Like the undo button, sort of. You press it. It looks in the undo history for the last autoformat that Word performed. And it makes sure that Word never ever does it again.
Invented by my dad.-- nilstycho, Dec 25 2003 + I don't really like the autoformatting in word. Well not for some words-- v0rtexx, Dec 25 2003 I hate it when a computer/program assumes that I want this or that done to my text. It makes creativity become uniform. Can't some of us want to do things differently? +++-- Pericles, Dec 25 2003 Make them into stickers, and let the world know.-- Letsbuildafort, Dec 25 2003 I always wanted a big, red, 3-some inch diameter button placed right on top of my monitor that would cancel what ever program I accidently clicked on, and when I hit it, alarms would sound and strobe lights go off.-- dickity, Dec 25 2003 sounds very freudian, dickity. <snigger>-- po, Dec 25 2003 There are not enough croissants for this idea. Nowhere near enough.-- Baker^-1, Dec 25 2003 "what are you doing dave ?" "im making sure you never do that again,hal, by pressing this button" "im afarid i cant let you do that dave"-- irollerblade, Dec 25 2003 Why doesn't someone write a macro which instantly disables all the "Stupid" functions in Word? (e.g. Autoformat As You Type; Automatically Update Document Styles; Automatically flag gramatically correct sentences; Randomly Choose Bullet Shape Every Time; etc.) ?
I'm sure such a macro would be easy for a pro to write; and if it changed Word into WorkingWord, it would be worth a fortune!-- phundug, Dec 26 2003 EMACS has beautiful command: disable-command.
If you invoke that command it gives you different options.
1. try only once 2. try an enable command 3. try it and enable all commands 4. Do nothing.-- artist, Dec 26 2003 It is easy enough, once you know where to look, to turn off the auto-formatting options in Word. But I think this would be a useful addition.-- DrCurry, Dec 26 2003 What does this do that CTRL-Z doesn't do? Or does Word secretly format your text files when you're not editing them?-- kropotkin, Dec 26 2003 Surely it's better to disable auto-formatting up front than to have to ding them on a case-by-case basis as necessitated by the author's approach.
Having said that, I do think there's a place in Word for one all-together auto-format tab where you can uncheck everything in one swell foop.-- waugsqueke, Dec 26 2003 One of these isn't standard on your pc? We all got one.-- thelambs, Dec 26 2003 Awesome idea. Actually, along the same lines, I'd like a button that just disables the functions for, say, 10 seconds. I can't say how many times my blood pressure has shot up dangerously when Word decided repeatedly that I really *don't* want to capitalize my word like that, or that the abbreviation of our client's company name should be shuffled a little, just for fun...
Of course, teh auto-correction caN COME IN HANDY SOMETIMES.-- DarkEnergy, Dec 28 2003 I write a little poetry now and then. I DO NOT want a capital letter at the beginning of every line (plenty expletives deleted!). I went to the university for ...well, I won't say how long, that's a bit embarrassing, but I went plenty ... just so I could start a damned sentence with 'and', or write an elliptical sentence! I don't need some program telling me I've just written an incomplete sentence. I would love a botton like that. Maybe one that would freeze all computer activity except what the user punches in for the next 60 seconds.-- GnoLackawitz, Dec 29 2003 Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs->Microsoft Word->Remove-- -alx, Dec 29 2003 I not push button. Still, I happy. (Oddly, Word had no problem with these statements.)-- ldischler, Dec 29 2003 [Id] "It looks like you're writing Haiku. Would you like help with this format?"-- egbert, Dec 29 2003 MS write pretty.Cherry blossoms, me happy,Me not push button. —by Microsoft Word-- ldischler, Dec 29 2003 Like [alx] said in a handy step by step guide; Delete Word, get some decent open source programs, change them at your will. Why pay hundreds for a defective OS when you can get better ones for free?
You don't have to stick with the crap that comes with Windows.-- thelambs, Dec 29 2003 Although, If you are a purist you'd probably prefer notepad.exe: no frills, no suprises, holiness of thought. >>>WYSIWYG<<<-- JulieX, Dec 30 2003 Good! +-- nomadic_wonderer, Feb 04 2004 Even better, have all new humans fitted with it straight from the factory and retrofit all models currently in the field. + I say, +!!!-- bryaninbama, Feb 04 2004 How about this. You learn how to use the tool. "Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't hit this window with this hammer..."-- bspollard, May 24 2004 //I always wanted a big, red, 3-some //
dont we all <dickity>-- etherman, May 24 2004 would it work for the "spellcheck-as- you-go" thing? once I tell Word that I want Halfbakery to be a word, it sure as hell better listen! (+)-- igirl, May 24 2004 Turn off AutoFormatting
On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect, and then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Select or clear the options you want. Note: To turn off automatic formatting completely, clear all the options.
Turn off AutoCorrect
On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect. Select or clear the Replace text as you type check box.
Turn off AutoComplete
On the Insert menu, point to AutoText, and then click AutoText. Select or clear the Show AutoComplete tip for Auto Text and dates check box.-- hackermaster, Jun 08 2004 but surely this idea is not about turning off autocorrect/autoformatting but about making sure it doesn't repeat annoying corrections.-- etherman, Jun 08 2004 well turning them off, i'm sure you could write much better. Microsoft Word by default, puts a capital letter and a period in the line of text proceeding a bullet.
Words in bullet form are NOT sentences, and therefore should not have a period or a capital letter at the beginning. Its *cough* american.-- hackermaster, Jun 08 2004 Croissant, great idea.
It'd be nice, of course, if Word just didn't exist, but this is the next-best thing.-- shapu, Jun 08 2004 Hey contracts/
"What is up my home-friensd? I liek to think of things!"
*2 thumbs up*-- hackermaster, Jun 08 2004 Love it - especially for word. I remember the painful process of formatting my thesis on word. Brrrr!-- energy guy, Nov 30 2004 I try to write most things in notepad first, and then only transfer the text to word for formatting and spellchecking. If you paste the stuff in, I don't think it autoformats nor does it try to fix common mispeelings, it just underlines them in wavy red lines.-- zen_tom, Nov 30 2004 I went into autoformat on my flatmate's computer just before he had to hand in his thesis and told it to replace the word 'results' with the word 'pants'. Childish, but still funny. (I did point it out to him before he handed it in.)
Incidentally, does anyone know a decent program for doing reports, etc., with lots of pictures in? Word's bizarre attitude to placing pictures drives me up the wall, and the other packages I've used (Illustrator, front page, etc.) are all set up for laying out single pages.
Should we also add this button to childrens' clothes?-- moomintroll, Nov 30 2004 You could try quark or pagemaker.-- energy guy, Nov 30 2004 I like this, but it is baked in newer versions. There is a little button that pops up and disables the feature that just happened.-- -----, Dec 08 2004 Praise be!
I would also like some sort of wi-fi technology embedded in a small badge that I could wear. It would contact any machine within 50m and tell it to disable the STUPID STUPID BLOODY OFFICE ASSISTANT!!! That would prevent me from losing the bap every time I write "Dear Xxxx" on a newly built machine and some overexcited paper clip comes over all helpful at me.-- wagster, Dec 08 2004 Yes, but imagine how different the world might be had it not been for Word's wonderful habit of fancy-shmantzy-formatting ordinal numbers like 1st (but not lst).-- supercat, Dec 08 2004 Er.. not different?-- moomintroll, Dec 08 2004 random, halfbakery