How You Can Save Time in Microsoft Word by Modifying AutoCorrect

Microsoft Word’s AutoCorrect tool saves you a lot of time by correcting common typos and spelling errors, like turning “acheiving” into “achieving”. Handily, it also turns shorthand keys into symbols, like converting (c) into ©. Alongside the default options, you can also add your own entries.

Why Add Custom AutoCorrect Entries?

Being able to add custom AutoCorrect entries means you can truly personalize your Microsoft Word experience and save even more time. Here are some examples of the different ways I use AutoCorrect to increase my typing efficiency:

• Correcting habits: When typing words that end in “ind” or “ine,” like find or refine, my brain is programmed to type “ing” instead. So, I’ve added some of the more common words that end with those letter strings to my AutoCorrect list to save me from having to frustratingly correct them manually.
• Expanding acronyms: Since documents I create often contain “How-To Geek,” I’ve added an AutoCorrect entry that converts HTG to the full brand name.
• Inserting text snippets: When typing letters, I often end with the sentence, “I look forward to your reply.” Instead of typing this manually each time, I have an AutoCorrect entry that converts “letterend” to the full sentence.

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How to Add AutoCorrect Entries

Adding entries to the AutoCorrect list is a straightforward process.

First, click “File” in the top-left corner of your Word window, and then click “Options.” Alternatively, to save time, use the Microsoft Word keyboard shortcut Alt > F > T.

Then, click “Proofing” in the left-hand menu of the Word Options window.

Next, click “AutoCorrect Options.”

Now, open the “AutoCorrect” tab to see the default AutoCorrect list at the bottom of the dialog box. Above this list, you can see two empty text fields:

• Replace: This is where you need to add the AutoCorrect trigger, such as a common typo, an acronym, or a phrase that will be converted into a longer text string.
• With: Here, insert what you want to appear each time you type the above trigger in your Word document.

After typing each entry, click “Add.”

When you’ve added all your entries, click “OK” twice to close the AutoCorrect and Word Options dialog boxes.

Now, in your Word document, type one of the entries you added to the Replace field in the previous step, and press Space, Tab, or Enter. In my case, “HTG” automatically changes to “How-To Geek.”

To remove an AutoCorrect entry, head back to the AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect Options dialog box, select the entry, and click “Delete.”

Bonus Tip: Formatting AutoCorrect Entries

When organizing your AutoCorrect entries, you can go one step further by adding formatted text to the list. This saves you from having to format the text manually each time.

To do this, first, type and format the replacement text (in other words, the text that goes into the With field in the AutoCorrect dialog box) in your Word document’s canvas. In my example, each time I type “HTG,” I want the words “How-To Geek” to be bold.

Then, select the text, being careful not to select any additional spaces before or after the words, and press Ctrl+C.

Now, press Alt > F > T to open the Word Options dialog box, and click “Proofing” in the left-hand menu.

Next, click “AutoCorrect Options.”

You’ll notice that, usefully, the text you copied has already been added to the With field in the AutoCorrect tab of the dialog box.

Next, check the “Formatted Text” radio button to see the text in the With field adopt the formatting you just applied. Then, add the trigger in the Replace field, select “Add,” and click “OK.”

From this point onward, each time you type your trigger and press Space, Tab, or Enter, Word will automatically correct the text to your formatted replacement.

Things to Note When Using AutoCorrect

Before you go ahead and add entries to your AutoCorrect list, here are some final points you should note:

• AutoCorrect is case-sensitive. In other words, if I add an entry that converts “HTG” to “How-To Geek,” Word will not automatically correct “htg” unless I add that as a separate entry.
• After Word has processed an automatic correction, if you realize you want to cancel that specific change and revert to what you typed, simply press Ctrl+Z.
• The AutoCorrect list is linked to your Microsoft account, meaning that—providing you’ve signed in and activated AutoSave—any changes you make to the list in Word affect other programs that use AutoCorrect, like Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
• To avoid conflicts with real words, use other symbols to trigger the AutoCorrect entry. For example, if you want Word to turn “swat” into “Special Weapons And Tactics,” since “swat” is also a word in its own right, you might use “;swat” as the shorthand trigger.

Using the AutoCorrect tool isn’t the only way to speed up your workflow in Microsoft Word. For example, you could customize the Quick Access Toolbar, use the program’s Find And Replace tool, or alter capitalization without deleting your work.