Set up Autocorrect in Microsoft Word and Outlook Express

The Auto Correct feature is one that enables the application to correct the spelling of misspelt words — automatically.

The advantage of Auto Correct over Spell Check is that Spell Check will only report the misspelled words and provide a list with the option of words that can be replaced. One will have to manually choose the correct one from the list of options whereas in AutoCorrect, the correct word gets replaced automatically.

For instance, if we type the word “the” as “teh”, if Auto Correct is enabled, the application will change the word to the correct spelling “the”.

This feature is useful for persons with low vision or visual impairment, people with learning disability and users with mobility impairment.

This feature is available in Microsoft Word and from Outlook 2002, also referred as Outlook XP. To enable this in Word, please go to the “Tools” menu, Click “AutoCorrect” (in Word 2000) in Tools menu, “Auto Correct Options” in Tools Menu (in Word 2003), in “AutoCorrect: English” dialog box, in the Auto Correct Tab. Select the check boxes “Replace text as you type” and “Automatically use suggestions from spelling checker”. In the same AutoCorrect tab, you can scroll down to browse through a long list of words with correct spelling for replacing in AutoCorrect. You can also add words for this auto correction.

To add words to AutoCorrect, please type the word to be added in the word document and highlight it by selecting it. Then click AutoCorrect in Tools Menu. In the AutoCorrect tab, the ‘With’ box will display the highlighted word. Select the Formatted text radio button if you want to retain the format of the text, or select Plain text. Type the word that has to be replaced with, in the Replace window.

It is possible to move the Auto Correct entries from one computer to another. More details about this are available at this URL: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/207748 for Word 2000 and at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826147 for Word 2003.

To enable Auto Correct in Outlook 2003, from the Microsoft Outlook window click Options in Tools menu. In the Spelling tab, select the check box “Use Auto Correct when Word isn’t the e-mail editor”. Click the Auto Correct options button. The Auto Correct dialog box will open. “Select the check box Replace text as you type”.

Spell Check is available in Outlook Express and if you run it, will prompt you to manually replace with the correct words.