Customized grammar check and printout?!

October 24, 2005 8:57 PM

Microsoft word help! Midterm paper due in the morning and I can't figure out the teacher's grammar check requirements!

I've just polished off a nice big paper for my Lit midterm. The teacher is tough, and has a number of requirements that I'm not used to having to do. I've managed to figure out all but one. Directly from the assignment: "For all written assignments, conduct a customized grammar check and attach the printout of it, including the grade level readability. This is not an option, it is a requirement and the assignment will not be assessed without it."
Now, I've set the spelling and grammar to her specifications already. I can run a spelling and grammar check and have it give a little pop up with the readability statistics and such, however I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get this information to print! Am I missing a menu option somewhere? I realize this is desperate, but I have to hand this thing in tomorrow. If any word gurus have advice please help!

posted by sarahmelah to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

copy, cut & paste into wordpad
posted by lester at 8:59 PM on October 24, 2005

Best answer: You can't copy the text from the popup directly. You can take a screeshot of the popup by pressing Alt-Printscreen, which copies an image of it to the clipboard. You can then paste that into a blank page in Word so you can print it out.
posted by zsazsa at 9:03 PM on October 24, 2005

How to access the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Tests in Word
posted by exhilaration at 9:04 PM on October 24, 2005

Oh whoops, I misread your question, zsazsa got it.
posted by exhilaration at 9:06 PM on October 24, 2005

Response by poster: Oh of course. For some reason I was thinking that there was a mystical "print readability statistics" option that I wasn't finding. Your suggestion works perfectly zsazsa, you're a life saver!

Thanks so much!
posted by sarahmelah at 9:17 PM on October 24, 2005

This is a Lit midterm, and your professor is testing your ability to copy a screen capture and print it? Ah, whither academe?
posted by trip and a half at 9:20 PM on October 24, 2005

See also, "your professor could do the same damn thing at the touch of a button if she had you submit the Word doc itself, but instead she's making you print it out?"
posted by AmbroseChapel at 9:35 PM on October 24, 2005

Response by poster: Don't get me started, please. I've also had to supply actual photocopies of all of the works cited in the paper. I've never seen such requirements...
posted by sarahmelah at 9:40 PM on October 24, 2005

Usually in Windows you can press Ctrl-C when a dialog is on the screen and it will copy the text of it into the clipboard.
posted by Rhomboid at 10:04 PM on October 24, 2005

...aaaand of course I just tried it and it does not work in Word. So never mind. I guess I should have said "Standard pop-up dialogs".
posted by Rhomboid at 10:06 PM on October 24, 2005

Screenshots can be easily faked. Not only is this requirement ridiculous (especially since it presupposes you know how to do a print-screen), it's also stupid. My sympathies are certainly with you. Good luck with your paper.
posted by banished at 10:08 PM on October 24, 2005

What if you use OpenOffice.org or even WordPerfect, or god forbid linux. If she wants someone to do her job for her, she could do better than Microsoft.
posted by hoborg at 10:14 PM on October 24, 2005

FWIW, the test doesn't seem to take grammar into account, but rather just word- and sentence-length.
Maybe she get's confused with all those big words?
posted by signal at 1:47 PM on October 25, 2005

Umm...you can get readability scores in WordPerfect. And I would imagine that she would say if you used something else, you should swing by the computer lab at school and open the file in Word to get the scores.

I hate MS Word and don't use it, and I can't see any sensible reason for requiring this with a paper, but it's really not like there's anyone in the class who couldn't do it.
posted by duck at 3:07 PM on October 25, 2005