Previously, we asked you why Word would replace the string adn with and, and how to make it stop. Several of you knew why but Jpl1953es was the first to share the reason-adn is an AutoCorrect term. When most of us type adn we don’t even notice it because Word automatically changes it to and, which is what we meant to type. If you really mean to type adn (it represents many technical terms), this behavior is annoying.
Now, the first thing you can do is press [Ctrl]+Z after Word changes the string to “and.” If you run into this rarely, that’s probably the best advice. If you run into this a lot, remove the item, as Damiross suggests, by right-clicking the word and choosing Stop Automatically Correcting “adn”. The AutoCorrect menu is available only after Word changes the word. Simply point to the blue line that appears when you hover over the word.
Jpl1953es shared the long way to the same result:
- Click the File tab and choose Options (under Help). In Word 2007, click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2003, choose AutoCorrect Options from the Tools menu.
- Choose Proofing and click AutoCorrect Options in the AutoCorrect Options section. (Skip this step in Word 2003.)
- Under the Replace Text As You Type option, enter adn as the Replace string.
- Click Delete.
- Click OK twice.
After deleting the AutoCorrect term, Word will stop changing adn to and. As Marshwiggle mentioned, it’s probably more efficient to remove the item and run spell check to catch any misspelled ands.
Bjluedeke asked for a way to keep ADN (caps) while autocorrecting adn (lower case). Mark.Mathews shared the only solution that I know of: create a pseudo autocorrecting entry. Mark suggested autocorrecting the string axx to adn. Thanks Mark for the suggestion. Another possibility is to use [Ctrl]+Z to undo the correction when it’s not wanted, as I mentioned earlier.
Thanks everyone for playing along.