How to Check a Word Document for Issues, Compatibility, and Accessibility
(Note: Suitable for users of Word 2016, 2019, 2021 and Word for Microsoft 365.)
Objective
Before sending a document to other people, we should ensure we check it for any problems, compatibility issues, and accessibility.
Issues, Compatibility, and Accessibility Explained
Most of us share documents with our colleagues, team members, external clients, and customers. We should check our document before sending it for any issues, compatibility problems, and accessibility.
This is an often neglected step, but it is important to get into the habit of doing this to prevent further problems.
We have three tools in Word that can help us with this: Check for Issues, Check Compatibility, and Check Accessibility.
When we check a document for issues, Word runs through a checklist of items that could cause problems. For example, it will check if we have left comments on a document we meant to remove. We can remove any issues Word finds with the click of a button.
We should also check our document for compatibility. If we are using the latest version of Word but sending the document to someone with an older version of Word, certain features might not be available. For example, if I have used Word icons in my document and I send it to someone with Word 2013, icons are not available in that version. The compatibility checker will flag this and let you know how it will resolve the issue. In this example, it might convert the .svg icons to flat .png images.
We also need to check that our document is accessible to everyone. For example, Word will flag any images in the document that don’t have alt text. Without alt text, screen readers used by people with sight difficulties won’t be able to identify the image.
Word will identify the issues and suggest how to fix them in all of these cases.
Related reads:
How to Double Space in Word? 4 Easy Ways
How to Insert Watermark in Word? 3 Easy Ways
How to Find and Replace in Word? 7 Simple Methods
Check for Issues
Let’s first check our document for issues.
- Click the File tab.
- Click Info.
- Click Check for Issues.
- Click Inspect Document.
The Document Inspector will open. From here, we can select what to check for. In general, we recommend selecting everything in this list.
- Click Inspect.
Check Compatibility
We can check that our document is compatible with older versions of Word.
- Click the File tab.
- Click Info.
- Click Check Compatibility.
Word will check the document against older versions of Word and produce a summary of anything that might cause a problem. We can see here that I have SVGs in my document. SVGs are scalable vector graphics and are the default file type for Word icons.
SVG’s were unavailable in older versions of Word, so they will be converted to PNG image files if the recipient uses Word 2013 or older.
In this example, this is an informational message that doesn’t require any action. Reviewing everything in the summary list and acting where necessary is important.
Suggested reads:
How to Add Line Numbers in Word? A Step-by-Step Guide
How to Insert a Placeholder in Word? 2 Different Types
How to Convert Table to Image in Word? 3 Easy Ways
Check Accessibility
We should check that our Word document is accessible to everyone.
- Click the File tab.
- Click Info.
- Click Check Accessibility.
A pane will open on the right-hand side of the screen and show the inspection results.
In this example, the accessibility checker has picked up that we have no headings in this document, making it harder to read and understand, and we also do not have any alt text assigned to an image.
Let’s fix these issues.
If we add a heading to the document, the flag disappears from the Accessibility pane.
Let’s fix the alt text issue.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to the item in the list.
- Click Verify description.
- Type in a detailed description of the photo.
- Alternatively, click Generate alt text for me.
- If the image is decorative instead of contextual, like a flourish, click Mark as decorative.
We add alt text so anyone using a screen reader can understand what the image represents.
Once we have fixed the issues, we will see a green tick. We can keep the accessibility checker running as we work to pick up on any issues as they occur.
Also read:
How to Password Protect a Word Document?
How to Create a Table of Contents in Word
How to Save a Word Document? 3 Useful Ways
Please visit our free resources center for more high-quality Word and Microsoft Suite application guides.
Ready to dive deep into PowerPoint? Click here for basic to advanced Word courses with in-depth training modules.
Simon Sez IT has been teaching Word and other business software for over ten years. You can access 170+ IT training courses for a low monthly fee.
Deborah Ashby
Deborah Ashby is a TAP Accredited IT Trainer, specializing in the design, delivery, and facilitation of Microsoft courses both online and in the classroom.She has over 11 years of IT Training Experience and 24 years in the IT Industry. To date, she's trained over 10,000 people in the UK and overseas at companies such as HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, Parliament, SKY, Microsoft, Kew Gardens, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.She's a qualified MOS Master for 2010, 2013, and 2016 editions of Microsoft Office and is COLF and TAP Accredited and a member of The British Learning Institute.
