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The following page comes after AutoCorrect.
Another Word trick that works like AutoCorrect is AutoText. Unlike AutoCorrect, which rewrites text you may misspell, AutoText finishes writing words you start to spell.
Autotext can be activated by clicking on Tools, AutoCorrect, AutoText, Show AutoComplete Tip for AutoText and Dates, OK.
When AutoText suggests a change, you can accept it by clicking Enter, or cancel it by clicking Escape. If you mistakenly accept a word that you really didn�t want to accept, click on the Undo key or press Control-Z. It will revert to the previous partial word.
Word comes with a collection of AutoText entries, and you can add your own.
You can check out AutoCorrect and AutoText's vocabularies, either because you're curious, or because you want to remove or add words or phrases. To do this you must summon the AutoCorrect dialog box.
From the menu, choose Tools-->AutoCorrect. (You may have to click the down-arrows on the menu to find the AutoCorrect menu item.) Make sure the AutoCorrect tab is selected. You can have AutoCorrect fix several common boo-boos for you by using the options at the top of the dialog box: Two capital letters at the start of a sentence (for you fast typists); the first letter of a sentence; names of days, and a fix for the times when you accidentally have the Caps Lock key on.
The Replace Text as You Type check box, turns on AutoCorrect. Make sure it's selected.
The following sections assume the AutoCorrect dialog box is open and ready for business.
In the AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box, you can manually create your own entries by using the Replace and With boxes.
Typos and misspellings go in the Replace box.
The correct word goes into the With box. (Choose "Plain text" to ensure your formatting stays okay.)
Click the Add button to add an entry.
Click OK to close the AutoCorrect dialog box when you're done.
Deleting AutoCorrect items: Locate and select the unnecessary item in the AutoCorrect list, and click Delete. It�s that easy.
Click OK to close the AutoCorrect dialog box when your destructive urges have been quenched.
To add a new AutoText entry, click the AutoText tab in the AutoCorrect dialog box. This displays information about AutoText.
There are no shortcuts with AutoText. Basically you're adding a word or phrase that you want Word to finish typing for you, such as your address. For example, the following address could be typed into the Enter AutoText Entries Here box:
5701 Repecho Drive
Clicking the Add button places that item in AutoText's bin. Now whenever you type 5701 in a document, AutoText takes over and displays the rest of the address. Press Enter to insert it.
Click the OK button to close the AutoCorrect dialog box.
As an alternative to typing the text in the AutoText dialog box, you can select text in your document, then choose Tools-->AutoCorrect. Click the AutoText tab and the text you selected appears in the dialog box. Click Add, then click OK and you're done.
Don't let it spook you that your name is in the AutoText list. Go ahead -- open the AutoCorrect dialog box, click the AutoText tab and scroll down to find your name.
Well, maybe you won't find your name, maybe you will. Remember that you entered your name when you first installed Microsoft Office or Word. Or if someone else did it for you, then their name might appear instead.
The most common name is "Preferred Customer," which is who Word thinks you are if you didn't fill in anything else.
To remove an entry, locate it in the list. Click it once to highlight it.
Click the Delete button.
Click OK to exit the AutoCorrect dialog box after you've zapped enough entries.
The grammar checker doesn�t work as well as the speller. I usually disagree with what they include. However, it�s always worth checking those green wigglies, because you can never tell when Bill Gates may be correct.
Right-clicking on the green-underlined text displays a pop-up menu, similar to the spell-checker's menu.
Select Ignore from the Context menu and the green zigzag goes away. Where the grammar checker really comes in handy is checking commonly misused words like "its" and "it's" and "there" and "their" and even "they're." It's also good at finding mistakes like the following:
This just doesn't adds up.
The grammar checker underlines "adds" as potentially wrong. Right-clicking on the word displays "add" as a suggested replacement. Don't expect the Office Assistant to give you a clear or acceptable reason for the violation of the Grammar Checker rules. You can ask for an explanation, After right-clicking on an offending phrase with a green wiggly, click About This Sentence. Take the explanation for what it�s worth
If the grammar checker flags a word incorrectly, it may still be wise to check the rest of the sentence. Thus, if it incorrectly demands the word �have� instead of �had�, a different word in the sentence may have a problem of singulars and plurals.
Click Tools, Options, Spelling & Grammar, Check Grammar as You Type, OK to activate the grammar checker.
The spelling and grammar dialog boxes are similar.
In both cases, click Change if you agree with Word�s suggestions, and Ignore if you disagree.
Word continues checking your document until it says it's all done. Or, if you started checking in the middle somewhere, Word asks if you want to continue checking at the start of the document; click OK.
If the correction you want isn't in the list at the bottom of the dialog box, you can make up your own. Just edit the text that appears in the top part of the dialog box, making the change you feel is necessary. Then click the Change button. Word continues checking your sentence and the rest of your document.
If the misspelled word is really a word, consider adding it to Word's dictionary by clicking the Add button.
If you don't want to be bothered with the same mistake over and over, click the Ignore All button.
you want to change every instance of a misspelled word to whatever is in the Change box, click Change All.
Now that we�ve explained the three elements of spelling � Spell Checker (and grammar checker, but we considered both of them together); AutoCorrect, and AutoText, we�ll look into the differences among them.
If you have the annoying habit of typing "breif" rather than "brief," for example, you can click AutoCorrect and Word fixes that problem right after you type it.
Undo undoes your corrections, most of the time. This option is great for those sleepy nighttime checks when you quickly select the wrong replacement word. Just click Undo and check out the last word again. (Undo may not work all the time; don't count on it.)
