[Upbeat music] How do you stop Microsoft Word from automatically changing text?
Do you enter into a document? Hi, I'm Dawn Bjork The Software Pro.
I'm also a Microsoft Certified trainer and a Certified Word Expert.
In this training,
we'll look at how you can get back control of your documents and how you can
finally stop annoying automation.
There are a number of automated features in Microsoft Word and these include
AutoCorrect and AutoFormat As You Type.
Now these can be really handy for automatically changing your text or creating
certain types of formatting or entries that you like with AutoCorrect.
If you're typing in your document and you typed in T E H.
You actually meant type in T H E for that. As soon as you hit SPACE,
punctuation or even the ENTER key, this word,
along with all the other entries that you make,are checked against a list of
common spelling errors or entries, and in this case,
then Word will change it. Not only did it change the word spelling,
but it also capitalized it because it was the first word in that sentence or
line. Another example that can happen,
especially if you happen to be doing really lengthy documents, contracts,
for instance, with lots of levels of outlines. Let's say since you type in
that you are parentheses C parentheses and it will automatically
change to a copyright symbol, not necessarily what you were looking for.
And that's one of the challenges that we have with AutoCorrect.
It's simply doing what it was told and that is anytime you might type in that
series of characters, now change it, so sometimes we like it,
sometimes we don't.
AutoCorrect can even be a way for us to teach Word a shorthand,
that is,
a shortcut or a series of characters that we want to convert to a longer phrase.
But our focus is on those things that are automatically happening that we might
want to change.
The other handy automated feature is AutoFormat As You Type. However,
this also has a downside.
Perhaps you're once again want to have your own numbered list and as you type in
1 period and a space, now all of a sudden this gets changed.
Now the text is indented and we have it automatically numbered and this can be
great if that's what you want.
If you are creating your own custom outline that needs a lot more flexibility
and a variety of different details,
you might not want this to automatically change,
so that's something also that can be turned off when you see the automatic
numbering and you don't want it.
Here's a really quick way to be able to turn it off. Look for this Smart Tag.
Simply hover over it and this will take you to the AutoCorrect Options.
Now we'll explore this in more detail so that you can turn off any variety of
AutoCorrect and AutoFormat As You Type features. But for now,
simply click on this arrow and you have the option to simply undo the automatic
numbering for this one instance.
Or you could turn off this feature from this point forward so that you can
create that custom outline that you want to build.
This is also a backdoor to move into the Control AutoFormat Options where you
can not only change this but other features. As the training continues,
I'll show you how we can get to this through File > Options,
but this is a another way for you to be able to stop this annoying automation
that you don't want or gets in the way.
For this one I'll undo the automatic numbering and then it would restore it back
to my intention. Notice as well,
we still have a smart tag here so that we could redo it or actually turn off
this feature.
Now keeping in mind we can always use the bullets and numbering features that
are found in the Home tab of the Ribbon in the Paragraph group.
And so, as we look at turning these features off,
it doesn't mean that you can't get to them.
It simply means that they are automatically happening.
Another example is when you are typing in an email address or a web address.
So let's say for this it's an email address.
Now as soon as I hit, once again, SPACE or an ENTER,
this will change to a hyperlink and depending upon how you have the text
formatted,
sometimes it will change it then to a different size or change the font.
And so here again, if that's not what you want,
then this is something that you can turn off in AutoFormat As You Type.
And so it can be handy but it isn't something that you may always want to do.
Another example is if you are doing,
let's say legal descriptions or other places where there's a use for fractions,
we'll see 1/4
1/2 now these are all changed to symbols and this can be handy.
The challenge is that not all fractions are going to be changed or converted to
fractions and so we had 1/8 1/12
or anything along those lines.
Now we have a mixture and so this may be something else that you want to
disable. That is,
the automated features can be great when they're doing exactly what you're
looking for and can definitely get in the way when they're not. Now,
one of the things to keep in mind as well is that if something changes like
that, creating that parentheses, C,
close parentheses. If I didn't want that, I could do an Undo and that's CTRL+Z.
But if this is something that you're frequently doing, once again,
it's getting in the way of your productivity.
So where can we find these features and how can we change them?
They're found under File > Options.
Next, navigate to Proofing, to that category or tab
and AutoCorrect Options.
So let's look first at AutoCorrect here you'll see that all of the features are
enabled and review these to see if there's anything that you want to turn off
and you may be perfectly happy with them. I'm not suggesting, in this case,
that there is actually anything that needs to be disabled.
Where we can sometimes get stuck or have challenges is in this bottom half here
and that is replaced text as you type once again can be very handy.
That is, whatever's on the left hand side, that's what would be entered in.
And then on the right-hand side is what you would like to have replaced.
So you can actually teach Word about your common spelling errors if they don't
happen to already be in the list. And so,
definitely explore this to take advantage of this feature,
but if you have this entry here and you simply don't want it,
then select it and then you have the option to Delete.
Should you have a need to actually get the copyright symbol,
you certainly can access that under Insert > Symbol.
So deleting something or turning it off doesn't mean it can't be fixed.
It simply means that you don't want it to automatically be corrected for you.
Now where we run into more challenges is with the AutoFormat As You Type.
You'll find it in the same dialog box here and let's explore these three
sections.
So the first section is where we have those entries such as the fractions and
the hyperlinks.
This is also where you will see straight quotes becoming smart quotes,
everything that you see here could stay just as is.
But if you're doing a lot of entry for websites,
for email, you may choose to turn off that hyperlink feature.
It can be handy, but the challenges,
when you're editing it is actually a hyperlink, it's clickable, and so,
it can make it a little bit more difficult for you to actually make fixes or
corrections. What is the best way for you to use these features?
Keeping in mind, even if you turn it off,
you can turn it back on as you have a specific purpose for it.
Now the place where I think you want to give more thought to or in changing is
the second section here, Apply as you type.
Here is the Automatic bulleted lists and Automatic numbered list.
We also have some other automatic features that,
in almost every case,
my recommendation is uncheck them all
because we can always get to those under our Paragraph group in the Home tab.
In the third section,
you'll likely also want to uncheck these features because there can be changes
that are just automatically made that can get in the way of what you want to
accomplish. Now,
if you've work with a lot of multilevel outlines and lists,
you might want to keep this last choice here selected,
which means you can use the tab key as a way to go to the next level of an
outline. Right here. Again,
that might be something that gets in the way more than is helpful.
So explore these to see how you can customize this automation in Word so that it
works for you and not against you.
We'll come back out to the document and then from this point forward those
features are available or changed in this document and then also in other
documents that you're working with. So this is a system change,
not just document specific.
Even though we turned off the automated numbered list,
you can still enable it here under the Home tab of the Ribbon and the Paragraph
group. And so you're not disabling the capability,
it's simply not
that Word is going to automatically do these things for you whether or not you
want to. And so, you're not losing functionality or features,
you simply have the flexibility to stop automation that isn't helpful.
Now you've seen how to save time and effort by taking control of the automatic
text correction and formatting features in Microsoft Word.
For more tips on being productive with Microsoft Word,
head to TheSoftwarePro.com/Word.
If this training was helpful,
please like and comment on this video and subscribe to this channel.
This is Dawn Bjork The Software Pro. Thanks for watching!
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