There are phrases and words that we use repeatedly in our emails, such as greetings like “good morning”, or your postal address or phone number. Rather than type these out in full each time, you can use an acronym which Outlook will automatically replace with the full text.
Once an acronym has been set up in the Autocorrect settings, each time you type that acronym, Outlook will automatically replace it with the text of the full phrase or word, for example if you set up “Good morning” with “GM” as the acronym, to use the phrase “Good morning” in your email, all you need to type is GM. This is also a great tool to use for things you find hard to remember, such as your bank details.
Open a new email and type the word or phrase you want to convert, even a block of text with multiple lines . Now select the text with your mouse and click on the File tab and select “Options”. Click on the “Mail” menu on the left hand side, then click the “Spelling and Autocorrect” button.
Click the “Autocorrect Options” button and a new window will open with the text you selected showing in the “With:” box. On the right hand side is a smaller box labelled “Replace:”. In here type the acronym or abbreviation you want to use for this phrase then click the “Add” button. Click the “OK” button to return to your email.
Now test your new autocorrect entry. In the body of your email, type the acronym you just set up and then press the space bar. If everything is set up correctly, Outlook will automatically replace your acronym with the full text. You can now set up as many more entries as you wish following the same steps.
To delete or change an autocorrect entry, return to the autocorrect settings following the instructions described previously. Type the acronym in the “Replace:” box and the entry will be selected in the list of entries, then click the “Delete” button. To change an entry, delete it and then create it again as a new entry.
When setting up autocorrect entries, avoid using common words as the acronym or shortcut. For example if you set up your address and use “address” as the shortcut, every time you type the word “address” it will be replaced with your address – which may not be the desired outcome.
When setting up autocorrect entries, avoid using common words as the acronym or shortcut. For example if you set up your address and use “address” as the shortcut, every time you type the word “address” it will be replaced with your address – which may not be the desired outcome.
