One of the most under-utilized features of MS Word (and WordPerfect, for those still using it), is the ability to substitute a few keystrokes for significantly longer words, phrases, or even sentences.

By learning how to use the “AutoCorrect/AutoText” feature in Word (WordPerfect calls it “QuickCorrect”), you and your staff will significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to produce documents. You can save hundreds of hours a year in unnecessary typing.

There are literally countless situations where AutoCorrect can be used. For example, instead of having to manually insert the symbol for “section” (§) via menus and multiple clicks, you could just type “ss” (or any other keystroke/s) and the symbol will appear. Names of people, cases, organizations, jurisdictions, etc can be entered by typing a few keystrokes. And common phrases or sentences can be similarly shortcut.

The reason most people don’t use the Auto feature regularly is because it’s not easy to access, and they don’t know how to override an autocorrection that they may not want to keep.

To help you overcome these barriers, I have created a PDF with instructions on how to add the AutoCorrect/AutoText icon to your tool bar so you can access it directly with a single click. This document also shows you how to handle overrides. You can download it here:

Many of you use document templates for common drafting tasks, and that’s great. But there are dozens of instances every week when customizing a template would take more time then writing up something from scratch, so you forgo the template. These are the perfect times to use AutoCorrect/AutoText.

To really leverage the value of this Brief, you might consider forwarding it to your staff, and then ask them to identify the most commonly used names and phrases they use (and the most common ones YOU use).

Here’s an instructional video from YouTube on getting started with creating your own own autocorrect shortcuts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52kfVEKnlIY

Since AutoCorrect is the built-in feature in Word that corrects spelling and, for example, changes “(c)” into “©” automatically, another benefit of learning how to use it is that you’ll know how to fix those unintended “corrections” that Word occasionally forces upon us.

This is easy to learn. Invest 30 minutes this week and save thousands of hours over the course of your career.