# Red, dashed-underlines for misspelled words? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 19, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006 "2007-11-19T04:10:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/1 "2007-11-19T04:10:41Z")
I was just replying to a thread in the Pit and saw, while writing my post, that the words “Superbowl” and “Favre” appeared with a red, dash underline. As I compose I find that any misspelling and some compound words appear with this too. I guess we have a nifty little spell checker now. When did this start? Just curious. I also apologize if this has question has been done, I didn’t see one yet. ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/2 "2007-11-19T04:12:59Z")
Did you just switch to Firefox? Or upgrade to Firefox 2 from 1.5? Because that’s a built in feature in the browser. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/3 "2007-11-19T04:48:41Z")
I just upgraded my OS for my Mac. With that upgrade, Safari also upgraded. Now I have the hated red underlining too. User names mostly. This was one reason I hate anything Micro Soft. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/4 "2007-11-19T05:33:28Z")
Safari and Firefox are non-Microsoft products. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/5 "2007-11-19T06:44:34Z")
[QUOTE=SkipMagic] Safari and Firefox are non-Microsoft products. [/QUOTE] I know that, **Skip**. I’m saying Mac has adopted that ugly red underline, telling me it’s smarter than I am. I don’t use spell check for a reason. I spell better, and I know what I’m trying to say. I’ve tried to find out if this is a new preference, but no luck so far. ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/6 "2007-11-19T14:24:42Z")
Yeah, it’s the Mac OS upgrade. I hadn’t noticed it on any other sites until this morning. That’s really weird. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/7 "2007-11-21T03:16:16Z")
If you don’t care for the automatic spellcheck in Safari, go to Edit, Spelling, then uncheck “Check spelling as you type” - it’s just about the only thing in Safari that can’t be accessed by some Command-whatever keyboard shortcut. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/8 "2007-11-21T05:06:01Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] If you don’t care for the automatic spellcheck in Safari, go to Edit, Spelling, then uncheck “Check spelling as you type” - it’s just about the only thing in Safari that can’t be accessed by some Command-whatever keyboard shortcut. [/QUOTE] {{{{ **gotpasswords** }}}} Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/9 "2007-11-21T05:37:24Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > I spell better, and I know what I’m trying to say. You spell better than a list of correct spellings? lol. I guess by that you mean you use a lot of technical words, internet slang or British/Canadian spellings? I see you’ve got the solution that you were looking for but I thought I’d mention that one of the options when you right-click an “incorrect” word is “Add to dictionary” so anything you deem proper can be added and never red-underlined again, unless you mis-spell “IANAD”. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/10 "2007-11-22T02:50:57Z")
[QUOTE=CarnalK] You spell better than a list of correct spellings? lol. I guess by that you mean you use a lot of technical words, internet slang or British/Canadian spellings? I see you’ve got the solution that you were looking for but I thought I’d mention that one of the options when you right-click an “incorrect” word is “Add to dictionary” so anything you deem proper can be added and never red-underlined again, unless you mis-spell “IANAD”. [/QUOTE] Sorry, I did not mean to sound arrogant, I just prefer to make my own mistakes. What I meant was, I know what I want to write, and resent a machine trying to tell me what I _really_ meant. You’re right, the spell check flags user names, technical words, acronyms and abbreviations and I don’t like that. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/11 "2007-11-22T08:13:24Z")
It’s the year 2007, and the spell checkers are still trying to tell me that “transgender” is not a word. They’re imbeciles. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-dashed-underlines-for-misspelled-words/427006/12 "2007-11-22T22:41:12Z")
[QUOTE=Johanna] It’s the year 2007, and the spell checkers are still trying to tell me that “transgender” is not a word. They’re imbeciles. [/QUOTE] You must have missed **CarnalK’s** post. All you have to do is click “Add to dictionary”. It’ll do just that. Then you can “transgender” all you wish. 🙂 I simply ignore that which I don’t care about. Sometimes it’s right. Peace, mangeorge