While you may love Microsoft Word, there might be parts of it you wish you could alter or avoid. Learn to deactivate ten features that you may find more annoying than helpful in Word 2016.

1. Automatic
Features Worthy
of Deactivation in
Microsoft® Word 2016
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10

2. You don’t have to put up
with those annoying features
within Word. Those features
you might dislike but tolerate
simply because no one has
told you they can be turned off.
Until now.

3. If you prefer to see a blank page when you
start Word, not a screen full of options, then
that screen, the Word Start screen, can easily
be disabled.
Deactivate the
Start Screen

4. Ctrl+S
Ctrl+OCtrl+S
Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S
Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S
l+OCtrl+S
Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S
rl+O
rl+S Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S
Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S
Using Ctrl+O or Ctrl+S brings up the the Open
or Save As screens, respectively. If you find
these screens to be an extra annoying step in
a process that ends up at the traditional Open
and Save dialog boxes, you can dismiss them.
Restore the Traditional
Open and Save Dialog Boxes
Ctrl+OCtrl+S
Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S
Ctrl+S
Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S
Ctrl+O
Ctrl+S

5. When you use the mouse to select text,
Word displays the mini toolbar. You may
find its assortment of commands useful, or
you may just want to set the thing on fire.
Turn Off the Mini Toolbar

6. When you’re selecting more than a single
word, the mouse tends to grab text a
full word at a time. If you want Word to
select text by characters rather than by
words, you can select that option.
Select Text by Letter
A

7. Click-and-Type is that feature where
you can click anywhere in a document
and start typing. The feature is evident
by lines around the insertion pointer.
Disable Click-and-Type

8. When you copy and paste text from one part of
a document to another, the format is retained.
Similarly, the format is kept when you paste
text copied or cut from another document. If
you like, you can direct Word to paste only
plain text or attempt to paste formatted text.
Paste Plain Text Only
PLAIN TEXT

9. The final four items in the list of ten items worthy of
deactivation fall under the domain of the AutoCorrect
dialog box. Specifically, the overeager AutoFormat
feature, which aggressively interrupts your writing with
jarring suggestions you probably don’t want to see.
Disable AutoFormat
Features (×4)

10. Here are four annoying features
you can disable:
Automatic Bulleted Lists: This feature assumes that
whenever you start a paragraph with an asterisk (*) you really
want a bulleted list, so it changes the format.
Automatic Numbered Lists: This feature works like
Automatic Bullet Lists, but does the same annoying thing for
any paragraph you start numbering.
Border Lines: Type three dashes in a row and you see this
feature activated. Use the Borders paragraph format instead.
Format Beginning of List Item Like the One
Before It: This feature assumes that just because the first
word of the preceding paragraph is in bold or italics that you
desire all other paragraphs to start that way as well.

11. Cover image © Comstock / Getty Images
For Dummies is a registered trademark of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Deactivating features you
don’t like will save you
time and aggravation.
For more information on
deactivating these
features in Word, visit
www.dummies.com.