What do the underlines in my document mean?

If text on your screen is underlined, but you didn't apply underline formatting to it, it could appear as underlined for any of the following reasons.

Red or green wavy underlines

When you automatically check spelling and grammar, Microsoft Word uses wavy red underlines to indicate possible spelling errors and wavy green underlines to indicate possible grammatical errors.

Red wavy underlines in an e-mail header

Word automatically checks the names in the e-mail header against names in the Address Book. If multiple names are found that match the name you type, a red wavy line appears under the name. You can choose a replacement for each unrecognized name.

Blue wavy underlines

Word uses wavy blue underlines to indicate possible instances of inconsistent formatting.

Blue or other color underlines

Hyperlink display text is blue and underlined by default.

Purple or other color underlines

Followed hyperlinks appear as purple and underlined by default.

Red or other color single or double underlines (vertical bars may also appear in the left or right margin)

By default, newly inserted text is marked as underlined when the Track Changes feature is used. Vertical bars ù called changed lines ù may also appear in the left or right border of text that contains tracked changes.

Purple dotted underlines

Smart tags appear with purple dotted underlines beneath text. You can use smart tags to perform actions in Word that you'd normally open other programs to do.