How to Proofread, Print, and Save Word as PDF

A single typo in a flyer or a wrong date in a letter to families can undo all your careful formatting. Word catches many mistakes for you, but not all of them, and it sometimes flags words that are perfectly correct. The trick is to use Word's tools first and then do a short check of your own.

In this tutorial you will proofread the Tutoring Club fall newsletter, fix the planted mistakes, print the page you need, and save a PDF to send to families.

Read the red and blue underlines

As you type, Word checks your text in the background and marks problems with underlines. They appear only on screen and never print.

Underline	What it means	Example
Red squiggle	A possible spelling mistake, a repeated word, or a word Word doesn't know	`recieve`, `the the`, a person's name
Blue double underline	A possible grammar or punctuation problem	`Snacks is provided`
Other colors or dotted lines	Style suggestions, such as wordy phrases, in some versions	`in order to`

To fix one, right-click the underlined word. A short menu shows Word's suggestions at the top. Click the right one and Word replaces the word. For a repeated word, the suggestion is Delete Repeated Word.

Two real mistakes and one false alarm: the red line under a correct name only means the word isn't in Word's dictionary.

Don't accept a suggestion without reading it. Word's first guess is usually right for typos, but it can be wrong for names, places and words from other languages.

Check the whole document with Editor

Right-clicking works for one word at a time. To go through the whole document in order, press F7 or click Review then Proofing then Editor. In some versions the button is called Spelling & Grammar, and many versions also have an Editor button at the right end of the Home tab.

ReviewProofingEditor, or press F7. The Editor pane opens on the right.

The Editor pane lists Corrections (spelling and grammar) and, in many versions, Refinements such as clarity and conciseness. Click a category to step through each issue. Some versions also show an overall score. Refinements and the score depend on your version and Microsoft 365 subscription, so don't worry if yours looks a little different. Spelling and grammar are always there.

Choice	What it does	Use it when
A suggestion	Replaces the word with the one you click	Word found a real mistake
Ignore Once	Skips this one place only	It's correct here but might be a mistake elsewhere
Ignore All	Skips the word everywhere in this document	A name or term that appears many times in this document
Add to Dictionary	Teaches Word the word for every document, from now on	A word you use often and always spell this way, such as your own name or your street

When Editor has nothing left to show, it tells you so. That means Word found nothing more it can check, not that the document is perfect. The human check later in this tutorial covers what Word can't see.

Set the proofing language for other languages

Word checks each piece of text against one language. If your English newsletter includes a Spanish greeting or a Korean sentence, Word may mark every word in it with a red squiggle, because it is checking them as English.

To fix this, select only the Spanish or Korean text and go to Review then Language then Language then Set Proofing Language. Pick the right language, such as Spanish (United States) or Korean, and click OK. Word now checks that text with the right dictionary, as long as the proofing tools for that language are installed.

Before

Every Spanish word flagged
Real mistakes get lost in the noise

After

Spanish checked as Spanish
Only real problems are underlined

Select the other-language text, then ReviewLanguageLanguageSet Proofing Language.

The same box has two more options worth knowing. Do not check spelling or grammar tells Word to skip the selected text completely, which is useful for a list of names, web addresses or code. Detect language automatically lets Word guess the language as you type, which works well for whole paragraphs but less well for one or two words.

Check the word count and listen with Read Aloud

The status bar shows a running word count. For more detail, click it or go to Review then Proofing then Word Count (Ctrl+Shift+G). The box shows pages, words, characters (with and without spaces), paragraphs and lines. Select some text first and Word counts only the selection, which helps when a form or an assignment limits one answer to, say, 150 words.

The box also has an Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes option. Tick it if your limit counts those too.

Read Aloud is one of the best proofreading tools in Word. Your eyes skip over missing words and doubled words because your brain knows what you meant to write. Your ears don't. Click where you want to start and choose Review then Speech then Read Aloud, or press Ctrl+Alt+Space. Word reads the text and highlights each word as it goes.

ReviewSpeechRead Aloud. Use the small control bar to pause, skip back and change the speed or voice.

Listen with the document in front of you and pause whenever something sounds wrong. A slightly slower reading speed makes mistakes easier to hear.

Proofread like a person

Word checks spelling and grammar. It can't know that the first session is on the 15th, not the 17th, or that you wrote Room 240 when the club meets in Room 204. Real words used in the wrong place, like form for from, often get through too. After Editor, do one slow pass with this checklist.

Check	What to look for
Names	Every person's name spelled the same way every time, and spelled the way that person spells it
Dates and days	The weekday matches the date on a calendar. Times and years are right
Numbers	Room numbers, phone numbers, prices and totals. Check them against the original source
Consistency	One style for times (3:30 p.m. or 3:30 PM), headings, and capital letters
Headers, footers and captions	Editor checks them, but people forget to read them
The very top	Titles and headings. Big text is where typos hide in plain sight

Before

Sept. 17, 2026 is a Thursday
Wrong room number
Name and end time don't match page 1

After

Date checked on a calendar
Room, name and time match the rest of the newsletter

No underlines on either side. Only a human check finds these mistakes.

Preview and print

Press Ctrl+P or go to File then Print. The left side holds the settings and the right side shows a preview of each page exactly as it will print. Use the arrows below the preview to page through, and look for an empty last page, a heading stranded at the bottom of a page or a picture cut off at a margin.

