This is somewhat esoteric, so please bear with me. I use Word 2003 under WINE in ArchLinux.

I have to use autocorrect to do some pretty substantial formatting. I have a lot of formatted auto corrects which are generally bold and in color. For example, I have rw; set to expand to Roger Williams (Bold, Blue) and rv; set up as Robert Vargas (Bold,Red) (not their real names). I'll be typing along fine and then suddenly, rw; will expand to Robert Vargas.

This happens regularly. Autocorrect, instead of expanding to the assigned value, skips to the next (manually entered) auto correct in the list. I've even had it skip to the next auto correct that used to be in the list, though that only happens rarely.

When this happens, if I re-select the proper language, the shortcuts will expand properly for a while, and then eventually start skipping again.



I have renamed my normal.dot and used a back up. I haven't tried letting Word create a brand new normal.dot, because I have a substantial number of shortcuts and would really hate to have to recreate them all. I will, of course, if that's necessary, but I hoped someone might have a suggestion as to what the problem might be and how to fix it without taking that particular drastic measure.

TIA!

Autocorrect is language specific. Try turning off the option to automatically select language in Word. Tools > Language > Set Language.

Autocorrect entries are stored in various .acl files as well as in normal.dot.

See the article "How can I import and export all my AutoCorrect entries, so they can be transferred to another machine?” at: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/ExportAutocorrect.htm.

The utility there will give you a Word table with your AutoCorrect entries in it. You can edit them with all of Word's formatting and editing tools and then reinstall them.

I already have "automatically select language" turned off because I regularly have to work in both US and UK English.

I may end up having to export and reinstall my auto corrects, but I was hoping to avoid this by trying to figure out where the wires were crossed and perhaps uncrossing them. The entries themselves are still fine, it's just that autocorrect is choosing 'entry+1' instead of 'entry' when I type one of my shortcuts.

I've had a couple of issues with my unformatted autocorrects too, but I think I have those squared away. This problem is specifically with the formatted autocorrects, which are all stored in the normal.dot, right?

You are correct; your formatted autocorrect entries should be stored in normal.dot.

I would suggest having somewhat longer entry names, but I don't have any reason to think that your two-character entry names are causing your problems.

For the ones that are causing problems, consider using AutoText instead of AutoCorrect.

Automated Boilerplate Using Microsoft Word

Thanks for the AutoText suggestion. I'll do more research into using it for my formatted entries in case I can't uncross these wires. I had resisted using it in the past because it requires five keystrokes (first four letters of the entry plus enter), but if the choices are repeatedly re-selecting my language or using 5 keystrokes, the 5 keystrokes will win out.

(I'm a transcriptionist and tend to type 50-150 pages per day, so minimizing keystrokes is definitely high on my list of priorities.)