Persistent AutoFormat as You Type Settings

When Mark makes changes in the AutoFormat as You Type settings, the changes do not persist when he closes and restarts Word. For example, if he disables the Ordinals with Superscript setting, after he restarts Word, the setting is again enabled. Mark wonders how he can get these settings to persist.

The only information provided on the Microsoft support sites about these settings is that they are stored in the Windows Registry. That information is quite old, however, dating all the way back to Word 2000. Because it is so old, it is entirely possible that Microsoft has changed where the settings are stored and simply not documented that fact to mere mortals such as us.

If (and I recognize the tentative nature of that word) they are stored in the Registry, then they should not change from session to session with Word. Regardless of where they are stored, however, perhaps the easiest way to make the settings the way you want them is to simply make a simple macro that you could run whenever Word starts.

As an example, you could record a macro where you set the AutoFormat as You Type settings the way you want, and then, immediately after closing the dialog box, you stop the recorder. Here is a macro something like what you'll end up with:

Sub Macro1()
'
' Macro1 Macro
'
'
    With Options
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeApplyHeadings = False
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeApplyBorders = True
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeApplyBulletedLists = True
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeApplyNumberedLists = True
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeApplyTables = True
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceQuotes = True
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceSymbols = True
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceOrdinals = False
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceFractions = True
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplacePlainTextEmphasis = False
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceHyperlinks = True
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeFormatListItemBeginning = True
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeDefineStyles = False
        .TabIndentKey = True
    End With
    With AutoCorrect
        .CorrectInitialCaps = True
        .CorrectSentenceCaps = True
        .CorrectDays = True
        .CorrectCapsLock = True
        .ReplaceText = True
        .ReplaceTextFromSpellingChecker = True
        .CorrectKeyboardSetting = False
        .DisplayAutoCorrectOptions = True
        .CorrectTableCells = True
    End With
    With OMathAutoCorrect
        .UseOutsideOMath = False
        .ReplaceText = True
    End With
    With Options
        .AutoFormatApplyHeadings = True
        .AutoFormatApplyLists = True
        .AutoFormatApplyBulletedLists = True
        .AutoFormatApplyOtherParas = True
        .AutoFormatReplaceQuotes = True
        .AutoFormatReplaceSymbols = True
        .AutoFormatReplaceOrdinals = True
        .AutoFormatReplaceFractions = True
        .AutoFormatReplacePlainTextEmphasis = True
        .AutoFormatReplaceHyperlinks = True
        .AutoFormatPreserveStyles = True
        .AutoFormatPlainTextWordMail = True
    End With
    Options.LabelSmartTags = False
End Sub

The reason you end up with something so long is because the macro recorder saves every possible setting in the dialog box in which you were working. Of course, you (more than likely) don't want to specify every setting in your macro. Plus, you need to make sure that the macro is run whenever Word is started. Thus, the long macro generated by the macro recorder could be pared down to something much more usable that addresses the single setting that Mark was concerned about:

Sub AutoExec()
    With Options
        .AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceOrdinals = False
    End With
End Sub

From this point the macro could be expanded to make sure that other AutoFormat as You Type settings are the way you want. And, since it uses the special name "AutoExec," the macro will be executed every time you start Word—provided you save the macro in your Normal template.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1231) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365.