How do I turn off automatic formatting in Microsoft Word?

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I too am fed up the mess microsoft have made of word with all their crappy pre-emtive features.

Like the others I want to remove the date update feature but it does it even when the check box is clear. I really can't be doing with the amount of time I have waste looking for solutions to things I don't want. I just hate using word these days. Office 2007 is a nightmare. Bill Gates needs a big kick up the arse.

I tried everything suggested.

Even though all boxes are unchecked, automatic styles update turned off, it is STILL messing up my attempts to edit the document that was sent to me. If I make a change on page 13, that is supposed to be only on page 13, I go back and see that the same change appears all through the document. I have spent HOURS undoing and redoing and undoing again.

I'm probably going to start from scratch, typing 23 pages.

Please help!

When I got to "Modify Style", I cannot de-select the box that says "Automatically update" because it is inactive! I'm on MS Word 2003

Leo did not read the complete question. The question was how to turn off Autoformat PERMANENTLY. I have fought and worked with this question for about a year and cannot find out how to turn it off permanently in normal.dot (the page that appears when you start a new document in Word).

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The method outlined in the article should turn it off
permanantly.

I understand that's not happening for you, but that would
indicate some *other* kind of problem. Your settings are not
being retained. I don't believe these settings are kept in
normal.dot, so I don't believe that plays a part.

Unforutunately I don't have an answer for your specific
situation.

Leo

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Thanks, Leo,
I guess my Word installation has a deep inside problem. I have unchecked all of the many AutoFormat boxes dozens of times in the past five years, but every time I open a new document (which starts with normal.dot) the checkmarks are back again. Oh well, I guess I will just have to uncheck all boxes every time I start a new document.
Thanks again, Lloyd

Thanks so much to Dan Georges for the solution on "styles" fix. I have been fighting a big document for a long time, and had deselected everything I could think of. Everytime I made one change it would go through the whole document and apply that one change (bold, bullet, etc.) to the whole document. Then, when I tired to Ctrl-Z it, it would say there were too many edits and would shut down. This fixed it and I can actually work with it now - I really appreciate it!

I'm editing one of my manuscripts, and need to have my chapter titles at the start of a new page. But every time I put pace between the previous chapter, and the next chapter (using the enter key) It puts my chapter titles at the bottom of the new page. It does this with every chapter and I cannot understand why.

If you are making changes regarding AutoCorrect and AutoFormat and they keep coming back every time you open MS Word, it could be that your normal.dot is not being saved or it could be that you are using Acrobat version 7 which has a glitch that affects these things. Try this - once you have made the changes you want, hold down your Shift key and simultaneously click on File and select Save All. Now close Word and then re-open and see if your changes are still there.

Please refer me to article by Dan Georges... I can't find it. I'm in the same boat wit Pricilla and can't find an oar.
Roger

Thanks so much to Dan Georges for the solution on "styles" fix. I have been fighting a big document for a long time, and had deselected everything I could think of. Everytime I made one change it would go through the whole document and apply that one change (bold, bullet, etc.) to the whole document. Then, when I tired to Ctrl-Z it, it would say there were too many edits and would shut down. This fixed it and I can actually work with it now - I really appreciate it!
Posted by: Priscilla Anderson at February 28, 2008 10:51 AM

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