Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Adjusting Spell Check for Internet Addresses.

Adjusting Spell Check for Internet Addresses

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 24, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


If you use the spelling checker to examine the text in a worksheet, you might want it to ignore Internet-related data, such as URLs and e-mail addresses. You can instruct the spelling checker to ignore anything that looks like an Internet address by following these steps:

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options dialog box.
  2. Make sure the Spelling tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Spelling tab of the Options dialog box.

  4. Make sure the Ignore Internet and File Addresses check box is selected.
  5. Click on OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3372) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Adjusting Spell Check for Internet Addresses.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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