You've probably encountered the AutoCorrect feature in Microsoft Publisher without even knowing it. Anytime you type in two dashes in a row, for instance, Publisher will automatically change them to an em dash. The more common spelling mistakes will also be auto corrected by this feature. If you are not familiar with the benefits of this, we'll take you on a little tour to get you acquainted with the AutoCorrect feature.

You can find the AutoCorrect feature under the Tools drop down menu. AutoCorrect with do the following automatically for you:

• Correct two initial capitals (e.g. THe dog).
• Capitalize the first letter of a sentence.
• Capitalize the names of days.
• Correct accidental use of the Caps Lock key.
• Replace straight quotes with smart quotes.
• Replace hypens with en or em dashes.
• Automatically bullet or number lists for you.

There is also a very useful feature that can help you work more efficiently when having to type in symbols that you commonly use. For example, if you often have to insert the degree symbol, like in 78º, you can save time by customizing the AutoCorrect feature.

In this example, these are the steps you would take to automate inserting this symbol:

• In an empty text box, choose Insert from the top menu bar, then choose Symbol. Find the degree symbol and insert it into the text box.
• In the text frame, highlight the symbol and copy it.
• Select the Tools menu, then choose AutoCorrect. In the AutoCorrect box, under Replace, type, for example, (o). In the With box, paste the degree symbol that you copied by pressing Ctrl-V. Click Add, then OK.
  
  

After you've done this, whenever you want to add the degree symbol, instead of using the Insert menu, you will simply need to type (o). This really comes in handy if you find yourself having to insert the same symbol over and over again, and you are tired of having to find it in the list of all the other symbols each time. Consider doing a variation of this for symbols like fractions, or foreign money or letter symbols.