# What is MS Word doing with my AutoCorrect???

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ms-word-doing-with-my-autocorrect/103992>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 16, 2002, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ms-word-doing-with-my-autocorrect/103992 "2002-04-16T18:39:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ms-word-doing-with-my-autocorrect/103992/1 "2002-04-16T18:39:45Z")

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I use Auto Correct at work. A lot. I have often had a problem with it randomly resetting itself at times, so that I lose all the additions I’ve made to it. In the past this happened maybe once every 2-3 months. They’ve just upgraded me to Windows XP and whatever the newest version of Word is that comes with it, and now it’s happening **2-3 times a day**. Does anybody know why this happens and what I can do to prevent it? Our IT department is baffled and the web has been no help.

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**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2002, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ms-word-doing-with-my-autocorrect/103992/2 "2002-04-16T21:50:37Z")

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Do you use a shared copy of Word up on the server somewhere, or do you use a shared network folder for your templates? If so, then you are sharing your copy of normal.dot, which is what stores these settings. Try this:

From Word, go into Tools | Options | File Locations, and make sure your User Templates are pointing to your local machine and not somewhere out on the network.

If that doesn’t work, try this:

goto the Registry (Start | Run, type “regedit”)and search for:

HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word\Data

Select the Data folder, then goto Edit | Rename, rename the folder something like “XXXData”

Quit the Registry and restart Word.

NOTE: Try not to touch anything else in the Registry - it can really hose you to start changing or deleting things in there.

Hope this helps…

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**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ms-word-doing-with-my-autocorrect/103992/3 "2002-04-19T20:23:22Z")

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Yes, templates are in my local machine.

As for this Registry procedure, what exactly is the result supposed to be? I’m a little reluctant to mess with it unless I know for sure …

thanks.

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**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ms-word-doing-with-my-autocorrect/103992/4 "2002-04-24T17:37:53Z")

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Aw come on, _someone_ has to know what’s going on …

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**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ms-word-doing-with-my-autocorrect/103992/5 "2002-04-24T18:59:32Z")

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Did you try deleting your normal.dot file and trying again?

The Regsitry procedure is a more sever way to prevent Word from reverting to an older normal.dot default, which would reset your Autocorrect every time.