Ligature letters

[Maureen]

I use Word 2000 and would like it to automatically change ae and oe to
ligatures (e.g. aesthetics, curriculum vitae, etc.). I've tried inserting the
character from Insert, Symbol in AutoCorrect but it doesn't work. If memory
serves, it used to be available. Any ideas?

I originally submitted it Office General Questions and received a suggestion
that I try Word General Questions.

Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can insert the symbol into your document, then Copy (Ctrl+C) and Paste
(Ctrl+V) into the AutoCorrect dialog, but this should not be necessary. Just
insert the symbol into your document and select it; when you open Tools |
AutoCorrect, the selected symbol will already be inserted in the correct box
in the dialog. Note that words using ligatures will be marked as misspelled
(but you can add them to your custom dictionary).

 

[Tony Jollans]

There's no reason you shouldn't be able to add an AutoCorrect entry but it
won't help you because it only works on "words", not letter combinations in
the middle. If you know all the words you are going to use you could, of
course, add each of them individually.

Alternatively either use the rather awkward built key combinations (Ctrl+&,
a etc.) or define your own ...

Tools > Customize > Keyboard (button)
Scroll down and select Common Symbols from the left hand list
Scroll down to find æ in the right hand list and select it
Put your cursor in the Shortcut Key box
Press your desired key combination
Click on Assign
Repeat for each ligature
Close the Keyboard dialog and then Close the Customize dialog