Section 31. About Writer s Automatic Correction Tools

31. About Writer's Automatic Correction Tools

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

4Type Text into a Document

25 Format a Table

SEE ALSO

32 Use AutoCorrect to Improve Your Typing

Many of Writer's tools work in the background to make your writing as accurate and as well formatted as possible. If you've read previous chapters already, you've seen the following two automatic helpers:

• AutoComplete Finishes common words before you type them. For example, when you begin typing following , Writer's word-completion feature finishes the word for you after you type follo (press Enter to accept the suggestion or keep typing if you meant something else, such as follows ). You can keep typing or accept the suggestion. See 4 Type Text into a Document for more information.

• AutoSpellcheck As you type words, Writer monitors your progress, and if you type a word incorrectly, such as wondoes , the spelling checker corrects the word so you can continue with the rest of the document. See 8 Check a Document's Spelling for more information.

Another form of automatic help provided by Writer is the AutoFormat feature you use to format tables. After specifying the number of rows and columns in your table, as 24 Create a Table explains, you can click the AutoFormat button to display a wide range of formats you can choose from to make your table look better than the standard black text on a white background.

Writer provides even more automatic correction tools to help ensure your writing is as accurate as possible. Often, Writer fixes problems without you ever being aware of them, thanks to its AutoCorrect feature. As you type, Writer analyzes potential errors and makes corrections or suggested improvements along the way.

KEY TERM

AutoCorrect The capability of OpenOffice.org programs to analyze what you just typed and replace with a corrected version if needed.

If AutoCorrect recognizes a typing mistake, it immediately corrects the mistake.

Following are just a few of the mistakes AutoCorrect recognizes and corrects as you type:

• AutoCorrect corrects two initial capital letters at the beginning of sentences. For example, "LAtely, we have been gone" becomes "Lately, we have been gone."

• AutoCorrect enables you to enter shortcuts such as your initials , which, when typed into a document, convert to your full name .

• AutoCorrect replaces common symbols with predefined characters . When you type (c) , for example, Word converts the characters to a single copyright symbol ( ).

• AutoCorrect replaces common spelling transpositions, such as "teh" with "the."

If AutoCorrect corrects something that you don't want corrected, press Ctrl+Z and AutoCorrect reverses its action. If you type an entry in the AutoCorrect list that you do not want corrected in the future, such as QBasic , which Writer incorrectly changes to Qbasic , you can add QBasic to Writer's exception list so that Writer does not make that correction in the future.

TIP

The initial AutoCorrect word list and options are preset, but you can add your own frequently misspelled (or mistyped ) words to the list. You will most certainly want to add your initials to the AutoCorrect table, for example, so that you need only type your initials when you want to enter your full name in a document.