AutoCorrecting

OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Chapter 3: Working with Text

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• Selecting text
• Cutting, copying, and pasting text
• Finding and replacing text and formatting
• Inserting special characters
• Formatting paragraphs
• Formatting characters
• Autoformatting
• Creating numbered or bulleted lists
• Using footnotes and endnotes
• Checking spelling
• Using language tools
• Using the thesaurus
• Hyphenating words
• Using word completion
• Using AutoText
• Line numbering
• Undoing and redoing changes
• Tracking changes to a document
• Inserting notes
• Linking to another part of a document
• Working with hyperlinks
• Tips and tricks

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This article should be checked for accuracy and conformity to style.

Writer can be set to automatically format parts of a document according to the choices made on the Options page of the AutoCorrect dialog box (Tools > AutoCorrect > Options).

Autoformat choices on the Options tab of the AutoCorrect dialog.

The Help describes each of these choices and how to activate the autoformats. Some common unwanted or unexpected formatting changes include:

• Horizontal lines. If you type three or more hyphens (---), underscores (___) or equal signs (===) on a line and then press Enter the paragraph is replaced by a horizontal line as wide as the page minus any indentation of the preceding paragraph of which the line is the lower border.
• Bulleted and numbered lists. A bulleted list is created when you type a hyphen (-), asterisk (*), or plus sign (+), followed by a space or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. A numbered list is created when you type a number followed by a period (.), followed by a space or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. Automatic numbering is only applied to paragraphs formatted with the Default, Text body or Text body indent paragraph styles.

If you notice unexpected formatting changes occurring in your document, this is the first place to look for the cause.

To turn autoformatting on or off, go to Format > AutoCorrect and select or deselect the items on the submenu.

• While Typing automatically formats the document while you type.
• If While Typing is deselected, you can select Apply to automatically format the file.
• Apply and Edit Changes automatically formats the file and then opens a dialog box where you can accept or reject the changes.
• AutoCorrect Options opens the AutoCorrect dialog box where you can set conditions for replacements and exceptions for the language you are using.

Turning autocorrecting on or off.

Defining Strings in AutoCorrect

Writer's AutoCorrect function has a long list of common misspellings and typing errors, which it corrects automatically. For example, "hte" will be changed to "the". Select Tools > AutoCorrect to open the AutoCorrect dialog. There you can define which strings of text are corrected and how. In most cases, the defaults are fine.

AutoCorrect is turned on by default. To turn it off, uncheck Format > AutoCorrect > While Typing.

• To stop Writer from replacing a specific spelling, use Tools > AutoCorrect Options > Replace, highlight the word pair and click Delete.
• To add a new spelling to correct, type it into the Replace and With boxes and click New.
• See the different pages of the dialog box for the wide variety of other options available to fine-tune AutoCorrect.

AutoCorrect can be used as a quick way to insert special characters. For example, (c) will be autocorrected to ©. You can add your own special characters.

Writer's AutoCorrect function has a long list of common misspellings and typing errors, which it corrects automatically. For example, "hte" will be changed to "the". Select Tools > AutoCorrect to open the AutoCorrect dialog. There you can define which strings of text are corrected and how. In most cases, the defaults are fine.

AutoCorrect is turned on by default. To turn it off, uncheck Format > AutoCorrect > While Typing.

• To stop Writer from replacing a specific spelling, use Tools > AutoCorrect Options > Replace, highlight the word pair and click Delete.
• To add a new spelling to correct, type it into the Replace and With boxes and click New.
• See the different pages of the dialog box for the wide variety of other options available to fine-tune AutoCorrect.

AutoCorrect can be used as a quick way to insert special characters. For example, (c) will be autocorrected to ©. You can add your own special characters.