Allowing for Words that Contain Numbers

Have you ever noticed that one of the side effects of our fast-paced world is the creation of new words? It seems that every day—particularly in the technological or medical fields—that new words are bursting forth on the scene. Some of these words are actually composed of letters and numbers together. For instance, b2b is an acronym (word?) meaning business-to-business.

Normally such words would be flagged by Excel's spelling checker as being incorrect. If you create worksheets that contain quite a few words that are formed by mixing letters and numbers, you may want to instruct Excel to ignore them. You can do so by following these steps if you are using a version of Word prior to Word 2007:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the Spelling tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure the Ignore Words with Numbers check box is selected.
4. Click on OK.

If you are using Excel 2007 then the steps are a bit different:

1. Click the Office button and then click Excel Options. Excel displays the Excel Options dialog box.
2. Click Proofing at the left side of the dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure the Ignore Words that Contain Numbers check box is selected.
4. Click on OK.