Get rid of red squiggles before you take your screenshot.

📢 Recently, a mayor’s open letter was shared on social media.

The letter was shared as an image, not a Word doc/PDF.

It looks like a screenshot taken at the mayor’s computer.

I reckon the mayor’s computer was set to US English but he wanted to write in British English. Word had done its usual and squiggly underlined in red the words it wanted to flag as wrong.

Despite the serious content of the letter, my eyes kept being drawn to the red underlined words. But the words weren’t incorrect. It’s the writer’s settings that were the issue.

❓I was surprised to see this out of a politician’s office. Maybe speed was of the essence. It’s more often the type of thing I see on FB with adverts quickly created for local events. Have you seen things like this?

If you want to write ’til’ on a flyer, even though the grammar books suggest till/until, crack on.

Wanna say gonna? I’m not going to stop you!

🛑 But the message may be muddied if readers are distracted by the squiggles.

🖱️Use the right button and accept Word’s suggestion or click ‘ignore’. Up to you.

💡Whatever you do, go through this stage before you take your screenshot.