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In Google Docs, if a misspelled word is present in a document, a red underline is displayed under that word, as is typical in text-composition applications.

When the caret (insertion point) is positioned over the misspelled word, is there a keyboard shortcut that can be used to get Google Docs to display suggested corrected spellings (i.e. the same behavior that Google Docs provides when you right-click the misspelled word with the mouse)?

On a Windows PC, I would normally use the "Menu" / "Applications" key for this; however, in Google Docs, this causes an unrelated context menu to be displayed that does not include spelling suggestions. (Tested in both Firefox and Chrome.)

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    Doesn't look like it. The only keyboard shortcuts I see for misspellings just allow you move to the next/previous misspelling. I can't see a way to get the Google Docs context menu to come up with just the keyboard. Bad accessibility design if you ask me.
    – ale
    Jun 21, 2012 at 19:15

5 Answers 5

16

Try Control+Shift+\

Works in Google Chrome for me.

I found this at https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/going-google/accessibility/google-documents-keyboard-shortcuts---mac

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  • Interesting. This shortcut only seems to work in Google Docs -- not any other applications that I tried briefly -- but it does work! Thanks! Jan 17, 2013 at 3:03
  • This doesn't work in both Firefox and Chrome - it just opens a regular context menu. Same result as using the menu button that is located next to right ctrl. Jul 26, 2017 at 8:59
  • Link gives a 403 forbidden error
    – Kev
    Feb 27, 2019 at 9:56
5

According to Google Docs help, context menu can be opened with following keys.

Cmd / Ctrl+Shift+\

or

Cmd / Ctrl+Shift+x

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    On Mac, per my testing (Firefox on Mac) and also the linked article, only Cmd+Shift+\ works, but not Cmd+Shift+x. Jan 22, 2018 at 22:28
4
  1. Move courser into underlined misspelled word,
    (=> correction bubble will pop up (see image))
  2. press Tab to select,
  3. press Enter to apply.

example


Based on this answer by Miso Takacs.

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  • This is exactly what I needed, thanks! Jul 26, 2021 at 17:53
  • If your caret is already positioned within the word, this is the fastest way (two keystrokes, and easy keys as well). Aug 3, 2022 at 16:38
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Hit f7 followed by enter. Hope this helps!

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  • Thanks, F7 is a handy shortcut!
    – pcdev
    Apr 29, 2020 at 6:45
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On a full-sized keyboard on Windows, the Menu key now opens the contextual Did you mean: menu.

The sequence Menu, Down, Enter validates the suggest spelling. This also works if the caret is right at the beginning of the word (where Tab, Enter does not). So this is the fastest way if the caret is at the beginning of the word, and the second-fastest way if not.

If your keyboard does not have a menu key, know that Shift + F10 replicates it. So the full sequence becomes Shift + F10, Down, Enter: one less keystroke compared to other combinations suggested here, though admittedly the F10 key is awkwaredly placed.

enter image description here

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