The Joys of Word 2003's AutoCorrect

There are some words that you just cannot misspell in Word. Take the word misspell, as an example.

If you try to type in mispell (with only one S), Word automatically corrects what you've typed back in to the more proper misspell. It's miraculous! Either that, or it's just Word's AutoCorrect feature in action.

AutoCorrect keeps track of commonly misspelled words in its internal dictionary. Words such as often, achieve, brief, receive, and many others are commonly misspelled in English. They're common typos that AutoCorrect fixes for you without the need to click the mouse.

Finally, if that weren't enough, Word lets you add your own special list of words to the AutoCorrect repertoire. For example, if you often type ecxuse rather than excuse, you can tell — nay, order — Word to always AutoCorrect it for you. The following sections tell you how.

Activating AutoCorrect

Word's AutoCorrect feature only works when it's on. To ensure that it's on and working, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools --> AutoCorrect Options from the menu.

The AutoCorrect dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1.

2. Ensure that there is a check mark by Replace Text as You Type.

That activates AutoCorrect. Likewise, removing the check mark disables AutoCorrect.

3. Click OK.

Now AutoCorrect is ready for action.

Using AutoCorrect

There's nothing to using AutoCorrect; it happens automatically. The only trick is how to add your own slate of words to AutoCorrect's list. That's easy.

To throw any misspelled word into the AutoCorrect bin, right-click on the word. Rather than choose the proper spelling from the menu, choose the AutoCorrect item. Up pops a submenu containing various corrections, as shown in Figure 2. Choose the properly spelled word from the submenu that appears. That word is then added to AutoCorrect's list, and as a special favor, Word corrects the word in your text as well.

If possible, try to add only lowercase words with AutoCorrect. For example, Figure 2 shows the word Werd being added; Werd will be corrected to Word. It would be better, however, to add the word werd, with no capital letters. That way, AutoCorrect fixes all variations of werd, upper- or lowercase.

Undoing AutoCorrect's correction

If AutoCorrect makes a change you don't like, you can undo it. Pressing the Ctrl+Z shortcut for the Undo command right after you see the automatically corrected text does the trick.

If you press the Backspace key instead of Ctrl+Z to undo an AutoCorrected word, a small, blue rectangle appears under the word. Point the mouse at that rectangle to see the AutoCorrect Options icon. Clicking the downward-pointing arrow on the icon displays some choices (see Figure 3) because Word is concerned about why you wanted to erase the AutoCorrection.

You can undo your undo by selecting the first menu item, Change Back to [whatever]. Whew.

Choosing the second item removes the word from AutoCorrect's repertoire, which is good if you don't like the correction.

Click anywhere else in your document or press the Esc key to hide the pop-up AutoCorrect Options menu.

Other AutoCorrect tricks

Try typing the following line in Word:
Copyright (C) 2001 Sterling Worbletyme Inc.

When you type the (C), Word automatically converts it into the copyright symbol. That's also a function of AutoCorrect in action.

Try this one too:
Look at the ugly picture of Paul -->

The --> turns into a right-pointing arrow.

And then there's the ever-popular:
I'm sorry about the cat. :-)

Watch in awe as the :-) turns into a smiley-face!

If you don't like the change, then press Ctrl+Z to undo or use Backspace to fix the AutoCorrect option.