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Weekly Computer Tip # 157
2 June 2006

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turn off AutoComplete suggestions (Microsoft Word)

I know, I know, there was no tip last week! "Escape" isn't just a button on my keyboard and the weekend was spent up in the mountains in Scotland. (If you're into that sort of thing, here's the anorak bit ... we climbed Beinn a'Chochuill, Stob Garbh, Stob Diamh, Ben Cruachan and Meall Cuanail.)

The day before we left I got my inspiration for this week's tip from a lovely lady in one of the departments of the University of Cambridge. (Hi and thanks, Sue!) Sue showed me one of those "helpful" Word thingies that can drive you potty. When you type, say, 2 June 2006 a so-called ScreenTip appears, stating "2006-06-02. (Press ENTER to Insert.)" Well, if you'd simply press the spacebar, it would happily accept what you typed, i.e. "2 June 2006". But typically, you do a couple of paragraph marks after a date in a letter, don't you? Which means you end up with "2 June 2006-06-02" as your date. So in case you don't want that, or if you hate these little "Yours truly" or "Best wishes" pop-up boxes as soon as you begin typing the first letters ... just turn off those AutoComplete suggestions!

Here's how:

  1. On the Insert menu, point to AutoText, and then select AutoText.
  2. Clear the Show AutoComplete suggestions check box.
  3. Click OK.

Unfortunately, it's all-or-nothing with AutoComplete. You cannot just turn it off for dates. But there is a neat little trick to continue using AutoText entries without getting annoying suggestions ... simply type the first few letters of your AutoText and then press F3 for Word to complete your entry the same as if you had used AutoComplete to expand it.

Until next week.

Karen
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June 2006