asking

This outcome is about checking and finishing a document properly. You should be able to run a spell and grammar check and judge its suggestions, use find and replace to change text quickly and reliably, read the word count, and save or export the file in a suitable format such as the editable document or a PDF. These tools turn a rough draft into a polished, shareable file. In the written paper you match the tool to the task and explain file format choices; in the practical you use them to finish your work.

The answer

Spell and grammar check

The spell checker compares your words against a dictionary and flags ones it does not recognise, usually with a wavy underline. The grammar checker flags possible grammar problems. You should review each suggestion rather than accept them all, because:

• A correctly spelled name or technical word may be flagged simply because it is not in the dictionary.
• A real word used wrongly (such as "their" instead of "there") may not be flagged at all, because both are spelled correctly.

So spell check is a helpful first pass, but you still need to read your work.

Find and replace

Find searches the document for a word or phrase and jumps to each match. Replace swaps a word for another. Replace All changes every match at once, which is ideal when the same mistake appears many times, such as a wrong name used throughout. Be careful with Replace All: make the search specific so you do not change text you meant to keep.

Word count

Word count tells you how many words the document has, and usually the number of characters and paragraphs too. This matters when a task sets a length, such as "write 200 to 250 words".

Saving and file formats

• The editable document format keeps everything changeable, so this is what you save while you are still working.
• PDF fixes the layout and fonts so the document looks the same on any device, and the reader does not need your software to open it. It is the right choice for a final version you are sending out, but it is hard to edit, so keep the editable original.
• Save versus Save As. Save updates the current file; Save As creates a new copy, which is how you make a PDF or a backup without losing the original.

Examples in context

Example 1. A job application. Before sending a cover letter, a student runs the spell check, proofreads it by eye to catch "from" typed as "form", confirms it is under one page, and exports a PDF so the employer sees a tidy, fixed layout no matter what device they use.

Example 2. Renaming a product in a manual. A company changes a product name across a long manual. Rather than scrolling through every page, the writer uses Replace All with the exact old name, checks the number changed, and saves a new PDF, finishing in seconds what would have taken an hour by hand.

Try this

• Cue. Explain one thing a spell checker will catch and one thing it will miss. (It catches a misspelled word not in the dictionary, but misses a correctly spelled word used in the wrong place, such as "their" for "there".)

• Cue. Describe how to change a word that appears many times throughout a document, all at once. (Use Find and Replace, type the old word and the new word, then choose Replace All.)

• Cue. Give one reason to send a PDF rather than the editable file. (The PDF keeps the layout and fonts fixed so it looks the same on any device, and the reader does not need your software to open it.)