I of the most common complaints about Microsoft Discussion is its insistence on taking control of the bike. Many users get completely blindsided by some of Word'due south automatic changes, and even the more experienced amid them often just live with Word'southward shenanigans because considering they don't know how to disable them.

If yous've gotten more than your share of support calls from users trying to wrestle Give-and-take into submission (or pulled out your own hair on a few occasions), the list beneath will aid y'all quickly cut Word downward to size.

A few things to keep in mind: First, many of the options you demand are located in the AutoFormat As Y'all Type tab. A like ready of options exists in the AutoFormat tab — merely disabling those won't practise yous whatsoever good with Word'due south on-the-wing changes. Users sometimes don't make that stardom and can't understand why the changes are still happening after they thought they'd turned off the necessary settings.

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Second, some of these options may actually sound appealing to your users simply might currently be disabled. You can use this list to help them selectively actuate the features they want, not just to plough things off. It's not always the features themselves that are annoying — it's merely not knowing how to control them.

And finally, Discussion 2007 offers the aforementioned feature set described here, but accessing the options is a footling different. The section at the bottom explains how to notice them in that version.

This information is also available as a PDF download.

Inexpensive solution: Undo

If you haven't had a chance to disable an automatic feature (or you desire to get out it enabled and override it only occasionally), retrieve that pressing Ctrl+Z or clicking the Disengage button right afterward Word makes a change volition undo that action. So, for case, if Give-and-take inserts a smart apostrophe where you want to retain the direct character to denote measurement, just striking Undo to straighten information technology dorsum out.

The annoyances

Beliefs How to turn it off
#1: Discussion creates a hyperlink when you blazon a Spider web page address. Become to Tools | AutoCorrect Options and select the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Under Replace As You Type, deselect the Internet And Network Paths With Hyperlinks check box and click OK.
#2: Give-and-take changes capitalization of text as y'all type it. A host of settings tin can trigger this behavior. Go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options and select the AutoCorrect tab. Here, you tin deselect whichever cheque boxes govern the unwanted actions:
  • Correct Ii Initial Capitals
  • Capitalize Commencement Letter of the alphabet Of Sentences
  • Capitalize First Letter Of Table Cells
  • Capitalize Names Of Days
  • Correct Adventitious Employ Of Caps Lock Key
#3: Word inserts symbols unexpectedly, such as trademark or copyright characters or even inserts an entire passage of text. Get to Tools | AutoCorrect Options and select the AutoCorrect tab. This time, find the Replace Text As You Type check box. Either deselect it to suppress all replacements or select and delete individual items in the list below it.It might make sense to continue the feature enabled and selectively remove items, since the list includes scores of common misspellings that are actually prissy to have corrected for yous.
#iv: Word superscripts your ordinal numbers, such as 1st and 2nd. Get to Tools | AutoCorrect Options and click the AutoFormat Equally You lot Type tab. Deselect the Ordinals (1st) With Superscript check box and click OK.
#5: Word converts fractions into formatted versions. Go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options and click the AutoFormat As You Blazon tab. Deselect the Fractions (1/2) With Fraction Character option.
#6: Word turns straight apostrophes and quote marks into curly characters. Go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options and click the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Deselect the Straight Quotes With Smart Quotes check box and click OK.
#7: When you try to select a few characters within a word, the highlight jumps to select the unabridged word. Go to Tools | Options and click the Edit tab. In the right column under Editing Options, deselect the When Selecting, Automatically Select Entire Discussion check box and click OK.
#8: When you type three or more than hyphens and press Enter, Give-and-take inserts a border line. Become to Tools | AutoFormat and select the AutoFormat Every bit You Type tab. Deselect the Border Lines check box and click OK.A like option exists for inserting a table, but information technology's generally non going to sneak up on you: When the Tables check box is selected, typing a series of hyphens and plus marks before pressing Enter will insert a table (with the hyphens representing cells). You can turn off that choice if you recollect yous might stumble into an unwanted table insertion.
#9: Word automatically adds numbers or bullets at the beginning of lines every bit you type them. There are 2 flavors of this potential badgerer. First, if y'all start to type something Word thinks is a bulleted list (using asterisks, say) or type 1, a menstruation, and some text, it may convert what you type to bulleted or numbered list format when yous printing Enter.To foreclose this, go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options and select the AutoFormat Every bit You Blazon tab. Then, deselect the Automated Bulleted List and/or Automatic Numbered list check boxes and click OK.A related aspect of this beliefs is that one time you're entering automatic list items, pressing Enter volition perpetuate it — Word volition continue inserting bullets or numbers on each new line. To gratuitous yourself from this formatting frenzy, just printing Enter a second time, and Word volition knock information technology off.
#10: When you lot type hyphens, Give-and-take inserts an em nuance or an en dash. If you lot type a word, two hyphens, and another word (no spaces), Word will catechumen the hyphens to an em dash. If you blazon a space before and after the hyphens, it will convert them to an en dash.To disable this feature, Go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options and select the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Deselect the Hyphens (–) With Dash (-) check box and click OK.

Bonus fixes

Word may crusade your users some additional grief in various other means besides automatic behaviors. It goes a little something similar this:

User: My document if full of weird code stuff and my pictures are gone. Culprit: Field code display has been toggled on. Solution: Suggest that the user press Alt+F9 to restore the display of field code results. User: I'g seeing gray brackets effectually a agglomeration of my text. Culprit: Bookmark display has been enabled. Solution: Go to Tools | Options and select the View tab. Then, under the Testify options, deselect the Bookmarks check box and click OK. User: I'm typing and everything in front of the cursor is disappearing. Culprit: The evil Overtype way has been activated. Solution: Go to Tools | Options and select the Edit tab. Then, nether Editing Options, deselect the Overtype Manner check box and click OK. (Information technology might exist quicker to double-click OVR on the condition bar, if you can signal the user to it.) User: Everything'south gone, all my toolbars and menus and everything — there'southward zero hither just text. Culprit: The user has landed in Full Screen view. Solution: Straight the user'due south attention to the Close Total Screen View button at the bottom of the window (depending on the version) or tell them to printing Alt+V to display the View menu. They can then select Total Screen to plow off that view fashion and return to familiar territory.

Accessing the options in Word 2007

All the settings we've discussed here are accessible via the Part button in Discussion 2007:

  • To get to the AutoCorrect dialog box, click the Function button, select Word Options at the bottom of the card, and choose Proofing from the pane on the left. In the pane on the right, click the AutoCorrect Options push, and Word will display the AutoCorrect dialog box containing the AutoCorrect and AutoFormat As You lot Type tabs.
  • To get to editing options, click the Office push button, select Word Options at the bottom of the carte, and choose Advanced from the pane on the left. Discussion volition display Editing Options at the peak of the pane on the correct. In that department, you'll find the When Selecting, Automatically Select Entire Give-and-take check box and the Use Overtype Manner option. If yous scroll down to the Evidence Document Content department, you'll find the Bear witness Bookmarks cheque box.
  • The successor to Full Screen view in Word 2007 is Full Screen Reading view. Users shouldn't get stuck in that location, only if they do, the Close push in the upper-right corner of the window will take them back to Print Layout view.
What inscrutable Word behaviors tiptop your list of annoyances? Practice you lot have to accost the same points of defoliation over and over with your users?

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