AutoCorrect Options in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

The AutoCorrect feature in PowerPoint corrects common typos and spelling errors of text within your PowerPoint slides, automatically as you type. Have you ever wondered how PowerPoint knows that a particular word is spelled wrong? Does it refer to some resource as a reference? Also do you find some AutoCorrect options such as the capitalization of some words unnecessary? Several researchers working in different scientific fields actually have to use some words that cannot start with a capital letter, and the first thing they want to do is turn off the automatic capitalization. Yes, it's possible to make AutoCorrect work just the way you want it to—as long as you know where to change these options:

1. Launch PowerPoint 2010, and choose File | Options, as shown in Figure 1.
2. 
   Figure 1: Choose Options within the File menu
2. This opens the PowerPoint Options dialog box. Click the Proofing option on the sidebar to view the interface that you see in Figure 2, below.
3. 
   Figure 2: Proofing section of PowerPoint Options dialog box includes the AutoCorrect Options button
Tip: If you are already doing a spell check, and certainly feel the urge to tame AutoCorrect options, just click the Options button within the Spelling dialog box. This gets you to the Proofing section of the PowerPoint Options dialog box, as shown above in Figure 2. Want to know more about the Spelling dialog box? Head to our Spell Check in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows tutorial.
3. We will explore other Proofing options in a later tutorial. For now, click the AutoCorrect Options button (highlighted in red in Figure 2, above). This summons the AutoCorrect dialog box (see Figure 3). Note that this dialog box has several tabs. Make sure you select the AutoCorrect tab.
4. 
   Figure 3: Options within AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box
5. All the options within the AutoCorrect tab are marked in Figure 3 above, and are explained below. Select them as required:

A. Show AutoCorrect Options buttons

6. This option controls whether a Smart Tag button appears along with an AutoCorrect action, as shown in Figure 4 below.
7. 
   Figure 4: AutoCorrect button
8. Note that clicking this AutoCorrect Options button brings up a small menu that lets you undo the change, and also provides the Stop Automatically Correcting option that removes this AutoCorrect entry altogether. Clicking Control AutoCorrect Options, as shown in Figure 4 gets you to the AutoCorrect options dialog shown in Figure 3.
Tip:Wondering what an AutoCorrect entry is? We explain this term in our Creating and Editing AutoCorrect Entries in PowerPoint 2010 tutorial.

B. Correct TWo INitial CApitals

9. If you accidentally hold down the Shift key for a tad longer, and end up typing two capital letters in a row (such as MIcrosoft), PowerPoint auto-corrects this error.

C. Capitalize first letter of sentences

10. Capitalizes first letters of words that occurs at the beginning of a sentence.

D. Capitalize first letter of table cells

11. Capitalizes the first letter of the first word within every table cell.

E. Capitalize names of days

12. Capitalizes the first letter in day names, such as Sunday, Monday, etc.

F. Correct accidental use of cAPS LOCK key

13. If you accidentally leave the Caps Lock on, PowerPoint can sometimes detect it and fix this problem. For example, if you typed "hE WAS GLAD TO SEE US", PowerPoint may conclude that the Caps Lock is inappropriately on, and so it turns the Caps Lock off for you and corrects the sentence.

G. Replace text as you type

14. You must leave this check-box selected so that the word list of AutoCorrect entries is always referred to, so as to correct text as you type. We explain how you can add, edit, or delete these AutoCorrect entries in our Creating and Editing AutoCorrect Entries in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows tutorial.

H. Exceptions

15. Click this button to open the AutoCorrect Exceptions dialog box, as shown in Figure 5. This dialog box has two tabs: The first tab is called First Letter. Here you can enter a list of capitalization exceptions, such as abbreviations that use periods but aren't at the end of a sentence (for example, approx. and Ave.). You can also set up a list of Two Initial Capitals exceptions in INitial CAps, the other tab of this dialog box. Click OK in this dialog box to apply any new exceptions added.
16. 
    Figure 5: AutoCorrect Exceptions dialog box
4. When done, click the OK button to close the AutoCorrect dialog box.