the MOST

I couldn’t possibly count the number of times I’ve accidentally typed teh and watched as Word magically rearranged the letters to spell the.  Nor can I count the number of times Word has made up for my inability to apply the i before e rule correctly.  Word is constantly correcting words like receive for me without my having to use spell check.  Most of the time I want to shake the hand of whoever came up with this feature.

But every once in a while I really don’t want to shake that person’s hand, and I know I’m not alone.  There are several times that Word or another Office program will correct something that I didn’t want corrected.

So, the question is, how do you stop Word and other Office programs from “correcting” something that doesn’t need correcting?  The answer lies in the AutoCorrect Options, a feature also available in Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook (if Word is your email editor). 

Access AutoCorrect Options

Office 2003

1. Go to the Tools menu.
2. Select AutoCorrect Options…

Office 2007

1. Click on the Office button.
2. Click on the Word Options button.
3. Click on Proofing in the left column.
4. Click on the AutoCorrect Options button.

On the top half of the AutoCorrect Tab, you have general AutoCorrect options that you can turn on or off.  The bottom half shows you all of the Replace as you type options.  You can turn these off completely by unchecking the Replace as you type box.

Remove a Replace as you type Entry

1. Find it in the list.
2. Select it.
3. Click Delete.
4. Click OK when you are ready to exit the AutoCorrect dialog box. 

Add a Replace as you type Entry

1. In the Replace: box, type the spelling you would like to have replaced.
2. In the With: box, type the spelling you would like to replace it with.
3. Click Add.
4. Click OK when you are ready to exit the AutoCorrect dialog box.

Changes made to the Replace as you type list will be made to Excel, PowerPoint, and (if Word is turned on as your email editor) Outlook.

The Shortcut

Now that I’ve told you the long way to deal with this, I’ll share the shortcut with you.  To use this, the Show AutoCorrect Options buttons box must be checked in the AutoCorrect Options dialog box.  After you type a word, and Word corrects it, hover your mouse over the corrected word.  A blue line will appear below the first letter.  Move your mouse below that first letter, and a button will appear.  Click on the button, and Word will allow you to choose from a few different options.

• Change back to… will change this instance back to the original spelling. 
• Stop Automatically Correcting… will stop Word from ever correcting that spelling again.
• Control AutoCorrect Options will launch the AutoCorrect Options dialog box discussed and pictured above.