How to Turn Off AutoCorrect and Automatic Formatting in Word

Applies to: Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365, Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016), Word for Mac
Article Type: How-To
Last Updated: 2026-08-08

Summary

Word rewrites what you type. Straight quotes turn curly, a typed address turns into a blue hyperlink, "1st" jumps into superscript, and a line beginning 1. hands you a numbered list nobody asked for. Every one of those is a separate checkbox in a single dialog, and this guide switches off the ones you dislike while keeping the ones that earn their place.

Before You Start

• Desktop Word on Windows. No admin rights are needed — these are your own settings.
• These settings live in Word on your computer, not inside the document. They apply to every file you open here, and they do not follow the file to anyone else.
• Word for Mac holds the same controls under Word > Preferences > AutoCorrect, with the same tab names.
• Word for the web offers a much smaller set of these controls, and the formatting shifts people notice there come from a different cause — How to Stop Word Online from Changing Your Document Formatting covers that case.

Instructions

1. Open the AutoCorrect Options Dialog

Every automatic-typing behaviour in Word sits behind one button, two screens into Options.

1. Click the File tab in the top-left corner of the Word window. The full-screen Backstage view opens.
2. Click Options at the bottom of the left sidebar. The Word Options dialog opens.
3. Click Proofing in the left sidebar of that dialog.
4. Click the AutoCorrect Options button at the top of the panel. The AutoCorrect dialog opens with a row of tabs across the top: AutoCorrect, Math AutoCorrect, AutoFormat As You Type, AutoFormat, and Actions.
5. Leave this dialog open. The next four sections each work on a different tab of it.

Those tabs are not interchangeable, and picking the wrong one is why people clear a checkbox and see no change. AutoCorrect handles word-for-word replacement and capitalisation. AutoFormat As You Type handles what happens to layout while you type — quotes, hyperlinks, bullets, dashes. AutoFormat applies only when you run the AutoFormat command by hand, so nothing on that tab affects ordinary typing.

2. Stop Word Changing Capitals and Swapping Words

The AutoCorrect tab is where "teh" becomes "the" and a deliberately lowercase sentence gets a capital letter.

1. Click the AutoCorrect tab.
2. Clear the checkbox beside each behaviour you want stopped:
   • Correct TWo INitial CApitals — stops Word rewriting "THis" as "This".
   • Capitalize first letter of sentences — the one to clear when you write command names, chemical names, or lists of lowercase file names.
   • Capitalize first letter of table cells
   • Capitalize names of days
   • Correct accidental usage of cAPS LOCK key
   • Replace text as you type — clearing this switches off the entire replacement list below it in one move, symbols and emoticons included.
3. Click OK. The dialog closes and Word stops making those changes to anything you type from now on.

Every checkbox on this tab is a toggle, and none of them touches text already on the page. Clear one now, tick it back next week on this same tab, and nothing else changes either way.

To keep a rule but exempt a handful of words from it — an abbreviation Word insists on capitalising after — click Exceptions on this tab and add the word to the matching list rather than turning the whole rule off.

3. Turn Off the Formatting That Fires While You Type

The AutoFormat As You Type tab holds the behaviours that generate the most complaints, and each one is its own checkbox rather than a single master switch.

1. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Three groups of checkboxes appear: Replace as you type, Apply as you type, and Automatically as you type.
2. Clear only the checkboxes for the behaviours you want stopped. The table below names the ones people come looking for.
3. Click OK to close the AutoCorrect dialog, then OK again to close Word Options.
4. Type a test line that would have triggered the behaviour — an address, a line starting 1., a pair of quote marks. The text now stays exactly as you typed it.

What Word does	Checkbox to clear	Group it sits in
Turns straight quote marks into curly ones	"Straight quotes" with "smart quotes"	Replace as you type
Turns a typed address into a blue hyperlink	Internet and network paths with hyperlinks	Replace as you type
Raises "1st" and "2nd" into superscript	Ordinals (1st) with superscript	Replace as you type
Turns two hyphens into a long dash	Hyphens (--) with dash (—)	Replace as you type
Converts 1/2 into a single ½ character	Fractions (1/2) with fraction character (½)	Replace as you type
Turns asterisk-wrapped text into real bold	*Bold* and _italic_ with real formatting	Replace as you type
Starts a bulleted list when a line begins with a hyphen or asterisk	Automatic bulleted lists	Apply as you type
Starts a numbered list when a line begins with 1.	Automatic numbered lists	Apply as you type
Draws a full-width line after three hyphens	Border lines	Apply as you type
Applies a built-in heading style to a short line	Built-in Heading styles	Apply as you type
Carries the first list item's formatting onto the next	Format beginning of list item like the one before it	Automatically as you type
Changes indents when you press Tab or Backspace	Set left- and first-indent with tabs and backspaces	Automatically as you type

Clearing any of these leaves your document untouched — Word stops making that change from this point forward, and ticking the box again brings it straight back. For text that already carries a change you did not want, How to Fix Microsoft Word Formatting Instantly (Without Re-typing) strips it in one click.

