Troubleshoot automatic corrections

• The AutoCorrect Options buttons appear near text after an automatic correction is made. The button first appears as a small, blue box when you rest the mouse pointer near text that is automatically corrected, and it changes to a button icon when you point to it. To show or hide the buttons, click AutoCorrect Options on the Tools menu, click the AutoCorrect tab, and then select or clear the Show AutoCorrect Options buttons check box.

• Select the Replace text as you type check box in the AutoCorrect dialog box (click AutoCorrect Options on the Tools menu).

• The AutoCorrect options may not be turned on. Turn on the AutoCorrect options by clicking AutoCorrect Options on the Tools menu. Note that if you're using AutoCorrect to fix spelling errors, you also need to turn on automatic spell checking. (On the Tools menu, click Options, and on the Spelling & Grammar tab, select the Check spelling as you type check box.

• Correctly type the text that is to be replaced. Type the text exactly as it appears in the Replace box on the AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box, and make sure to precede it with a space and follow it with another space or a punctuation mark.

By default, AutoCorrect corrects many common typing mistakes and spelling as you type. For example, if you type teh and a space or other punctuation, AutoCorrect replaces it with "the."

Try the following solutions:

• Click the AutoCorrect Options button that appears near text right after an error is corrected to undo the correction. The button first appears as a small, blue box when you rest the mouse pointer near text that is automatically corrected, and it changes to a button icon when you point to it.

• Prevent AutoCorrect from correcting certain types of errors. You can turn off the AutoCorrect options you don't want by clicking AutoCorrect Options on the Tools menu, or you can click the AutoCorrect Options button to turn options on or off. The button first appears as a small, blue box when you rest the mouse pointer near text that is automatically corrected, and it changes to a button icon when you point to it.

• Prevent AutoCorrect from correcting a specific error by adding it to an exceptions list. If the correction came from the built-in list of AutoCorrect entries, you can delete the AutoCorrect entry. Otherwise, when AutoCorrect makes an unwanted correction, click Undo on the Standard toolbar, or press BACKSPACE to remove the entire correction and retype the word. AutoCorrect automatically adds the correction to an exceptions list and won't make the same correction again. You can also manually add corrections to the exceptions list.

By default, AutoCorrect capitalizes the first letter in each sentence, the first letter in table cells, and the names of days. For example, AutoCorrect capitalizes the first letter of a word that follows a period or the first letter of single words in a list or table column.

If you don't want AutoCorrect to capitalize text, try the following solutions:

• Click the AutoCorrect Options button that appears near text right after an error is corrected to undo the correction or to turn off the options to automatically capitalize. The button first appears as a small, blue box when you rest the mouse pointer near text that is automatically corrected, and it changes to a button icon when you point to it. You could also turn off the options by clicking AutoCorrect Options on the Tools menu.

• Undo a specific capitalization correction by adding it to an exceptions list. When AutoCorrect makes an unwanted correction, click Undo on the Standard toolbar, or press BACKSPACE to remove the entire correction and retype the word. AutoCorrect automatically adds the correction to an exceptions list and won't make the same correction again. You can also manually add corrections to the exceptions list.

• To turn off AutoCorrect, click AutoCorrect Options on the Tools menu, and then clear the Replace text as you type check box.
• To turn off spelling checker corrections, click AutoCorrect Options on the Tools menu, and then clear the Automatically use suggestions from the spelling checker check box.
• If you no longer want Microsoft Word to automatically insert an AutoCorrect entry, delete the entry.

• Microsoft Word does not correct words contained in hyperlinks. If you find, however, that you frequently mistype URLs, such as typing "ww" instead of "www," you can create an AutoCorrect entry to correct your typing.

• The first word that follows a hyperlink is not automatically corrected.

• If you create an AutoCorrect entry that contains text only, Microsoft Word stores the entry without formatting. If you create an AutoCorrect entry that contains a field, symbol, paragraph mark (), imported graphic, or an object other than text, Word preserves the entry's original formatting. You can change these default settings when you create an AutoCorrect entry: In the AutoCorrect dialog box (Tools menu), click Plain text or Formatted text. When you insert an unformatted AutoCorrect entry, the entry takes on the formatting of the surrounding text.

• AutoCorrect entries are limited to 255 characters. To create longer entries, create an AutoText entry instead.