When you send an email, it is natural to assume that it will be received in the format you intended.
However, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, word-processing programs autocorrect your emails, reformatting or rearranging them.
You could think of autocorrect as your friend—it saves you from accidentally typing something embarrassing or adding extra words to your message. But autocorrect can backfire, too.
Sometimes, autocorrect substitutes words you didn’t intend to use, or omits words you expected to use.
To avoid these embarrassing mistakes, learn How to Set up AutoCorrect. Have you ever noticed that you type a misspell in Outlook and autocorrect the spelling mistake?
Now, it won’t autocorrect all the misspelled words.
Just a few!
For example, try the word ‘houes’, that words autocorrected by Outlook with ‘house’.
The reason some words are autocorrected, and others aren’t, is because there is already a fixed list of words that are prefilled in Outlook to autocorrect.
In this article, you will learn How the auto-correct option in Outlook works I will also cover how you can disable autocorrect outlook i.e. (Turn off autocorrect in outlook).
Outlook Autocorrect – [All you need to Know]?
Outlook Autocorrect helps you to correct minor issues you may face while typing in Outlook Mail (such as replacing some commonly misspelled words with correct words).
But let’s first understand where are the autocorrect options in Outlook and what is available by default.
Open Microsoft Outlook >> Click on File Tab
Click on Options from the File tab
Under Options Dialog Box Click Mail from the left navigation section then Editor Option from the Right Navigation section.
Under the Editor Options dialog box, Click Proofing from the left section and click Autocorrect options from the right navigation section.
You will be forwarded to Autocorrect Dialog Box
AutoCorrect Dialog Box consists of multiple tabs which represent, and the functionality is different, let’s understand.
- Auto Formats
- Actions
- Auto Correct
- Maths Auto Correct
- Auto Formats As You Type
AutoCorrect Options
In the Autocorrect Options tab, you find some options that are enabled by default and manage some common issues themselves.
- Show Autocorrect Options buttons
- Correct two initial capitals
- Capitalize the first letter of sentences
- Capitalize names of days
- Correct accidental use of Caps lock key
- Replace text as you type
- Show Autocorrect Options buttons: This one is not relevant for Outlook, but it is for other MS applications. When this option is enabled, you see the autocorrect options in MS Word or MS Excel (as shown below).
- Correct two initial capitals: Under this option, in case accidentally you type two capital initials in the Outlook email message. For Instance, if you type ‘MAil’, it will automatically correct the word with ‘Mail’
- Capitalize the first letter of sentences: Under this option, any new sentence you type starts with a lowercase. For instance, if you type, ‘Hello. welcome to mailsmartly YouTube channel’, it will be autocorrected to ‘Hello. Welcome to mailsmartly YouTube channel?’.
- Capitalize names of days: This option when enabled will automatically change the first letter of the day name if you enter it in lowercase. For instance, sunday would be changed to Sunday.
- Correct accidental use of Caps lock key: Somehow you accidentally hit the Caps lock on and you write a sentence, it will automatically correct the text and disable the Caps lock. For instance, if you enter sCHOOL, it will automatically change it to School.
- Replace text as you type: Outlook consists of multiple short Codes for some symbols, which help to insert specific symbols on type the of code, for instance, if you type ™, it automatically gets converted into the trademark symbol. You can customize your own (for example inserting Degree Symbol) or remove an existing one.
Exceptions
Any Smart working for instance (Rules functions in Outlook), always have an exceptions section, which allows you to bypass the functionality according to your inputs.
For instance, one of the popular brand names ReNee (‘N’ present in this word is in upper case), Outlook automatically converts it into ‘Renee’, which is technically correct.
The exceptions Section allows you to exclude this particular case.
Click on Exceptions and find out How it works?
The Autocorrect Exceptions dialog box has three types of exceptions:
- First Letter: Logically Outlook capitalizes the alphabet after the period (dot). You found a few examples lists, you can customize your exceptions here, then click Add.
- Initial Caps: This section allows you to restrict the conversion of the upper case to lower case and vice versa, for instance, ReNee to Renee, if you don’t want ReNee to be converted to Renee, you can specify that here.
- Other Correction: This section is provided to add your own customized word, which outlook ignores to correct.
Autoformat As You Type
Autoformat As You Type consists of three sections:
- Replace as you type – There are a few options given and already enabled, For Example – Fraction (1/2) with fraction character (½), you can uncheck in case you won’t need anymore.
- Apply as you type – This will automatically add new rows in Outlook Table or add an Automatic bulleted list once you click Enter.
- Automatically as you type – This section follows the previous action.
Math Autocorrect
Maths Symbol like Alpha α, Beta β, Gamma γ, and Delta δ, are some of the examples that require functionality like inserting the Degree symbol in Outlook.
This tab has some text that automatically converts into the specified math symbol. For example, if you type \sigma, it will replace it with the σ symbol.
How to Add a Word to Autocorrect in Outlook?
After understanding the entire autocorrect future in outlook, you need to add a word to autocorrect in Outlook.
You can follow the step to add autocorrect in outlook.
Step 1: Click File Tab
Step 2: Hit Options from the bottom left corner of the screen
Step 3: From the Options dialog Box Click Mail >> Editor Options
Step 3: Click Proofing from the Left navigation section >> AutoCorrect Options…
Step 4: Autocorrect dialog box appears, by default AutoCorrect Tab appears, you must enter the inputs under Replace and With.
