Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Allowing for Words that Contain Numbers.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 3, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Have you ever noticed that one of the side effects of our fast-paced world is the creation of new words? It seems that every day—particularly in the technological or medical fields—that new words are bursting forth on the scene. Some of these words are actually composed of letters and numbers together. For instance, b2b is an acronym (word?) meaning business-to-business.
Normally such words would be flagged by Excel's spelling checker as being incorrect. If you create worksheets that contain quite a few words that are formed by mixing letters and numbers, you may want to instruct Excel to ignore them. You can do so by following these steps:
Figure 1. The Proofing options of the Excel Options dialog box.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6213) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Allowing for Words that Contain Numbers.
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2025-05-06 11:44:25
J. Woolley
The ListAutoCorrectOptions and ListAutoCorrections functions are described in my recent comment here: https://excelribbon.tips.net/T006257
They return the status of items displayed by clicking the AutoCorrect Options... button illustrated in the Tip's dialog box image.
2025-05-04 12:14:00
J. Woolley
The ListSpellingOptions function is described in my recent comment here: https://excelribbon.tips.net/T006201
It returns the status of spelling options illustrated in the Tip plus information about the default spelling dictionary.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
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