MS Word 2007 - set program to always italicise a word automatically?

*miaomiao*

Hello!

I work with MS Word 2007 all day long, so when it comes to having to italicise Latin words I'm left with the problem that I must italicise each word manually, taking up loads of time. I'm writing 100,000 words for a dissertation, so being able to have a few words that know to italicise themselves would be great.

Is there any way to set Word to do this automatically? I'd be really grateful to receive any help at all! :A

Thank you!

WhiteChristmas

Manually? You mean you're typing then highlighting then formatting?

Those of us who grew up in the days before Windows come pre-programmed with the keyboard shortcuts which still work.

[ctrl]i toggles italics on/off
[ctrl]b does it for bold
[ctrl]u underlines

It's not automatic per se, but it's an awful lot quicker than reaching for the mouse.

victor2

If it's only a few words, you can use the Autocorrect option (certainly in Word 2010 anyway), to replace a word typed in regular text with the same in italics, you could even use an abbreviation for it.
You have to type the word first as you want it to appear, highlight it and go to File, Options, Proofing, and Autocorrect Options... Then click the Formatted Text option and enter the (unformatted) abbreviation you want to use for it.

*miaomiao*

Thanks to you both, WhiteChristmas and Victor2!

I'm old enough to know the shortcuts too....Haha! They are very useful, but the one particular word I'm typing I'll end up typing about 3000 times (sadly). I'll give the AutoCorrect a go, but didn't have any luck with it yesterday as the italics wouldn't hold. Thanks again!

WhiteChristmas

That's a good idea, Victor, I've never thought to use autocorrect for anything other than spelling mistakes.

It's a wee bit fiddly to get the rules into W2007. The easiest way is to type the phrase on your page and format it as you wish.

Now highlight it and click the Office button in the top left of the screen. Select the Word Options button at the bottom of the drop-down menu.

Select Proofing in the left-hand pane then Autocorrect Options in the right.

Under "Replace text as you type" you should find your unformatted text in the "Replace" window.

Click on the "formatted text" circle and it should appear, italicised, under "With".


Click "Add" then OK.

*miaomiao*

Thanks to you both. It's now working, although I did need to restart the programme for it to take effect! Ah, that should be much easier now!

Thanks!

WhiteChristmas

Make sure you credit us in your thesis.

Martin Lewis et al should do it... ;o)