It turns out sticks, stones and word can hurt me ...

[Peter May]

These two problems are driving me nuts. Not that they're a big deal,
they're just persistent and resistant to any fix I've tried.
First, I'll be typing along and suddenly Word will see a word it recognizes
and suggest something from my address book. So I type American and it
suggests a company in my address book called American Science and Surplus, a
name long enough to obliterate my view of what I'm typing. To top it off,
the suggestions don't seem to come from my current address book but from a
very old version (the names are still in my current book but they're not
current contacts and Word only seems to suggest ancient contacts).
OK, that's the first one. The second problem is that whenever I number a
paragraph Word seems to assume that I want a list and indents, adding
formatting. I then have to go back and remove the formatting. Can I put
and end to this presumptuousness?

Thanks

Pete

 

[Elliott Roper]

These two problems are driving me nuts. Not that they're a big deal,
they're just persistent and resistant to any fix I've tried.
First, I'll be typing along and suddenly Word will see a word it recognizes
and suggest something from my address book. So I type American and it
suggests a company in my address book called American Science and Surplus, a
name long enough to obliterate my view of what I'm typing. To top it off,
the suggestions don't seem to come from my current address book but from a
very old version (the names are still in my current book but they're not
current contacts and Word only seems to suggest ancient contacts).
OK, that's the first one. The second problem is that whenever I number a
paragraph Word seems to assume that I want a list and indents, adding
formatting. I then have to go back and remove the formatting. Can I put
and end to this presumptuousness?

Sure you can. Set your autocorrect as I type and auto format
preferences to be as mute and mule-like as possible. Turn off just
about everything. Then slowly turn on one or two that look promising as
you gain confidence that the damn thing is not about to turn on you.

Then, if you want the presumptuousness[1] back, open the formatting
palette, then with the list items selected press one or other of the
lists buttons.

Address book? You must mean Entourage? It allegedly keeps filling up
your autocorrect tables, and as you have discovered, not all that
brainfully.

My solution to that is to use a different mailer. Mail.app.
Google the group for autocorrect and entourage for workarounds for the
Entourageophilic.

[1] Good description. I'd previously settled for deeply irritating.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

These two problems are driving me nuts. Not that they're a big deal,
they're just persistent and resistant to any fix I've tried.
First, I'll be typing along and suddenly Word will see a word it recognizes
and suggest something from my address book. So I type American and it
suggests a company in my address book called American Science and Surplus, a
name long enough to obliterate my view of what I'm typing. To top it off,
the suggestions don't seem to come from my current address book but from a
very old version (the names are still in my current book but they're not
current contacts and Word only seems to suggest ancient contacts).
OK, that's the first one. The second problem is that whenever I number a
paragraph Word seems to assume that I want a list and indents, adding
formatting. I then have to go back and remove the formatting. Can I put
and end to this presumptuousness?

Sure you can. Set your autocorrect as I type and auto format
preferences to be as mute and mule-like as possible. Turn off just
about everything. Then slowly turn on one or two that look promising as
you gain confidence that the damn thing is not about to turn on you.

Then, if you want the presumptuousness[1] back, open the formatting
palette, then with the list items selected press one or other of the
lists buttons.

Address book? You must mean Entourage? It allegedly keeps filling up
your autocorrect tables, and as you have discovered, not all that
brainfully.

My solution to that is to use a different mailer. Mail.app.
Google the group for autocorrect and entourage for workarounds for the
Entourageophilic.

[1] Good description. I'd previously settled for deeply irritating.

On the address issue, it's the AutoComplete function that's the culprit (not
Entourage directly, although it is the source of the addresses). Go to
Tools> AutoCorrect> AutoText and uncheck the option to Show AutoComplete
Tips.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[Clive Huggan]

Pete,

Please see my comments interspersed with your questions below.

You don't say what version you're using. I'm in Word 2001; there may be
slight variations from this in your version.

-- Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
============================================================
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* If you post a question, keep re-visiting the newsgroup for a few days
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* Remove "the" from my address above if you need to send an e-mail to me
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with an attachment will be automatically rejected.

* If anyone is still reading down this far, here's a question: is it time
for you to back up your Normal template and all your Word settings files?
(This should be on a medium other than the internal hard drive and, if you
also want to protect against theft and fire, stored in a different
building.)
============================================================

These two problems are driving me nuts. Not that they're a big deal,
they're just persistent and resistant to any fix I've tried.
First, I'll be typing along and suddenly Word will see a word it recognizes
and suggest something from my address book. So I type American and it
suggests a company in my address book called American Science and Surplus, a
name long enough to obliterate my view of what I'm typing. To top it off,
the suggestions don't seem to come from my current address book but from a
very old version (the names are still in my current book but they're not
current contacts and Word only seems to suggest ancient contacts).
OK, that's the first one.

Go to the Insert menu -> AutoText -> AutoText -> [but the resulting window
is titled "Auto Correct"] -> "AutoText" tab -> de-select the checkbox "Show
AutoComplete tip for AutoText, Address Book contacts and dates".

The second problem is that whenever I number a
paragraph Word seems to assume that I want a list and indents, adding
formatting. I then have to go back and remove the formatting.

Tools menu -> AutoCorrect -> "AutoFormat as you Type" tab -> de-select
"Automatic bulleted lists" and "Automatic numbered lists" should do what you
want.

Can I put
and end to this presumptuousness?

Ah, but there are many more!! You might like to see some notes of mine on
modifying a lot of these settings: download the document "Bend Word to your
Will" at www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/Bend/BendWord.htm (do a "Find"
command for the heading "Modifications via menus" on about page 24).

 

[Peter May]

Thanks to all three of you Elliot, Beth and Clive. As they say on Family
Feud, "Good answer!" Making the adjustments you've suggested has helped me
clear the problems ... I think. I'm left with one more question. Are the
autocorrect/autotext preferences global and universal or are they attached
to individual documents. The reason I ask is that at some point in the past
I thought I identified autotext as the culprit in this matter and deleted
the entire list of names from the autotext entries, thinking I was done with
it. Now I see the list is entirely regenerated. Is this a part of the
"normal" template and, on that subject, is there a way to stop MS Word from
constantly updating "normal?"
Thanks again,
Pete

 

[Elliott Roper]

Thanks to all three of you Elliot, Beth and Clive. As they say on Family
Feud, "Good answer!" Making the adjustments you've suggested has helped me
clear the problems ... I think. I'm left with one more question. Are the
autocorrect/autotext preferences global and universal or are they attached
to individual documents. The reason I ask is that at some point in the past
I thought I identified autotext as the culprit in this matter and deleted
the entire list of names from the autotext entries, thinking I was done with
it. Now I see the list is entirely regenerated. Is this a part of the
"normal" template and, on that subject, is there a way to stop MS Word from
constantly updating "normal?"
Thanks again,
Pete

Hiya Pete,
Normal is what gets used when no template beats it to the job.

I have fought with Normal all my days with v.X. Best remedy is in
Clive's "Bend Word.." ie. Use templates that don't use Normal's style
names.

Whenever I think Word is in remission, I make a copy of Normal and hide
it for safekeeping.

The one that really gets up my nose is the panel that pops up to ask

"Do you want to redefine 'Body' to match the current paragraph?" after
every time I make a mistake. Not to mention the checkbox inside:-
"Always screw up my carefully crafted styles again after each mistake"
- although it is worded differently.

Is there a checkbox asking "Would you rather I didn't corrupt Normal
anytime there is a full moon"? Is there heck!