| Applies to |
Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003
Microsoft Outlook® 2002 |
If you type a company name or a particular phrase over and over during the day, there's a way to speed up composing your e-mail messages in Outlook. AutoCorrect is a convenient way to convert something typed one way to something else. One feature of AutoCorrect is to correct common misspellings. However, AutoCorrect has additional potential to save you time. For example, you can set up AutoCorrect to replace a few keystrokes with a common response you send to customers such as "Thank you for contacting us. We are researching your request and will contact you shortly." Another use is creating shortcuts for long company names, job titles, or just about any phrase you use repeatedly.
Making a few characters work hard for you
For example, if your work title is Chief of All That is Good and Right for the Instruction of Potential Employees, you probably would like a quicker way to type this. Using AutoCorrect you could type CATGRIPE and AutoCorrect would insert the longer full version of your title.
Not just for Word users
AutoCorrect isn't just for those who use Microsoft Office Word 2003 or Microsoft Word 2002 as their default editor. Even if you use Outlook as the default e-mail editor, AutoCorrect is available to you. However, to use this feature without Word, you must compose your e-mail message in plain text or rich text format. You can change the format of a message (use the Format menu) when composing a message. If you switch to plain text to use this feature, you can switch back to HTML later and add rich formatting to your message.
Adding AutoCorrect entries
If you use Word as your e-mail editor
- In Word, click AutoCorrect Options on the Tools menu.
- In the Replace box, type a word or phrase that you often mistype or misspell — for example, type usualy.
- In the With box, type the correct spelling of the word — for example, type usually.
- Click Add.
If you use Outlook as your e-mail editor
- From the main Outlook window, click Options on the Tools menu, and then click the Spelling tab.
- Click AutoCorrect Options.
- In the Replace box, type an abbreviation that you want to use as a shortcut.
- In the With box, type the text you want to appear as a replacement.
- Click Add.
When you type your shortcut, AutoCorrect will replace the text with the specified replacement text.
Tip If you use Word as your e-mail editor, your text emoticons such as the smiley face :) or :-) are automatically converted into graphics, which other Outlook users who are using Word as their e-mail editor can see.
