Autocorrect entry works only if first letter upper/lower case chan

[Tracy]

In Office 2003 I use the same autocorrect entries all day long, toggling back
and forth between Word and dedicated medical transcription software for a
lab. I transcribe into a Word document, then select all, copy and paste into
the other program.

Each transcription report starts with the same phrase ("Microscopic
examination shows..."). I use the autocorrect abbreviation "mes" to type
these words. However, when I toggle to the other software program and then
toggle back to Word, the autocorrect function won't work unless I alternate
using "mes" (starting with lower case "m") and "Mes" (starting with upper
case "M") every other time. This did not happen in earlier versions of Word,
but started when I switched to a new computer using MS Office 2003 Standard
Edition, version 11.5604.5606.

Why can't I just type "mes" every time and have it work every time? It's
too hard to remember whether I need to capitalize the M or not every time.

Kudos to you if you can figure out what is causing this! And thanks!

 

[CyberTaz]

I believe the difference is dependent on whether AutoCorrect is recognizing
the "m" as needing to be capitalized - beginning of paragraph. You can
resolve it by removing the AutoCorrect check for Capitalize Firs Letter of
Sentences, but that might not be to your overall advantage

Instead, try getting used to triggering the AutoText by pressing F3 rather
than Enter... doesn't matter whether the "m" is upper or lower case if you
do it that way

 

[Tracy]

Hi, Bob --

Thanks. Unchecking the Capitalize First Letter box didn't work. I then
tried putting this particular phrase in as an Autotext entry. If I use that
rather than Autocorrect, it does work every time, using F3 to trigger it.

However, I use Autocorrect rather than Autotext, because I have several
entries that all start with the same word. So I have to give them different
names, rather than just using the first few letters of the first word (For
example: infiltrating malignancy / infiltrating carcinoma / infiltrative
changes, etc.) I have several hundred entries in Autocorrect, as there are
more than 800,000 known medical words! In Autocorrect, any sequence of
characters can be designated to expand as any text. In the Autotext feature,
however, it doesn't look like you can choose a different group of characters,
but only the actual first few letters of the word or phrase.

The "mes" entry is the only one I've had this problem with, maybe because
it's the beginning phrase at the top of every page. I can get used to using
F3, triggering Autotext for that one, and it will fix my problem. I still
don't understand why the Autocorrect feature recognizes the first letter
lower case, then upper case, every other time, but your solution worked!

Thank you ever so much!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Actually, you can give an AutoText entry any name you like. By default, Word
takes the text of the entry as the entry name, but you can change it.

 

[Tracy]

Thank you, Suzanne --

I went to your MVP site and looked up Autotext and Autocorrect. I put the
site in my favorites folder. Thanks for the tip!