Microsoft Phrase’s AutoCorrect instrument saves you a number of time by correcting frequent typos and spelling errors, like turning “acheiving” into “attaining”. Handily, it additionally turns shorthand keys into symbols, like changing (c) into ©. Alongside the default choices, you can even add your personal entries.

Why Add Customized AutoCorrect Entries?

With the ability to add customized AutoCorrect entries means you possibly can really personalize your Microsoft Phrase expertise and save much more time. Listed here are some examples of the other ways I exploit AutoCorrect to extend my typing effectivity:

• Correcting habits: When typing phrases that finish in “ind” or “ine,” like discover or refine, my mind is programmed to kind “ing” as an alternative. So, I’ve added among the extra frequent phrases that finish with these letter strings to my AutoCorrect listing to save lots of me from having to frustratingly appropriate them manually.
• Increasing acronyms: Since paperwork I create usually include “How-To Geek,” I’ve added an AutoCorrect entry that converts HTG to the total model identify.
• Inserting textual content snippets: When typing letters, I usually finish with the sentence, “I sit up for your reply.” As an alternative of typing this manually every time, I’ve an AutoCorrect entry that converts “letterend” to the total sentence.

Learn how to Add AutoCorrect Entries

Including entries to the AutoCorrect listing is a simple course of.

First, click on “File” within the top-left nook of your Phrase window, after which click on “Choices.” Alternatively, to save lots of time, use the Microsoft Word keyboard shortcut Alt > F > T.

Then, click on “Proofing” within the left-hand menu of the Phrase Choices window.

Subsequent, click on “AutoCorrect Choices.”

Now, open the “AutoCorrect” tab to see the default AutoCorrect listing on the backside of the dialog field. Above this listing, you possibly can see two empty textual content fields:

• Substitute: That is the place it is advisable to add the AutoCorrect set off, akin to a standard typo, an acronym, or a phrase that can be transformed into an extended textual content string.
• With: Right here, insert what you wish to seem every time you kind the above set off in your Phrase doc.

After typing every entry, click on “Add.”

Earlier than you shut the AutoCorrect dialog field, ensure “Substitute Textual content As You Sort” is checked. In any other case, AutoCorrect will not work as anticipated.

Once you’ve added all of your entries, click on “OK” twice to shut the AutoCorrect and Phrase Choices dialog bins.

Now, in your Phrase doc, kind one of many entries you added to the Substitute area within the earlier step, and press Area, Tab, or Enter. In my case, “HTG” mechanically adjustments to “How-To Geek.”

To take away an AutoCorrect entry, head again to the AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect Choices dialog field, choose the entry, and click on “Delete.”

Bonus Tip: Formatting AutoCorrect Entries

When organizing your AutoCorrect entries, you possibly can go one step additional by including formatted textual content to the listing. This protects you from having to format the textual content manually every time.

To do that, first, kind and format the substitute textual content (in different phrases, the textual content that goes into the With area within the AutoCorrect dialog field) in your Phrase doc’s canvas. In my instance, every time I kind “HTG,” I need the phrases “How-To Geek” to be daring.

Then, choose the textual content, being cautious to not choose any extra areas earlier than or after the phrases, and press Ctrl+C.

Now, press Alt > F > T to open the Phrase Choices dialog field, and click on “Proofing” within the left-hand menu.

Subsequent, click on “AutoCorrect Choices.”

You will discover that, usefully, the textual content you copied has already been added to the With area within the AutoCorrect tab of the dialog field.

Subsequent, verify the “Formatted Textual content” radio button to see the textual content within the With area undertake the formatting you simply utilized. Then, add the set off within the Substitute area, choose “Add,” and click on “OK.”

From this level onward, every time you kind your set off and press Area, Tab, or Enter, Phrase will mechanically appropriate the textual content to your formatted substitute.

The formatting you apply would not need to be daring. For instance, you possibly can apply a shade or spotlight, or drive Phrase to underline or italicize your textual content.

Issues to Observe When Utilizing AutoCorrect

Earlier than you go forward and add entries to your AutoCorrect listing, listed here are some last factors it is best to word:

• AutoCorrect is case-sensitive. In different phrases, if I add an entry that converts “HTG” to “How-To Geek,” Phrase will not mechanically appropriate “htg” except I add that as a separate entry.
• After Phrase has processed an automated correction, if you happen to understand you wish to cancel that particular change and revert to what you typed, merely press Ctrl+Z.
• The AutoCorrect listing is linked to your Microsoft account, that means that—offering you have signed in and activated AutoSave—any adjustments you make to the listing in Phrase have an effect on different packages that use AutoCorrect, like Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
• To keep away from conflicts with actual phrases, use different symbols to set off the AutoCorrect entry. For instance, if you need Phrase to show “swat” into “Particular Weapons And Ways,” since “swat” can be a phrase in its personal proper, you may use “;swat” because the shorthand set off.

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Utilizing the AutoCorrect instrument is not the one approach to speed up your workflow in Microsoft Word. For instance, you possibly can customize the Quick Access Toolbar, use this system’s Find And Replace tool, or alter capitalization without deleting your work.