Stopping Word from Changing Characters in an E-mail Address

Every time Karen types her email address, Word automatically changes the characters "krobinson" to "robinson" (dropping the leading "k"). She wonders how she can get Word to stop this behavior, as it always messes up her e-mail address.

The only way to solve a problem like this is to figure out the root cause of the behavior. When I type "krobinson" into my system, Word doesn't change it to "robinson." (It does mark it as misspelled, but that is a different issue and not the problem that Karen is experiencing.) This means that the behavior is not "built in" to Word, by default.

The most likely place that this behavior would take place is when typing an e-mail (not specifically an e-mail address, but an actual e-mail) using Word. If that is what is happening, it may be because Word—in conjunction with your Windows e-mail program—is trying to helpfully correct something they think you've misspelled. It could be, though, that the change is actually happening even when you type "krobinson" in a document.

In either case, you'll want to check AutoCorrect to see if there is an entry there that is making the change happen. Follow these steps:

1. Start Word as you normally would.
2. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and later versions, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
3. Click Proofing at the left side of the screen.
4. Click AutoCorrect Options. Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box with the selected company name (step 2) already entered in the With box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The AutoCorrect dialog box.

5. Look through the list of AutoCorrect entries to see if there is one that has the word "krobinson" on the left side. (The entries are in alphabetic order.)
6. If you locate an entry with "krobinson" on the left side, select it by clicking on it once. (If you don't find such an entry, then skip to step 8.)
7. Click the Delete button. The entry is removed.
8. Click the OK button to close the dialog box.

The other thing you can do is watch what happens when "krobinson" is changed. In most all instances, Word will place a drop-down arrow next to the correction (just to the right of "robinson") which you can click. When you do, you'll get an idea of what part of Word is making the change and, usually, an option to stop making the changes.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13423) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021.