• 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 (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.), 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 (cell: A box formed by the intersection of a row and column in a worksheet or a table, in which you enter information.), 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 (table: One or more rows of cells commonly used to display numbers and other items for quick reference and analysis. Items in a table are organized into rows and columns.) 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 (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.), 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 (hyperlink: Colored and underlined text or a graphic that you click to go to a file, a location in a file, a Web page on the World Wide Web, or a Web page on an intranet. Hyperlinks can also go to newsgroups and to Gopher, Telnet, and FTP sites.). 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 (field: A set of codes that instructs Microsoft Word to insert text, graphics, page numbers, and other material into a document automatically. For example, the DATE field inserts the current date.), symbol, paragraph mark (paragraph mark: The nonprinting symbol that Microsoft Word inserts when you press ENTER to end a paragraph. The paragraph mark stores the formatting you apply to the paragraph.) (), 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 (AutoText: A storage location for text or graphics you want to use again, such as a standard contract clause or a long distribution list. Each selection of text or graphics is recorded as an AutoText entry and is assigned a unique name.) entry instead.