Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Removing Confusion When Using AutoCorrect.

Removing Confusion When Using AutoCorrect

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 30, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


2

I find the AutoCorrect feature very useful and have added extensive words and phrases to make it easier for me to type my business letters. This has led to some amusing situations. One of my employees was typing a newsletter for his baseball team. He used the word "bat" and "bats" a number of times. My business is batteries, and these are abbreviations that I set up to AutoCorrect to "battery" and "batteries". When he typed out the newsletter, he had no idea where all these words had come from. I have some other words such as "options" that insert about half a page of text. Typing my initials inserts "Yours truly," three blank lines, and then my full name and title.

To avoid confusion when using AutoCorrect (such as my employee experienced), I now append an asterisk to the end of the AutoCorrect keyword. Thus, I use "bat*" and "bats*" instead of "bat" and "bats." With no asterisk, I just get the word as it is typed. The asterisk triggers the use of the AutoCorrect feature and inserts the full text.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (887) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Removing Confusion When Using AutoCorrect.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

A Ruler in Excel

A few workarounds for the fact that Excel does not have a built-in ruler.

Discover More

Using Desktop Themes from Around the World

When you install Windows, it installs desktop themes appropriate to where you live. You can access a number of themes ...

Discover More

Using the System Information Tool

Need to lift the hood and look into the inner workings of Windows? One place you can do this easily is through the System ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Backing Up Your AutoCorrect Entries

Develop a lot of AutoCorrect entries and you may start to wonder how you can back them up. You can easily protect all the ...

Discover More

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 ...

Discover More

Emoticons in Word

Like to add a smiley or two to your writing? Word makes it easy through creative use of the AutoCorrect feature.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is three less than 3?

2015-11-30 18:17:28

Steve Wells

Chuck,
Use AutoCorrect.dot, a template that includes a macro to save and restore AutoCorrect settings. You can find it at: http://www.word.mvps.org/Downloads/index.htm
The macro inside the template saves a table of your custom AutoCorrect entries into a Word document. That document and its table are very easy for human review and editing. You can add more rows and create new entries directly, or modify/delete rows as desired. The AutoCorrect.dot macro can also restore the entries from your document table, or from any desired variant that you saved to a useful name/location.
Thus you can restore (copy) to a new computer or update the settings on an alternate computer. For example, I have home and work versions with obvious names: AutoCorrectHomeRestoreTable.doc and AutoCorrectWorkRestoreTable.doc. I apply colors to entries that I would prefer to remove if I copy from one file to the other. The macro doesn’t care about color, font, headers, or footers. So I can keep nearly identical versions synched, yet with slight differences.


2015-11-28 04:22:25

Chuck Haber

Thanks for the great AutoCorrect tip. I, too, have had this amusing problem & your tip will help me.
I also wonder if it is possible to import all of my AutoCorrect entries to a new computer -- or if I have to manually type them in all over again to set them up?


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.