Word is Not a Four Letter Word
Or - Put the U back you Infernal Machine!
If I had a pound for each time I heard someone say 'my spell checker is American'... Even our NWS guidelines continue the heresy. Bill Gates is American, so Windows spells the way he does. There's no reason we all have to.
Many PCs come with Microsoft Works, which includes a word processor. Some of the things I describe might not be available in Works, or older versions of Word.
First and foremost - what language do you write? Under the Tools menu, select Language, then Set Language. If you want U.K. English - select it. Click on Default if you want it all the time. You can change the language to US English after the book is written if you change markets. Just Recheck the document.
Once the spell checker is speaking your language, the next thing to do is set the other options. Under the Tools menu, select Spelling and Grammar and click on Options. Apart from spelling options, there are also grammar check options. You can set, for example, where you want your speech quotes to appear. You pick how much help you want. I don't want to be told every time I use a contraction, but an alert for a split infinitive can be useful.
Autocorrect is a joy - once you have it beaten into submission. Under Tools, select Autocorrect Options. Click on each tab and decide how much help you want. I always spell amount with two Ms, but my dreadful secret is safe thanks to autocorrect. This is also where you can choose straight or smart quotes, proper fractions, even change the case of a letter typed in error.
There are problems Word won't catch. I usually type form when I mean from. Spell check won't pick it up. Autocorrect doesn't help, because sometimes I really do mean form. I use the replace command, under the Edit menu. I instruct Word to find form and replace it with from. Careful! Don't just Replace All. I don't want my hero filling in a from at the sperm bank. Select Find Next - and you can quickly move down your document, replacing only those that do need it. Feel free to use Replace All when you replace Mr Darcy with your new hero, Mr Gates.