diff --git a/nw/gui/dochighlight.py b/nw/gui/dochighlight.py
index 5efad405..59923808 100644
--- a/nw/gui/dochighlight.py
+++ b/nw/gui/dochighlight.py
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ class GuiDocHighlighter(QSyntaxHighlighter):
 
         # Build a QRegExp for each pattern and for the spell checker
         self.rules   = [(QRegularExpression(a),b) for (a,b) in self.hRules]
-        self.spellRx = QRegularExpression(r"[\w\'{:s}&&[^_]]+".format(self.mainConf.fmtApostrophe))
+        self.spellRx = QRegularExpression(r"\b[^\s]+\b")
 
         logger.debug("DocHighlighter initialisation complete")
 
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ class GuiDocHighlighter(QSyntaxHighlighter):
         if self.theDict is None:
             return
 
-        rxSpell = self.spellRx.globalMatch(theText, 0)
+        rxSpell = self.spellRx.globalMatch(theText.replace("_"," "), 0)
         while rxSpell.hasNext():
             rxMatch = rxSpell.next()
             if not self.theDict.check(rxMatch.captured(0)):