Word 2003 "corrects" spelling when I insert an optional hyphen

[Cathy G]

When I manually insert an optional hyphen (Ctrl+-) in certain words, Word
will automatically "correct" the word, so it makes the first part correct but
the whole word wrong! For instance, if I insert this optional hyphen:
documen-tation, Word will insert another "t" before the hyphen so it changes
to document-tation. How do I keep this from happening? I don't see anything
in Options or AutoCorrect settings that would cause this.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I have seen this as well. The results can be even more dramatic when an
AutoCorrect entry has been defined for the first part of the word and it
expands into a long phrase! This has been bugged to MS with the strong
suggestion that an optional hyphen should not be a punctuation mark that
triggers an AutoCorrect action, but AFAIK, nothing has been done about this.
I'll bug it again.

For the time being, you just need to be alert when you insert an optional
hyphen and Undo the unwanted AutoCorrect action with Ctrl+Z.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Cathy G]

Thank you, Suzanne. I try to be alert and fix them as I go, but it sure is
annoying to have to do that! At least I know I'm not the only one that this
has happened to.

Cathy

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The way I discovered this (before I just thought the spelling checker was
weird) was when a client found a puzzling "typo" on a page of his
press-ready book copy. When I first looked at it, I couldn't imagine what
had happened, but it gradually dawned on me that it was AutoCorrect. I don't
use automatic hyphenation; after editing is complete on a book and I have
the pages laid out, I go through looking for "loose" lines and tighten them
up with optional hyphens. I had not noticed when I did this that the first
part of a word was the trigger for a long phrase that had jumped into the
middle of the text (thereby wrenching it further out of shape, since this
may well have added a line to the paragraph).

I wish I could remember what the phrase and trigger were, but it was quite
comical (but horrifying) in effect. It was something on the order of, say,
"ami" as a shortcut for "American National Bank" (not that I would probably
use "ami," given the likelihood of that appearing naturally), and when I
split "amiable," it became "American National Bank-able."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org