4. Undo a Single Automatic Change Without Touching a Setting

Some behaviours are right most of the time and wrong once a page, and for those the setting is the wrong tool.

1. Press Ctrl + Z the instant Word makes the change, before typing anything else. This reverts that one automatic change and leaves the characters you actually typed in place — pressing it a second time starts undoing your own typing, so stop at one.
2. To turn that specific behaviour off from where you stand, point at the text Word changed. A small marker appears beside it; move the pointer onto the marker and it becomes the AutoCorrect Options button, drawn as a lightning bolt.
3. Click the AutoCorrect Options button. A short menu opens. The first entry undoes this one change. The next entry stops Word applying that behaviour in future — the same checkbox as the tabs above, reached without leaving the page. Control AutoCorrect Options at the bottom opens the full dialog from Step 1.

5. Add Your Own Replacement Entry

The same machinery that annoys you also saves typing: teach Word to expand three letters into a long company name.

1. Reopen File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options and click the AutoCorrect tab.
2. Confirm Replace text as you type is ticked. The list underneath does nothing while that box is clear.
3. Click in the Replace box and type your trigger — for example nwcg. Choose something you would never type as a real word, because Word will expand it every time.
4. Click in the With box and type the full text — for example Northwind Consulting Group.
5. Click Add. The pair appears in the alphabetical list below the boxes.
6. Click OK twice to close both dialogs. Type nwcg in your document and press Space; the full name appears.

To remove an entry later, select it in that list and click Delete. Deleting removes the shortcut only — every place you already expanded it keeps the full text you typed.

This list is shared by the Office apps that support AutoCorrect, so an entry you add in Word is available in Outlook and PowerPoint as well.

6. Stop Math AutoCorrect Firing in Ordinary Text

The Math AutoCorrect tab carries its own replacement list — typing \alpha produces α — and by default it runs outside equations too.

1. Click the Math AutoCorrect tab.
2. Clear Use Math AutoCorrect rules outside of math regions.
3. Click OK. Typing \alpha in normal paragraph text now leaves the characters exactly as typed, while the same shortcut still works inside an equation box. Tick the box again at any time to restore it.

Troubleshooting

TIP

When a change fires and you want it gone for good, the Options dialog is the slow route. Point at the changed text, click the AutoCorrect Options lightning-bolt button, and choose the "Stop..." entry — it clears the same checkbox without costing you your place on the page.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Text already in the document is still wrong after clearing the checkbox	Settings govern new typing only	Select the affected text and use How to Fix Microsoft Word Formatting Instantly (Without Re-typing) to strip what was applied.
Typed addresses still turn blue	The AutoFormat tab was cleared instead of AutoFormat As You Type	Reopen the dialog, click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, and clear Internet and network paths with hyperlinks there. The AutoFormat tab only affects the manual AutoFormat command.
A list still starts on its own after clearing Automatic numbered lists	The paragraph carries list numbering from a style, not from automatic formatting	Automatic formatting is not the cause. Click in the paragraph and switch the Numbering button off on the Home tab.
No lightning-bolt button appears at the change	Show AutoCorrect Options buttons is cleared	Tick Show AutoCorrect Options buttons on the AutoCorrect tab and click OK. The marker returns at the next automatic change.
A colleague opening the same file still gets the changes	The settings live in Word on each computer, not in the document	Each person clears the checkboxes in their own copy of Word. Send them this guide.
Options is missing from the File menu, or the checkboxes are greyed out	Company policy locks Word's proofing options	Ask IT to allow user changes to AutoCorrect and AutoFormat options in Word, and include your device name and the exact wording of any message you see when you open the dialog.

Related Articles

• How to Stop Word Online from Changing Your Document Formatting
• How to Fix Microsoft Word Formatting Instantly (Without Re-typing)
• How to Change the Default Font in Word or Outlook

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