# Word/Staroffice: Turning Autoformatting Off

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-staroffice-turning-autoformatting-off/114408>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 16, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-staroffice-turning-autoformatting-off/114408 "2002-06-16T21:45:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-staroffice-turning-autoformatting-off/114408/1 "2002-06-16T21:45:35Z")

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    - I have both Word/Office 2K and Staroffice 5.something (the last free one). Is there any way to completely turn off all autoformatting for either? I have the same problem with each: they autoformat stuff that I don’t want formatted, and they do it in some strange hidden method that I can’t ever undo once it’s done, except to save the document as a ascii file and then I have to go back and re-do all the alignment, bold and italics. The help files always say how to format something, but not how to unformat it. - DougC

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-staroffice-turning-autoformatting-off/114408/2 "2002-06-17T01:28:07Z")

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In Word: “Tools,” “Autocorrect,” and the “autoformat” tab. Uncheck all the boxes and click OK.