Setting	What to choose
Copies	How many of each page. Set this at the top, next to the Print button
Printer	The printer to use. Check it's the right one, especially on a shared computer
Print All Pages	Click to change to Print Current Page, Print Selection, or Custom Print
Pages	Type exact pages, such as `1` or `1-3, 5`. Word switches to Custom Print for you
Print One Sided	Change to Print on Both Sides if the printer can, or Manually Print on Both Sides, where Word tells you when to turn the paper over
Collated	With several copies, prints each full set in order (1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3)
Orientation, paper size, margins	Quick changes for this printout. It's better to set these in the document itself, as in Tutorial 5

Print one copy first and check it on paper before you print fifty. It is cheaper to find a mistake on one sheet.

Save a PDF to share

A PDF looks the same on every phone, computer and printer, and people can't change it by accident. It is the right format for a finished flyer, a newsletter or anything you send to families or post online. Keep the .docx too, so you can edit it later.

There are two ways, and both give the same result:

Save As: go to File then Save As (or Save a Copy), choose a folder, and change Save as type to PDF.
Export: go to File then Export then Create PDF/XPS Document and click Create PDF/XPS.

Before you click Save or Publish, look at the options in the same box:

Optimize for: Standard is best for printing and most uses; Minimum size makes a smaller file for email or web.
Options… opens Page range (all pages, the current page or a range, for example to leave out a sign-up slip) and the extra information to include. Keep Document structure tags for accessibility ticked so screen readers can follow the headings, lists and alt text. Create bookmarks using Headings adds clickable bookmarks in the PDF.
Open file after publishing opens the PDF right away so you can check it.

Method	Links and bookmarks	Accessibility tags	Verdict
File then Save As (PDF) or File then Export	Kept	Kept, when the option is ticked	The best choice
File then Print to Microsoft Print to PDF	Lost	Lost	Works in a pinch, but the PDF is a flat picture of the pages

Always open the PDF before you send it. Check that every page is there, pictures and tables look right, nothing moved, and the file name is clear, such as Tutoring Club - Fall Newsletter.pdf. If something is wrong, fix the Word file and save the PDF again.

Common mistakes

Mistake	What happens	Fix
Clicking the first suggestion every time	Correct names and words change into wrong ones	Read each suggestion; use Ignore Once or Ignore All for correct words
Adding a misspelling to the dictionary	Word never flags that mistake again, in any document	Remove it in File then Options then Proofing then Custom Dictionaries
Leaving Spanish or Korean text set to English	Every word is underlined and real errors hide among them	Select it and use Set Proofing Language
Trusting Editor to catch everything	Wrong dates, rooms and names go out to families	Do a human pass for names, dates and numbers, and use Read Aloud
Printing all copies without a test	Fifty copies with the same mistake	Check the preview, print one copy, then print the rest
Making the PDF with Microsoft Print to PDF	Links, bookmarks and accessibility tags are lost	Use File then Save As (PDF) or File then Export then Create PDF/XPS Document

Practice

Proofread, print and export the fall newsletter

Guided practice

Download the example file above. It is a two-page Tutoring Club newsletter with planted mistakes: typos, a repeated word, a grammar error, a Spanish greeting, a wrong date and a few details that don't match. Page 2 is a sign-up slip.

Underlines: right-click three of the red or blue underlined words and fix them from the menu. Use Delete Repeated Word on the the.
Editor: press F7 and work through the rest. Use Ignore All for the tutor names that Word doesn't know, and don't add anything to the dictionary.
Language: select the Spanish greeting and set its proofing language to Spanish with Review then Language then Language then Set Proofing Language. Watch the squiggles disappear.
Word count: select the Message from the coordinator paragraph and press Ctrl+Shift+G. Is it under 80 words?
Listen: click at the start of page 1 and use Review then Speech then Read Aloud. Pause and fix anything that sounds wrong.
Human check: find the wrong date (check a 2026 calendar), the room number that doesn't match, and the tutor name spelled two ways. Fix them so the whole newsletter agrees.
Print preview: press Ctrl+P, page through the preview, and set it to print only page 2 (the sign-up slip), 20 copies. Print one copy only if you have a printer handy.
PDF: use File then Export then Create PDF/XPS Document. In Options…, set the page range to page 1 only and check that Document structure tags for accessibility is ticked. Name it Tutoring Club - Fall Newsletter.pdf and open it to check.

Independent challenge: Swap with a partner

Plant five new mistakes in a copy of your own newsletter: one typo, one repeated word, one wrong date, one wrong number and one name spelled two ways. Swap files with a friend or another volunteer and see who finds all five first. Which ones did Editor catch, and which needed a human?

Reflect: which kinds of mistakes does Word catch for you, and which ones will you always check yourself before you send a document?

Check your understanding0 of 4 correct

Pick an answer to see whether it's right and why.

A tutor's name, spelled correctly, has a red squiggle and appears ten times in this document. What is the best choice?
Ignore All skips the word everywhere in this document without teaching it to Word for every other document.
Your English letter has a Spanish greeting, and every Spanish word is underlined in red. What should you do?
Set Proofing Language makes Word check the greeting with a Spanish dictionary, so only real mistakes are flagged.
Editor finds no more issues. Which mistake might still be in the document?
Word checks spelling and grammar, not facts. Dates, numbers and names need a human check.
Which way of making a PDF keeps links and accessibility tags?
Save As PDF and Export keep links, bookmarks and structure tags. Printing to a PDF printer makes a flat copy of the pages.

You're ready to move on when

Tick each one off as you go. Your ticks are saved in this browser only.

You fix red and blue underlines from the right-click menu after reading the suggestion
You can run Editor with F7 and know when to use Ignore Once, Ignore All or Add to Dictionary
Text in other languages has the right proofing language set
You checked names, dates and numbers yourself and listened with Read Aloud
You previewed before printing and saved a PDF with Save As or Export, then opened it to check

How to Proofread, Print, and Save a Word Document as PDF

What you'll learn

Before you start

Example file