autocomplete

Recently a reader wrote to me with an query about AutoComplete in MS Word. Below is the query: "To insert today's date (and/or time) in Word 2007 you are supposed to be able to type the first four characters of the month and AutoComplete will assist ... you. This does not work for me. It is like AutoComplete is not tripped in my Word 2007. Also, when I click on Insert I find nowhere to insert the date from. I have to admit I am a fish out of water with MS Word 2007." -- Mark My reply: Well Mark, you are not the only person who feels like a fish out of water with this newest version of Word but ... (view more)

AutoComplete has been disabled in Word 2007 due to the enormous quantity of Building Blocks (the expanded successor to AutoText) that would otherwise cause AutoComplete to occur just about all the time. Now, what do I do? To force completion after ... typing the first four characters, you'll need to press the F3 key. This will work with any Building Block, not just AutoText. But, it will work only if there are no other entries that begin with the same four letters. Some users are finding it useful to use AutoCorrect entries instead of AutoText entries as a work-around, and to purposely create ... (view more)

It's very easy to confuse the three powerful "Autos" in Word. It is very helpful to be able to distinguish between these three distinct features. When you find yourself inserting the same text over and over again, you can create an AutoText entry. ... When you begin to type, Word suggests the completion. You can press Enter or F to accept the suggestion or just ignore it. Similar to AutoCorrect, where you can type an abbreviation which Word automatically expands, AutoText allows you to control whether the abbreviation expands. AutoText is one of Word's most powerful timesavers. AutoText entries ... (view more)

The previous 2 Feature Articles were about an alternative approach to Internet Explorer's time-saving AutoComplete function. Recall -- When enabled, the AutoComplete feature remembers (and completes) frequently used form data on web pages, such as ... user logins and passwords. Unfortunately, AutoComplete does not offer a method for exporting / backing up its form data which has been collected over time. This is very problematic for anyone who may need to format / reinstall Windows, or for users who use Disk Imaging software (like myself) to restore a previously working copy of Windows. I asked ... (view more)

Last week , Rocky R. asked how to turn on the AutoComplete feature found in Internet Explorer. A quick recap: what is AutoComplete? When enabled, the AutoComplete feature remembers (and completes) frequently used form data on web pages. An example ... of a form might be one that asks you a name and password, such as the login form used at Hotmail.com. After providing instructions on how to enable / disable the AutoComplete in last week's newsletter, I furthered the discussion by introducing a dilemma of my own. My problem was that I sometimes have to revert back to an old image (backup) of ... (view more)