Reference: Autocorrect

Exercise 1—Add an Autocorrect

As an example, let’s use Alessandro. Which combination of letters works best? Two letters is the quickest, but three works as well.

as	is a real word
ass	is also a real word
al	could be a nickname for your character
alo	would work
an	is another real word
ar	might work, provided there are no pirates around
aa	would also work
ao	seems the best combination

1. Open the AutoCorrect dialog Option box.
2. In the replace box, type “aa”.
3. Click Delete.
4. You’ll get an opportunity to add the autocorrect back.
5. If you want to save the deletion, click on OK to close the AutoCorrect box.
6. Click on OK to close the Options box.

Word will save all Autocorrect entries globally for use by all Word documents and Excel spreadsheets in the MS Office program.

Exercise 2—Use an AutoCorrect

Let’s play with the “ao” and “aa” AutoCorrect to see how it works.

The change from AutoCorrect to long form takes effect immediately after you enter another character or space.

If the AutoCorrect is embedded in a group of characters, the change will not take effect, e.g. “Laos” and “aardvark” will remain unchanged.

If the AutoCorrect is preceded by a blank, and followed by punctuation or a blank, the change will take effect, e.g. “aa’s” will turn into “Amanda’s” or “ aa.” will turn into “Amanda.”.

Exercise 3—Undo an AutoCorrect

Sometimes you don’t want a change to take effect for just a single instance, e.g., all the times I’ve typed “ao” in this document and didn’t want “Alessandro”. To undo an Autocorrect for a single occurrence, click Ctrl+Z immediately after the correction takes effect.

Exercise 4—Change an AutoCorrect

Let’s change the spelling of Alessandro to Alexander.

1. Open the AutoCorrect Option dialog box
2. In the replace box, type “aa”.
3. In the with box, type “Amarantha”.
4. Click on Replace.
5. Click on OK to close the AutoCorrect box.
6. Click on OK to close the Options box.

Exercise 5.5—Delete an AutoCorrect

Let’s delete the “aa” autocorrect.

1. Open the AutoCorrect dialog Option box
2. In the replace box, type “aa”.
3. Click on the Delete button.
4. You’ll get an opportunity to add the autocorrect back.
5. If you want to save the deletion, click on OK to close the AutoCorrect box.
6. Click on OK to close the Options box.

Exercise 5.6—Add Spaced-out Ellipsis

1. Open a new document or use the document from the prior exercise.
2. Open the AutoCorrect Option dialog box.
3. In the Replace box, type “../”.
4. In the With box, type “^s.^s.^s.^s”.
5. Click on the Add button.
6. Click on OK to close the AutoCorrect dialog box.
7. Click on OK to close the Options box.

With the formatting symbols turned on (click the pilcrow), the end result looks like (°.°.°.).

If a CMOS ellipsis occurs at the end of sentence, the punctuation comes after the final space (°.°.°.°.) or (°.°.°.°?). All this is followed by a standard breaking space, entered in the usual way, for the beginning of the next sentence.

If a CMOS ellipsis occurs at the beginning of some text, then start with a period and end with a space (.°.°.°).

My reference for these spaced-out ellipses is www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis.

To my mind, the CMOS ellipsis is clunky and takes up too much space, so I’ve used the default single-character ellipsis in my ebook and printed self-published works. I also checked with several other formatters. When permitted, they’ve been substituting the default Word ellipsis for the CMOS ellipsis. It’s much easier to deal with, ereaders like it, and most people don’t even notice.