Make AutoCorrect Acronym Expansions Useful In Outlook

You’re probably familiar with AutoCorrect, Microsoft’s technology for fixing common errors and letting you create shortcuts for frequently used text, from Word and Excel, but it can also be helpful in Outlook (which uses Word as its editing environment). The Microsoft Outlook Team Blog offers a guide on how to set up AutoCorrect options. Its most useful insight is in how to set up acronym expansions in AutoCorrect that don’t drive you nuts:

Since I might not want the acronym expanded every time I type it I’ve added a symbol at the end of the acronym: “>”. Only acronyms that I’ve defined with that symbol will get automatically expanded. This way I am be able to type DCFS or DCFS>, depending on what I want to happen.

That’s a simple but very handy idea (and a similar concept to our recent suggestion of how to tag work-in-progress writing.)