how to check readability in word for mac

Most professional documents fall into this range. Scores from 60-80 are regarded as reasonably easy to read and written in plain English. Scores from 0-60 are typically regarded as college or college graduate level and fairly difficult to read. This score rates the readability of your text on a 100-point scale, with higher scores being easier to read. Both scores are based on formulas that account for average sentence length (ASL) and average syllables per word (ASW). In the Readability section, you’ll see two scores: Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. The window shows you some basic statistics like word and character counts, along with some averages like sentences per paragraph. Run through the spell and grammar check and, when you’re done, the Readability Statistics window will pop up. Initiate a spelling and grammar check by hitting F7 or by clicking the Proofing button in the status bar at the bottom of the window. You can select specific text to check, or make sure nothing is selected to check the whole document. All you have to do is run a spell and grammar check. Now that you’ve enabled reading statistics, checking the readability score of a document or a selection of text is simple. Note that in both Word and Outlook, you can deselect the options for checking spelling and grammar errors as you type if you find that distracting. In the Editor Options window, select the Proofing tab. Enable both the “Check grammar with spelling” and “Show readability statistics” check boxes and then click OK.

RELATED: How to Use the Proofing Panel in Word And if you don’t mind having grammar checking active, but just prefer not to be distracted by the squiggly underlines while you work, you can always turn off spelling and grammar checking while you type. Whether that’s worth it is really up to you. There are some better grammar-checking add-ins for Office out there, but even if you have those enabled, you’ll still need to enable the built-in grammar checking to be able to use the readability statistics. In versions starting with 2013, you have to enable the feature first, and then access it by running a spell and grammar check.Ĭhecking spelling and grammar in Word and Outlook happen in the Proofing Panel, and offer a fairly solid way of proofing documents. In older versions of Word, the feature was just a click away on your status bar. This can help ensure your writing is readable enough for your intended audience. Microsoft Word and Outlook have long featured the ability to view “readability” statistics for what you’re writing, so you know how simple or complex you’re writing is.

How to check readability in word for mac