Stop autocorrect changing your words
How do I stop autocorrect from changing words I do not want changed?
Written by The CommonFixes team · fact checked by CommonFixes review desk
Last updated
Short answer
There are two separate systems at work and people often turn off the wrong one. Word, Outlook and Excel have their own AutoCorrect list that replaces text as you type, while Windows itself has a typing correction feature that works in other apps and on the touch keyboard. Macs have a similar setting under Keyboard. Switching off the one in Word will not stop the one in Windows, which is why the problem seems to follow you around. The quickest thing to try first: word, outlook and excel: open the autocorrect list — In Word choose File, Options, Proofing, then click AutoCorrect Options. Untick Replace text as you type to stop all substitutions at once, or leave it on and scroll the list to find the single entry that annoys you, select it and click Delete. Excel and Outlook share the same list, so a change in one applies everywhere. Most people are done in about 8 minutes.
Full walkthrough below: 7 steps for Windows and Mac, rated easy.
Sounds like this
- •Names, product codes and technical words get swapped for something else as you type
- •Two capital letters at the start of a word are silently corrected
- •Straight quotation marks turn curly and break code or spreadsheet formulas
Why it happens
There are two separate systems at work and people often turn off the wrong one. Word, Outlook and Excel have their own AutoCorrect list that replaces text as you type, while Windows itself has a typing correction feature that works in other apps and on the touch keyboard. Macs have a similar setting under Keyboard. Switching off the one in Word will not stop the one in Windows, which is why the problem seems to follow you around.
Work through these in order
0% done- 1
Word, Outlook and Excel: open the AutoCorrect list
In Word choose File, Options, Proofing, then click AutoCorrect Options. Untick Replace text as you type to stop all substitutions at once, or leave it on and scroll the list to find the single entry that annoys you, select it and click Delete. Excel and Outlook share the same list, so a change in one applies everywhere.
- 2
Keep the word you actually want
When a word you use often keeps being corrected, add it to the dictionary instead of turning everything off. Right click the word and choose Add to Dictionary, or in Word go to File, Options, Proofing, Custom Dictionaries, Edit Word List and type it in. From then on it is left alone in every Office program.
- 3
Turn off the smaller irritations separately
In the same AutoCorrect window, untick Capitalise first letter of sentences and Correct two initial capitals if they get in the way of product names. On the AutoFormat As You Type tab, untick Straight quotes with smart quotes, along with the automatic hyphens and internet links if you paste code or data.
- 4
Undo a single correction without changing any settings
Press Control and Z (Command and Z on a Mac) straight after the change and the original word comes back and stays. You can also hover over the corrected word, click the small blue box that appears underneath, and choose Stop automatically correcting for that particular word.
- 5
Windows: turn off the system wide typing correction
Open Settings, Time and language, Typing, and switch off Autocorrect misspelled words. Turn off Show text suggestions when typing as well if pop-up suggestions bother you. This is the setting that affects browsers, chat apps and anything outside Office.
- 6
Mac: turn off automatic spelling correction
Open the Apple menu, System Settings, Keyboard, then click Edit beside Input Sources and turn off Correct spelling automatically. While you are there, turn off Use smart quotes and dashes if curly quotes are breaking anything you paste.
- 7
Make autocorrect work for you instead
The same AutoCorrect list can save real time. Add a short trigger such as addr and set the replacement to your full postal address, or a customer reference you type twenty times a day. Choose triggers that are not real words so they never fire by accident.
If none of that worked
If words are still being changed after all of this, check whether you are typing inside a browser, because Chrome and Edge have their own spelling correction under Settings, Languages, and a grammar add-on such as Grammarly does its own replacing on top of everything else. Turning the extension off for that site settles it.
Did this fix work for you?
A quick thumbs up helps other readers find the guides that actually work.
Share this fix
Related fixes worth reading
Chosen automatically from the 157 guides on CommonFixes, based on how closely they match this problem.
Show file extensions in File Explorer
How do I get file extensions to show in File Explorer?
Voice dictation types the wrong words
Why does voice dictation type the wrong words constantly?
Another user changes my settings
How do I stop another user's settings from affecting my account on a shared laptop?
A Word or Excel file refuses to open
Why will my Word document not open and how do I recover it?
Keyboard types the wrong letters
My keyboard types symbols or the wrong letters instead of what I press. How do I fix it?
Put the taskbar back at the bottom
How do I move my taskbar back to the bottom of the screen?
Still not it? Browse every fix or see more in documents and cloud.
Who wrote this and how we checked it
The CommonFixes team
Writer and researcher
We are a small group of people who spend our days repairing laptops and desktops for family, friends and small offices. Every guide here starts with a problem someone actually brought to us, and we only write down the steps that put the machine right.
- Everyday repairs
- Windows and Mac
- Plain language
CommonFixes review desk
Technical editor
Before a guide goes live, a second person walks through it on a real machine and checks each instruction against the maker's own support pages. Anything we cannot confirm is removed rather than guessed at.
- Fact checking
- Safety warnings
- Source links
Sources we checked these steps against
This guide was last updated on 11 August 2026. If a step no longer matches what you see on screen, tell us on the contact page and we will test it again.
A gentle reminder: back up anything you cannot afford to lose before major repairs. If a step ever feels risky, stop and ask a technician. There is no shame in that.