With the help of Grammarly for Windows or Grammarly for Mac, you can access our writing suggestions directly in a wide array of applications and websites.
Before you install Grammarly for Windows or Grammarly for Mac, please make sure that your computer meets the system requirements for this app.
This article covers:
- Checking text
- Moving the Grammarly widget
- Adding words to your personal dictionary
- Using Grammarly’s tone detector
- Deactivating certain suggestions
- Changing your language preference
- Managing your account settings
Checking text
Once the application is installed, open any app or website on your computer and start typing. You should then see a floating Grammarly widget on your screen.
Grammarly checks your text dynamically as you write. Once Grammarly identifies a potential issue with the writing, it will automatically underline that word or phrase. You’ll also see a number of identified issues on the button:
When you’re ready to check your writing, click on the underlined word or the floating Grammarly widget to see the suggestions:
Note: If you use Grammarly in Microsoft Word, you may see a slightly different interface with a list of suggestions. That interface allows you to review suggestions for the next ten pages based on the cursor's position. To see the suggestions for other pages, move your cursor to the preferred position in the text.
To accept a suggestion, click on it. You can also learn more about each suggestion by clicking the three dots on the card.
If you don’t find a suggestion useful, you can dismiss it by clicking on the trash bin icon on the card.
To switch to the next suggestion, click the arrow icon on the card. You can also click the specific underline in the text to see the suggestion.
Moving the Grammarly widget
Grammarly for Windows and Mac is designed to work with you in many of the most popular websites and desktop apps.
Based on user feedback, our teams have changed how the Grammarly widget appears on your screen. We’ve introduced anchor points around text boxes and in the corners of windows. While Grammarly is minimized, the widget will stay fixed to these anchor points. This way, you’ll always know where to look for Grammarly when you open a specific app.
Should the initial location overlap an important function, you can move the widget by holding and dragging the widget to another anchored location. Small blue icons identify these additional locations. As you move the widget closer to a different anchor point, the dot will expand, and Grammarly will be pinned to the new location:
Grammarly for Windows and Mac will remember the selected location on a per-app or per-website basis.
When you open the Grammarly Assistant to see details about the available suggestions, you can move the window to any location on your screen. Click the widget once to open the assistant view. If you click the X in the upper-right corner or navigate to another window, Grammarly will return to its anchored position.
Adding words to your personal dictionary
When checking your text, Grammarly may come across words specific to your writing style, which may not be widely used. If Grammarly doesn’t recognize these words, you can add them to your personal dictionary. Next time you use it in your text, Grammarly won’t flag it as a mistake.
To add any word to your personal dictionary, go to https://account.grammarly.com/customize, type the word into the corresponding field, and click the + button.
Alternatively, if Grammarly identifies a word as misspelled, you will see a button visualized as a book on a suggestion card. This button also allows you to add the word to your dictionary.
To learn more about the personal dictionary feature, check out this blog post.
Using Grammarly’s tone detector
Grammarly’s tone detector helps you understand how your writing may sound to its intended audience.
To check the tone of your message, make sure your writing contains at least 150 characters. You will then see an emoji directly on the floating Grammarly widget.
Click the button to find out more about the tone of your message:
You can also help us improve this feature by letting us know whether the tone of your message was detected correctly via the check or minus icon next to each tone.
If you’d like Grammarly to stop checking the tone of your writing, click the floating Grammarly widget and then click the gear icon. In the Customization menu, switch off the Detect tone in my writing setting.
To find out more about the tone detector feature, visit this page.
Deactivating certain suggestions
If you are a Grammarly Premium, Grammarly for Business, or Grammarly for Education user, you can deactivate specific suggestions.
To do this, open your browser, go to https://account.grammarly.com/customize/suggestions, and switch off a specific group of suggestions. This action will deactivate this group of suggestions in all of the Grammarly product offerings that you use.
If you notice unhelpful suggestions, you can also dismiss them by following the steps in this section of the article. This helps us improve our algorithms.
Changing your language preference
Grammarly offers five dialect options: British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, and Indian English. Your language preference is set to American English by default, but you can change it anytime.
Here’s how to change your language preference in Grammarly for Windows or Grammarly for Mac:
- Click the floating Grammarly widget.
- Then, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the pop-up.
- Go to Writing Style and select your preferred option next to I write in.
Alternatively, you can go to https://account.grammarly.com/customize/language directly and update your language preference there. Keep in mind that updating your language preference will apply the corresponding setting to all Grammarly product offerings you use.
Note: Grammarly doesn’t support other languages at this time.
To learn more about language preference and differences between dialects, visit this page.
Managing your account settings
Some of your settings are available directly within Grammarly for Windows or Grammarly for Mac. To access them, click the floating Grammarly widget and click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the pop-up.
In this menu, you can:
- Access your account settings.
- Manage your language preference.
- View applications where Grammarly was turned off.
- Update your writing style and activate Grammarly’s tone detector.