- Replace – reNee
- With – renee
Step 5: Click Add >> Click OK
Finally, when you type ‘reNee’, it will automatically replace it with ‘renee‘.
Points to Remember
Here are a few facts you need to know about Autocorrect in Microsoft Outlook:
- Customized Autocorrect strictly follows the instruction listed in autocorrect. This means that you have added the word ‘reNee’ to be replaced by ‘renee’, it would only work with the lower-case word. If you enter ‘ReNee’ or ‘RENEE’, it will not be corrected.
- Once you add any replacement, it would exist forever until you remove or delete it. Starting or closing Outlook won’t make any change.
- Any Change in Autocorrect will be applicable for all MS platforms like (Excel, Word & PowerPoint).
Apart from this Autocorrect is not only useful to replace or correct specific words or correct a customized word in Outlook if you look at it differently you can also use it in some awesome ways to save time.
Below are some useful examples to use Autocorrect in Outlook (other than correcting a misspelled word).
# Example 1 Use Autocorrect to Complete Abbreviations
Most of the time a specific part of matter or name for example (the name of the company with complete address) is required to type in your email.
What would you prefer?
I personally copy and paste that part from another sheet, the only problem is Font.
In case my copied portion is in ‘Calibri‘ Font, and the message typing is in ‘Verdana‘. I have to change the copied portion font with written manually, which is an irritating task.
Auto Correct support this issue
You have to manually type the full company name and address many times in a day.
No matter how fast you type, this would feel like a waste of time.
Autocorrect help you with this, you need to create and shortcut you can just enter ‘ren‘ and Outlook autocorrect and replace it with the company name and address.
Note: Only 255 words including spaces are permitted to enter in the autocorrect section.
Below GIF explains how it works:
The Best part is once you type auto-correct short Code in the Outlook screen, it will follow the format – Font Size, Font, and Font color and background color.
# Example 2 Use Autocorrect to Insert Symbol
There are tons of symbols that are important but unable to type in Outlook messages, although there are multiple keyboard shortcuts to type symbols in Outlook, still there are some not already available on the keyboard.
You can also go with the Insert Symbol dialog box, which is a great but time-consuming process (which is often long and complicated).
The autocorrect feature is quite different to give those symbols a code name. You can use autocorrect to insert the symbol (which changes the code name into a Symbol).
Now when you have to enter that symbol, you can simply use the code name and it will get autocorrected to that symbol.
How to Turn off Autocorrect in Outlook?
Sometimes autocorrect inbuilt library causes trouble it may actually be an irritation if you type (c) or (r) or (TM), Microsoft Outlook autocorrect is going to change the text automatically (into © or ® or ™).
The Solution is to Turn Off autocorrect or remove that inbuilt autocorrect permanently, so that will not cause trouble in the future.
Quick-Step to Disable Autocorrect:
Step 1: Open Microsoft Outlook
Step 2: Click File Tab
Step 3: Click Options
Step 4: Click Mail from the left navigation section >> Editor Option from the right navigation section.
Step 5: Click Proofing from the left navigation section >> AutoCorrect Option from the right navigation section.
Step 6: In the Autocorrect dialog box, within the Autocorrect tab, uncheck the ‘Replace text as you type‘ option.
Step 7: Click Ok to Turn OFF
That will Turn off the entire autocorrect functionality, you no longer enjoy the auto-correction which is important.
Steps to Delete/Replace Some Words from Getting Autocorrected in Outlook
If Disabling auto-correct features turn out to be painful, your mistakes are no longer autocorrected.
You may understand the Delete/Replace feature, instead of disabling the entire function you must ‘Delete/Replace Some Words from Getting Autocorrected’.
To keep the overall ‘Replace text as you type‘ feature but want some exceptions, you can find the word in the list and delete it manually (or edit it).
Quick Steps:
Step 1: Open Microsoft Outlook
Step 2: Click File Tab
Step 3: Click Options
Step 4: Click Mail from the left navigation section >> Editor Option from the right navigation section.
Step 5: Click Proofing from the left navigation section >> AutoCorrect Option from the right navigation section.
Step 6: Find and Select the word that you want to delete.
Step 7: Simply Hit Delete Button.
In case you need to replace the existing word with something else, for example, instead of (™) turning into the Time Limit, you can use it to be converted into the word – copyright.
To replace the word, find the word change with replaced word and click Replace.
Outlook Autocorrect Not Working [How to Fix it?]
Most of the users complain that ‘Outlook AutoCorrect is Not Working’, Sometimes accidentally you have unchecked ‘Replace text as you type‘ which turnoff the entire AutoCorrect functionality.
Final Words
In conclusion, Microsoft’s AutoComplete feature can help users save a lot of time writing words that already exist in their Outlook Address Book.
Microsoft’s AutoComplete feature offers users two options: both a smart list and a smart action.
The smart list allows users to see a list of the most common words which have already been used.
Smart action allows users to automatically insert the text from the address bar or contact list.
According to Microsoft, users can save 46 seconds of time on each mail when using Microsoft’s AutoComplete feature.
AutoCorrect is a feature in Outlook that can help correct common spelling and typing errors, as well as replace characters with symbols.
You can also use AutoCorrect as a shortcut, which means you can type a small string of characters and have them replaced by a longer string.