Dreamboat on Word: Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003 (On Office series)

AutoCorrect Settings

Microsoft keeps forcing beginners, again and again, to use the features provided by the software. Unfortunately, if you don't know what's happening, it makes Word so much harder to use.

I recommend these settings under Tools Autocorrect, Autoformat As You Type: Remove the checkboxes from the top and bottom sections; leave the middle section alone, unless you already know what you want to do differently.

In Word 2002/XP, the Autoformat As You Type tab is different. In this case, remove the options from the 2nd and 3rd sections, leaving the top section alone or setting them as desired.

Just some examples of what you can avoid by using the new settings:

• Typing a few underscore characters and hitting Enter, only to have those few characters turn into a border you don't know how to remove. See Other Borders on page 11-3 for instructions to remove unwanted borders.

• Having styles automatically created for you. Perhaps you don't intend to use your document as a manual now, but you might want to later. When you really want to use styles in your documents, the ones that have automatically been applied are going to interfere.

• If you enter a number in the beginning of a line, type your text and hit Enter, your number is suddenly changed to autonumber formatting.