Using Auto Correct on the Computer

Using auto correct on the computer

Spelling and Grammar Check

Many students find that the spelling and grammar feature on Microsoft Word means that they can check work quickly and efficiently without having to rely on a dictionary or asking for help. To use this feature in Word 2007 just follow these steps:

1.  Click on Review

2.  Click on Spelling and Grammar

3.  Words spelt incorrectly will appear in red. You will be given the option to ignore the spelling suggestion or change the word to the spelling suggestion.

4.  To ignore the spelling suggestion click ignore.

5.  To change to the suggested spelling click change.

But remember the computer is not always right!

The computer can make mistakes, for example, with the meaning of words and with the grammatical structure of the sentence so even when using the spelling and grammar check not all mistakes will be corrected.

MS Word Auto Correct

Microsoft word is set to automatically correct some words. For example if you type ‘teh’ it will automatically be corrected to ‘the’ when you press the space bar. Word can learn your common mis-spellings and can be set to add new words to auto correct.

To do this, just follow these steps:

1.  Click on the icon on the top left hand corner in Microsoft Word 2007:

2.  Click on Word Options

3.  Click on ‘Proofing’

4.  Click on Autocorrect Options

This box will appear:

5.  In the ‘Replace’ box, insert the word that you commonly mis-spell. Say for example, you always forget that there is a ‘g’ in the word assignment, you can type in both spellings so that the computer knows to change it from assinment to assignment.

Abbreviation Expansion

You can also use the AutoCorrect feature to expand abbreviations. This is particularly useful for commonly used phrases and words. An example of this could be subject specific terminology. For example for a childcare student, instead of writing child development psychology, which may take some effort, could type cdp and get autocorrect to replace that with the full phrase. To do this just follow the steps outline above.