The Word dictionary is not a substitute for a real dictionary. Only in a real dictionary can you look up the meaning of a word, which tells you whether you're using the proper word in the proper context. No computer writer works with an electronic dictionary alone; a good, thick Webster's is usually sitting within arm's reach.
If two identical words are found in a row, Word highlights them as a Repeated Word. Error, error! Click the Ignore button to tell Word to forget about the double word or click the Delete button to blow the second word away.
My, but this is a long list of bullets.
The Spelling and Grammar command also locates words with weird capitalization. For example, gONer. You're given an opportunity to correct the word to proper capitalization just as though it were misspelled.
word spell here refers to creating words by using the accepted pattern of letters. Spelling has nothing to do with magic. Many people assume that a spell check instantly makes their document better. Wrong! You have to read what you write and then edit, look, and read again. Spell checking doesn't fix things other than finding rotten words and offering suggested replacements.
One of the silliest writing assignments you probably ever got in school was the "I want you to write a five-page dissertation on why ketchup isn't green" type of project -- five pages! Are they nuts? Didn't Strunk and White stress brevity and clarity of thought over ghastly verbiage? I mean, if you can't offer a lucid argument in a single seven-word sentence, why do it?
But I digress.
Then there are those of us who get paid by the word. "Dan, write a 1,000-word article on Windows Registration Editor." I need to know when to stop writing. Also, curiosity generally gets the best of any writer, and you want to get a good feel for how many words you have in your document. To sate your scrivening curiosity, choose Tools-->Word Count.
The Word Count dialog box displays a summary of your document's pages, words, characters, paragraphs, and lines. How impressive. Okay. Click the Close button to get back to work.
The Word Count command is far more accurate than a page count. Pages can be fudged. Larger fonts and narrower margins have saved many a student from the perils of turning in a paper that was too short.
The AutoText feature of Word is quite powerful, allowing you to assign common blocks of text to shorter mnemonic names you define. If you use AutoText quite a bit, you may be interested in creating a drop-down list of AutoText entries in your document. This is done most easily through the use of the AUTOTEXTLIST field, which is available in both Word 97 and Word 2000.
For example, lets say you have an area of your document where you want
the reader to select from several different AutoText entries that can
be inserted in a particular spot. You can follow these steps:
1. Position the insertion point where you want the drop-down list
to appear.
2. Press Ctrl+F9 to insert a pair of field braces. The insertion
point should be between the braces.
3. Enter your field so that it appears as shown here:
4. With the insertion point still within the field (between the
braces), press F9. Word collapses the field, and you see the
text [Pick an Entry].
At this point, anyone that right-clicks on the text ([Pick an Entry]) will see a listing of all the AutoText entries that have been defined, provided they use the same style as the paragraph in which the field is located. Thus, if the paragraph where you entered the AUTOTEXTLIST field is in a paragraph formatted as Body Text, only those AutoText entries that utilize the Body Text style will be listed. If there are none that use the style, then all of the AutoText entries appear in the listing.
If the reader then picks an AutoText entry from the listing, that entry replaces the field.
One of the powerful tools provided with Word is the spell checker. As you are creating your documents, you may notice that Word doesn't always find spelling errors. There are two things you can check if this is the case.
First, if the misspelled words are in uppercase, you may have spell checking turned off for words that are all in uppercase. To turn on this capability, follow these steps:
1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options
dialog box.
2. Make sure the Spelling tab (Word 6 and Word 95) or the Spelling
& Grammar tab (Word 97 and Word 2000) is selected.
3. Make sure the Ignore Words in UPPERCASE check box is cleared.
4. Click on OK.
Next, if entire paragraphs are being ignored, it could be because
proofing has been turned off for the paragraph. Follow these steps to
correct this problem:
1. Select the paragraph in question.
2. Choose Language from the Tools menu. This displays the Language
dialog box.
3. In the language list at the left of the dialog box, make sure
(no proofing) is not selected. (Select a different language,
such as one of the English variations.)
4. Click on OK.
Autocorrect ought to correct your document your way. It can if you feed it your regular mistakes. When you check spelling, as you run into mistakes that you recognize as regulars -- the kind that pop up over and over -- click the Autocorrect button in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box. Then that word will automatically get the fix as you type more material.
Words aren't all meant to be spelled correctly. Maybe you have a section of text that's in a language Word doesn't know. Maybe you have a stretch of computer code with all sorts of oddball names. Maybe you're studying dialect and have lots of "doin's" and "whazzats." You can still spell-check the overall document by putting this intentionally-weird passage off limits to the
spell checker.
1. Select the oddball passage.
2. Choose Tools, Language, Set Language.
3. Choose Do Not Check Spelling.
4. Click OK.
You may have noticed that you can also turn off the grammar checking for that passage as a separate option from the spelling.
Here's to bad spellers! They're getting more help all the time. First came spell checkers, and now comes the Sounds Like search feature. Click the More button in the Find and Replace dialog box, and then click the Sounds Like box to have Word find other words that sound sort of like the word in the Find What box.
Just as spell-checking means you don't have to be a perfect speller, Autoshape means you don't have to be a perfect drawer. To make superb geometric shapes:
1. Open View, Toolbars, Drawing.
2. Click the Autoshapes button.
3. From the pop-up menu, choose the shape you want.
4. Move your mouse to the position for the shape.
5. Press and hold the mouse button, and drag out the shape.
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