How to Adjust AutoCorrect Settings in Microsoft Word

Key Takeaways

• You can control AutoCorrect on Microsoft Word by turning it on or off and adding frequently misspelled words and their corrections for automatic replacement.
• To access AutoCorrect settings, navigate through the File menu and Proofing options in Microsoft Word.

How to Enable or Disable AutoCorrect on Microsoft Word

By default, the AutoCorrect feature relies on the library of the words from the language you’ve chosen to use in the Word document. That said, you can enable or disable the feature. To do so, you will need to update your Word Proofing settings. Here’s how to do so:

Step 1: Launch the Microsoft Word app.

Step 2: Open a Word file you want to work on.

Step 3:  On the Word Ribbon, click on the File tab at the top-left corner.

Step 4: Scroll to the bottom of the File menu and click on More or Options to reveal a collapsed menu.

Step 5: Click Options from the menu.

Step 6: From Word Options pop-up window, click Proofing from the left sidebar.

Step 7: Scroll down the proofing menu and click the AutoCorrect Options button to launch a new AutoCorrect box for the language setting enabled for your Microsoft Word document.

Step 8: On the newly launched AutoCorrect dialog box, click the AutoCorrect tab.

Step 9: To enable AutoCorrect, tick the box beside Replace text as you type. To disable AutoCorrect, untick the box beside Replace text as you type.

Step 1o: Click OK to save your changes.

How to Add Entries to the AutoCorrect List on Microsoft Word

The Word Proofing settings also include a Replacement list that comes in handy when you don’t want to keep switching between the correct and actual spellings. It contains different variations of word misspellings and diagram depictions with their replacement options. Follow the steps to update the list.

Step 1: Launch Microsoft Word.

Step 2: Open any file you wish to work with.

Step 3:  On the Word Ribbon, click on the File tab at the top-left corner.

Step 4: Scroll to the bottom of the File menu and click on More Options to reveal a collapsed menu.

Step 5: Click Options from the menu.

Step 6: From the Word Options pop-up window, click the Proofing tab in the left sidebar.

Step 7: Scroll down the proofing menu and click AutoCorrect Options to launch a new AutoCorrect box for the language setting enabled for your Microsoft Word document.

Step 8: On the newly launched AutoCorrect dialog box, click the AutoCorrect tab.

Step 9: In the textbox beneath Replace, type a word or phrase that you often misspell.

Step 10: In the With box, type the word’s correct spelling.

Step 11:  Click the Add button to save your new word, then click OK.

How to Delete Entries From the AutoCorrect List on Microsoft Word

At times, you might find some entries carrying incorrect or different spelling. Luckily, you can also follow the same process as mentioned above to remove entries from the AutoCorrect list. Follow steps 1 to 8 from the section above and continue with the steps below.

Step 1: Scroll through the Replacement list and click on the entry you want to delete.

Step 2: Click the Delete button to remove the word from the list.

Step 11: Click OK to close the dialog box.