Topic: AutoCorrect

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Adding Ampersands to Custom Dictionaries It appears that Word doesn’t allow you to define custom dictionary entries that include ampersands. There are ways you can work around this apparent problem, including a way that relies on AutoCorrect to mark your text so it is ignored by the proofing tools. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

AutoCorrecting for Your Common Errors AutoCorrect can help improve your documents by correcting errors common to your typing. Here’s a quick one-step method to add those corrections to the AutoCorrect list. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Automatic AutoCorrect Exceptions for Beginning Sentences When automatically capitalizing the beginning of sentences, Word relies on how you historically have done your typing. This can cause some problems, as detailed in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Automatic Initial Capitals in Tables Have you ever started typing words in a table, only to find that Word automatically capitalizes the first word in each cell? This is a part of AutoCorrect, but you can control this behavior. Microsoft Word versions: 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Automatically Capitalizing Day Names You can control whether Word automatically capitalizes names of days. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Backing Up Your AutoCorrect Entries AutoCorrect is a handy tool that corrects common misspellings as you type. If you’ve added quite a few entries to the AutoCorrect list, you may want to back up those entries in order to protect your time investment. This tip explains where you should look for AutoCorrect entries and how to back them up. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Editing AutoCorrect ACL Files Information used with the AutoCorrect feature is stored in what is known as an ACL file. You normally edit this file by using the various AutoCorrect editing commands in an Office product like Word. In some instances, it would be easier to edit the file directly, but how to do this is not readily apparent. This tip discusses your options for directly editing the file. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Emoticons in Word Like to add a smiley or two to your writing? Word makes it easy through creative use of the AutoCorrect feature. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Enforcing a Do-Not-Use Word List Got a list of words you don’t want to appear in your documents? There are a number of ways that you can make sure they don’t, and the method you choose depends on personal preference and the nature of the words. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

How Word Handles Abbreviations An overview of how the AutoCorrect feature handles abbreviations in Word. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Importing AutoCorrect Entries The AutoCorrect feature in Word is quite handy, but getting a lot of entries into the feature can be tedious. This tip provides a macro that will allow you to enter entries quite a bit faster. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Make AutoCorrect Pay Attention to Character Case The AutoCorrect feature of Word normally doesn’t pay attention to character case when kicking into action—if an entry is triggered by “tww,” it will also be triggered by “Tww” or “TWW.” In most instances this is not a problem, unless the uppercase version is really an acronym that you don’t want corrected to something else. This tip discusses the workarounds you can use to get around this limitation. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Managing the AutoCorrect List If you need to delete all the entries in your AutoCorrect list, the easiest way to do so is with a macro. This tip describes just such a macro. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Printing a List of AutoCorrect Entries The AutoCorrect feature in Word is used quite extensively by some people. If you use it a lot, you may want to print out a list of AutoCorrect entries for reference purposes. This tip explains how you can use a macro to print the desired information. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Printing AutoCorrect Entries If you want to print a list of all the AutoCorrect entries in your document, Word doesn’t provide a method. You can use the macro in this tip to create your own list for printing, however. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Removing Confusion When Using AutoCorrect How to avoid unwanted results with AutoCorrect entries. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Shortcut for AutoCorrect Dialog Box There is no built-in keyboard shortcut that will display the AutoCorrect dialog box. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t a variety of approaches you can use to create your own shortcuts—both keyboard and toolbar—for displaying the desired dialog box. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Superscripted Registered Trademark Symbol Word, by default, includes an AutoCorrect entry that converts (r) to a registered trademark symbol. The problem is, the symbol is not superscripted. Here’s how to correct that problem and get the symbol positioned just like you need it. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Toggling AutoCorrect Settings If you need to turn AutoCorrect on or off, there is no built-in way to easily do it in Word. You can create your own toggle command, however, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Turning Off Capital Corrections If you type two capital letters at the beginning of a word, Word assumes that you made a typing error and will attempt to correct your mistake. If you don’t want Word to make this assumption, you can turn off this AutoCorrect feature. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Two Keys with the Press of One Sometimes it could be helpful to have Word substitute two characters for the one that you type, for instance to replace a slash with a slash followed by a no-width optional space. (This could possibly help in the proper breaking of information between lines in Word.) This can be accomplished with AutoCorrect, but you may want to carefully think through the change before doing it, as discussed in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Using AutoCorrect to Start Macros As you are typing, AutoCorrect provides a “check” that what you are entering doesn’t match some pre-defined error triggers. The idea is to make sure your text reflects what you intended to write, rather than what you really wrote. This tip discusses the concept of whether AutoCorrect can be used to not only “fix” what you type, but also start macros that could do even more processing. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Using AutoText and AutoCorrect Effectively AutoText and AutoCorrect are closely related tools that can help you improve the productivity of your typing. This tip explains how you can use these tools most effectively in your usage of Word. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Word Won't Capitalize Some Sentences When you are typing a document, Word will try to figure out where new sentences begin and automatically capitalize the first word of the sentence. What happens when the capitalization doesn’t occur as you think it should? The answers lie in how Word applies rules and exceptions to the AutoCorrect feature. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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