The Red Squiggle Distraction
Google Docs features an active, real-time spellcheck engine. As you type, the system constantly compares your words against its internal dictionary. If it detects a word it doesn’t recognize, it automatically underlines it with a jagged red line. While this is helpful for catching genuine typos in standard writing, it can be incredibly distracting and visually overwhelming if you are drafting a document filled with industry-specific jargon, character names for a novel, medical terminology, or code snippets. Having a page covered in red squiggles makes it difficult to focus on the actual content and formatting of your text.
Disabling the Live Spellcheck Engine
To clear your screen of visual clutter and stop Google Docs from automatically underlining perceived spelling errors with red lines as you type, you must disable the real-time spelling suggestions.
Open your Google Docs document. In the top menu bar, click on Tools. From the dropdown menu, hover your mouse over the Spelling and grammar option. A secondary sub-menu will slide out to the right. Look for the option labeled Show spelling suggestions. If the spellcheck engine is currently active, this option will have a checkmark next to it. Click on Show spelling suggestions to toggle it off. The checkmark will disappear, and immediately, all the red squiggly underlines throughout your entire document will vanish. Google Docs will no longer highlight unrecognized words as you type. You can still manually run a full spellcheck later by going back to Tools > Spelling and grammar and selecting “Spelling and grammar check.”