Turning Off Notification of Formatting Inconsistencies

Ivan noted that on his PC the text he writes is frequently "marred" by squiggly underlines in blue. Right-clicking gives him options of Ignore Once, Ignore Rule, or Replace Direct Formatting with Style Normal. Ivan wants to turn off the blue squiggly underlines and is wondering how to do it.

Word likes squiggly underlines—the most common being red (a potential spelling error) and green (a potential grammar error). You may also see a different type of squiggly underline—blue. This mark is used to indicate formatting inconsistencies. That is why you see the options you do—particularly "Replace Direct Formatting with Style Normal"—when you right-click the underlined word or phrase.

You can turn off this marking by making a configuration change in Word:

1. Click the Office button and then click Word Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
2. Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. In the Editing Options section, clear the Mark Formatting Inconsistencies check box.
4. Click OK.