Using AutoCorrect to Fix Errors and Save Typing
Provided by: Molly Pell,
Technical Project Manager
The Office AutoCorrect feature comes with pre-defined “fixes”
that you probably take advantage of without noticing. By default,
AutoCorrect does the following for you:
-
Replaces text with symbols, e.g. changes “(c)” to “©”
-
Fixes common misspellings, e.g. changes “accomodate” to
“accommodate”
-
Fixes frequent typos, e.g. changes “int he” to “in the”
-
Fixes certain grammatical errors, e.g. changes “must of
had” to “must have had”
-
Adds accents to certain words, e.g. changes “cafe” to
“café”
However, many of us have our own list of things that we just can’t type
correctly. For example, I misspell “calendar” at least half of the time.
So instead of learning how to spell, I let Office do the dirty work. In
this example, we'll use Microsoft Word, however AutoCorrect works the
same in other Office programs, including Access, PowerPoint, Excel, and
Outlook.
1. From the Word menu, choose Tools > AutoCorrect Options
2.On the AutoCorrect dialog, make sure that the “Replace text as you
type” check box is checked:

3. Type the value that you want to replace and what you want to replace
it with, then click “Add”. Be sure to create a separate entry for each
variation.

4. When you’re done adding entries, click OK. From now on, Word
automatically handles the corrections for you.
You can also use AutoCorrect as a simple way to save typing. For
example, I created the following entries, which save me time regularly:
Replace |
With |
mysig |
Molly E. Pell, Technical Project Manager
|
fmsaddr |
8150 Leesburg Pike, Suite 1150 |
fmscsz |
Vienna, VA 22182 |
fmsph Phone: |
(703) 356-4700 |
fmsfax Fax: |
(703) 448-3861 |

When I need to type any of the values, I just type my "shortcut text"
and it's automatically changed to the correct value.
Note: To undo an undesired AutoCorrection, simply press Ctrl+Z
once to undo, or click an option on the AutoCorrect Options button:
The button appears as a
small, blue box when you hover over the AutoCorrected text, and it
changes to the button icon when you point to it.
See
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP052350651033.aspx for
details about the AutoCorrect feature.
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