Technical Writing - How to Auto Format Your Technical Document With MS Word

MS Word has a powerful "auto format" function that you should take advantage of as a technical writer when writing your technical documents.

To set up the auto correct options, select Tools AutoCorrect Options... from the main menu of your MS Word to display the AutoCorrect dialog box.

Click and select the AutoFormat tab.

Here are the check boxes that you can use to format your text automatically:

Apply Built-in Heading Styles - Select this check box to use Word's built-in 9 heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.). You can edit these styles to meet the specific needs of your document.

Apply List Styles - Select this check box to use Word's built-in list styles.

Apply Automatic bulleted lists - Select this check box to automatically assign bullets to the items in a bulleted list, by taking the first bullet as reference.

Apply Other paragraph styles - Select this check box to automatically determine the indents and spacing of your paragraphs on the basis of the other similar paragraph styles you use in your document.

Replace "Straight Quotes" with "Smart Quotes" - Select this to replace the straight quotations marks with curly ones. Many article marketing sites (including EzineArticles) discourage the use of Word's "smart quotes" and recommend the "straight quotes" for properly online display.

Replace Ordinals (1st) with superscript - Select for a more professional look.

Replace Fractions (1/2) with fraction character - Select for a more professional look.

Replace Hyphens (--) with Dash (-) - Select for a more professional look.

Replace *Bold* and _italic_ with real formatting - Select to format your words in bold and italic as you type, without the need to stop for additional formatting action.

Replace Internet and network paths with hyperlinks - Select to automatically convert URL strings into clickable hotlinks.

Select Preserve Styles to keep your own custom styles in the current document and prevent automatic application of other paragraph formats.

Select Always Autoformat Plain Text WordMail Documents to format your email messages automatically by using MS Word.

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